Bauxites have spoken, and they are not wildly impressed with the position prospects, but put them in this order:

1.  Lind
2.  Cannon
3.  Roberts
4.  Quiroz
5.  Hattig-tie
5.  Thigpen-tie
7.  Pettway-tie
7.  Patterson-tie
9.  Griffin
10. Negron

I am quite sure that Bauxites collectively have done a better job of appraising prospects than I did. Well done, everyone. It's cool that Pettway and Patterson ended up tied.

This is getting tiresome.

Only the Blue Jays' full-season A-Ball teams came away with victories last night, including a doubleheader sweep in Dunedin and a big win for Lansing. Altogether amazing achievements for the A-level athletes -- alliteratively, anyway.

He sat down, stared into the fire for a few seconds, and then said, "It begins, I suppose, with --- with a person called --- but it's incredible yeh don't know his name, everyone in our world knows---"
"Who?"
"Well --- I don' like sayin' the name if I can help it. No one does."
"Why not?"
"Gulpin' gargoyles, Harry, people are still scared."

Josh Towers could not overcome the evil one, who used both his arm and his bat to overcome the forces of Light and Goodness. We live in dark and desperate times.

Interleague play concludes with what will likely be the Jays' last "rivalry" series with the ex-Expos in the District of Columbia.

Can the Jays keep up their solid play from the Baltimore series against another first-place club? Washington has an excellent bullpen, and scoring runs early in the game will be critical for the Blue Jay bats.

This week's (somewhat abbreviated) Scout features a red-hot home squad, a slap-hitting utilityman with whom a highly respected manager is seriously enamoured and the return of the words "Esteban Loaiza." There, I said it. I even spelled it out.

On to the Advance Scout!

Look - no one's going to illuminate you
All the odds are stacked against you
You're just cavin' in, right there in front of me
It's a picture I don't ever want to see

Bauxites: Tampa, Boo!, Terry Who?

Well, the two most recent Batter's Box Interactive Magazine polls have gone off the beaten path a bit, with the first demonstrating the Box's disapproval of all things Devil Ray and the second surprisingly raising the specter of cartoon question mark balloons over most people's heads at the mention of singer/songwriter Terry Cashman.

We've spoken about the minor league pitching prospects. How about the top 10 hitting prospects?

Here are my choices:


1.  Quiroz
2.  Roberts
3.  Hattig
4.  Lind
5.  Thigpen
6.  Cannon
7.  Griffin
8.  Negron
9.  Pettway
10. Patterson

What do you think?

Bauxites have spoken. I tallied the votes using a 10-9-8-7-6-5-4-3-2-1 scale and here are the results:

1. Dustin McGowan
2. David Purcey
3. Brandon League- tie
3. Francisco Rosario-tie
5. Zach Jackson
6. Ricky Romero
7. Shaun Marcum
8. Josh Banks
9. Casey Janssen
10. Chi-Hung Cheng

The hitters poll will be coming later this morning.

David Bush defeated a Snead-less Richmond; New Hampshire gets some revenge on Erie; Lansing start the second half with a win; Auburn records their first win, and Pulaski are still looking for win #1.

That was a sweet win. Doc was good, but not at his overpowering best. And the Jays were not particularly lucky. How many times exactly did they line a ball hard and directly at a defender with runners on base?

Sweet win: Jays 6 O's 2. The Jays did a bunch of things right. So, what did you think?

It's mid-season and time for prospect polls. Let's start with the pitchers. Here is my list:

1.  Marcum
2.  League
3.  Jackson
4.  Purcey
5.  Banks
6.  Cheng
7.  Rosario
8.  McGowan
9.  Davis Romero
10. Janssen

Ricky Romero's off my list until he pitches. If I were to put him on, he'd be #6. What are your lists? Feel free to flame away at me, while you're at it!

Today's photograph is Roy Halladay between innings in the Jays dugout, gearing up to come back out:

Last week, I went to at least some of two games: Monday, Halladay's great game vs Suppan, and Wednesday, Aaargh, I mean Lilly, vs Suppan. Of course, the Jays won both of those games. My co-worker Rob went to Tuesday's game with friends, and the Jays promptly lost.

This week is turning out to be the Bizzaro version of last week; the games I'm showing up to (Tuesday's) were lost, and the games Rob has gone to (last night's) are won. I think I'm going to today's Halladay-Ponson match-up, and I think I'll invite Rob; if all goes as expected, it'll be 0-0 in the 14th before God realizes what's going on and obliterates the Earth with a comet.