As the major league Alex Rios watch began last night the depleted Syracuse Skychiefs won without him as the minor league teams were 2-1 on the night.

Clear the floor to dance
Throw the walls into the fireplace

The Blue Jays could have been swept by Anaheim. If the Angels had covered home plate the first two games, if a hard smash off Jason Frasor had found its way into right field last night, the Jays would have been looking at another embarrassing home-field wipeout. Instead, they're riding a modest but much-valued three-game winning streak, and having stood their ground in Boston the weekend before, they've essentially played the American League's best to a standstill. This team is finally showing signs of a real turnaround.

It just doesn't get much better than this.

While I had an idle moment at work, I was thinking about Sparky's terrific play last night in the ninth inning.

Tried to find my mountain hideaway
Maybe next year maybe no go

Recently promoted Alex Rios will almost certainly got the start in right field tonight against Angels southpaw Jarrod Washburn, giving most Toronto fans their first opportunity to see the franchise's #1 prospect. Keep your expectations tempered -- Rios was sporting a sub-.300 OBP at Syracuse when he was called up, although he was hitting much better in May than he was in April. Tonight could be the start of the most promising Blue Jays outfield career since -- well, since Vernon Wells. But Rios is not going to look like an All-Star in 2004. Enjoy his presence, but don't get too charged up.

J.P. was kind enough to announce the roster moves live on the FAN after the thrilling finish to tonight's game, but I thought I'd reproduce them here for comment.

Moving into the universe
Drifting this way and that
Not touching ground at all
Up above the yard

You take wins any way you can get ‘em. One way or another, each of the Jays four minor league teams in action scraped up wins in a perfect sweep for the organization. Charleston and Dunedin both cruised to victory behind strong pitching and timely hitting, Syracuse pulled out a 9th inning comeback and (although it’s still unknown which charity will receive the proceeds) a Walk-a-thon broke out in New Hampshire.

With the 2004 draft coming up shortly on June 7th, it’s a good time to look back on the first two drafts of JP Ricciardi.

The "Hentgen for Closer" campaign hasn't quite managed to reach the ears of the decision-makers at Skydome yet. So his rooters at Batter's Box will have to content themselves with his start tonight against one of Anaheim's big free-agent pitchers, Bartolo Colon, who nevertheless has been dogged by reports of diminished velocity lately. The Jays got a gift win last night, but one they worked hard for and deserved; they'll try to keep it going against the league-leading Angels after a rare Tuesday off-day. No word yet on the status of Carlos Delgado and Orlando Hudson.

For baseball fans, the minor leagues have always been the Undiscovered Country. The big leagues, fans knew about – they read the daily boxscores, saw the highlights (first on local broadcasts, eventually on Baseball Tonight) and read the articles (from The Sporting News to Baseball Digest to USA Today to the Internet). There was an ever-increasing information base of major-league baseball data upon which fandom could feed. But finding out about the minor leagues usually involved the equivalent of travelling to Delphi to speak with the Oracle (and we don’t mean Dan Szymborski).

So, according to Jeff DaVanon, Bengie Molina couldn't hear his teammates shouting that home plate was uncovered because of the noise being made by the fans in the SkyDome. Take that, naysayers: a loud home crowd can make the difference between a win and a loss!

The twenty-first century's yesterday
You can care all you want
Everybody does yeah that's okay