The A's send the senior representative of their starting rotation against arguably Toronto's weakest starter.

Question of the day: How many homeruns will the Athletics hit off Pat Hentgen today?

This is the May edition of my minor league starting pitchers review. I have been tracking start by start statistics for all minor league starting pitchers. I have been adding this information to our prospect pages, such as this one for David Bush, scroll down to the bottom of the page. My April pitcher report is here. Many of the numbers in this page are based on game scores as developed by Bill James. The methodology is described in the April story.

The following are composite statistical rankings of draft-eligible college pitchers. Only 2004 Division 1 stats were considered and only pitchers with at least 40 innings pitched were included. The composite ranking is based of 4 relatively evenly weighted categories: 1) Runs Saved Above Average, 2) FIP Run Average, 3) Component Performance Rating, 4) Component Performance Points Above Average.

When was the last time the Jays faced a Canadian starting pitcher? Unless I'm very much mistaken, it was Chris Mears on September 7th, 2003.

Toronto beat Harden in his first and only start against them 8-5 on August 15th of last year.

Last weekend, this Associated Press article referred to some Jays of whom I had never heard. Apparently, the previous evening’s game turned on a home run by slugger Carlos Deluged. The lead generated by Deluged was protected by reliever Jason Friseur. Rookie outfielder Alexis Rio and recent acquisition Frank Mention were there too.

Justin Speier and Chris Woodward stood out in the wrong way in A ball yesterday. Speier gave up a home run to the first batter he faced. In the fifth inning, seven of the first eight Dunedin hitters reached base, the exception...Chris Woodward. Welcome to A ball guys.

This weekend is a great weekend for baseball every year as the NCAA Tournament's Regionals get going. 64 teams go into the double-elimination tournaments, and only 16 come out; some teams will play five games between tonight and Sunday evening.

NCAASports.com has a live scoreboard where you can follow the action. The afternoon's action is already seeing a mild upset : Central Florida, the #3 seed in Tallahassee, is beating up on #2 seed Oklahoma State. It's 7-0 as we speak in the eighth inning. But the real shocker is going on in South Bend, IN where the fourth (and bottom) seed Kent State Golden Flashes are hanging on to a 1-0 lead over host team and top seed Notre Dame.

There will be no prizes, or points, for guessing the identity of this months 3 star selection leader. Ryan Roberts was the leader for May. You might have a tougher time guessing who the joint second place finishers are.

The results are in. Thanks to all who participated!

Let's look at it this way -- at this point, Josh Banks has nowhere to go but up for the New Hampshire Fisher Cats.

Tonight figures to be our best chance for a win in Oakland: Miguel Batista has the best stuff and most experience of any pitcher in our current rotation.

I was extremely impressed with the patience of our undermanned lineup the last two games in Seattle. I would hate to be the Bob Melvin right now - the local press must be circling like vultures looking for a scapegoat for the M's terrible start.

Contest of the day: Predict how many total runs both the Jays and A's will score in this four game series. The winner gets 30 million points.

My 2004 NCAA Adjusted Statistics are now available for download over at The Hardball Times.

They are .pdf files. If anyone needs them in database format, let me know here and I'll send them to you that way. Pistol, I know you want them; I'm going to send them later today.

The .pdf files are quite large - 60 pages of pitchers and 86 pages of hitters, available in rank order and team-by-team. There are nearly 5,000 players in all. Thanks to Robert Dudek, Boyd Nation, and Tangotiger for being totally awesome and uncountable others for aid and suggestions.

Of everyone I've ever known
It's nothing I regret
Save it for another day
It's the school exam and the kids have run away

If both teams were healthy and productive, this would be a real doozy of a four-game series. But with Delgado, Halladay and Chavez all out of commission, plus various and sundry other Jays, it'll boil down to a battle of patchwork lineups.

Of course, Chavez's Gold Glove defence will be missed. But he was also one-fourth of a formidable middle of the order that has essentially generated all of Oakland's (modest) run production this season. If the Jays starters can handle Dye, Durazo and Hatteberg, they'll be successful, period.

As for pitching, the A's have had a typically strong starting rotation supported by excellent defence. Still, the Athletics' bullpen has been slumping badly, their starters have been less consistent than normal and Mark Mulder's turn in the rotation thankfully won't come up this weekend.

This week's Scout involves walk-off blasts, a pop-off at Network Associates Coliseum, a costly ninth-inning cross-up, and any number of other hyphenated words to kick-start the four-game series.

On to the Advance Scout!