Josh Banks outpitched the Detroit Tigers #1 prospect as the lower levels continued their hot streaks while the AAA and AA teams cooled off. Dunedin and Charleston extended their win streaks to four games.

I’m on the hunt I’m after you
Smell like I sound, I’m lost in a crowd

True enough, because with Seattle's 4-1 victory over the Rangers at Safeco last night, the struggling Blue Jays are now the only major-league team that has yet to win a home game this young season. Already the owners of a franchise-worst 0-5 mark to start the year in Toronto, the Blue Jays will try mightily to break that string today. Making that task a little dicier is that Pat Hentgen is starting today, against the Orioles' Eric DuBose. Pat has looked, well, bad, pretty much ever since he donned a Jays uniform back in March. I'm not privy to front-office machinations, but I'm pretty sure that if the Jays' record drops to 3-9 today, I would not want to be within several cubic metres of J.P. Ricciardi.

Take a moment to reflect that they're worse in Montreal.

The Expos have won just two games, dropped their last six and can't score runs. In six games in hitting friendly Hiram Bithorn stadium they managed just four, since then they have five in their last two games, but have conceded ten to the Phillies.

Three of the four games played yesterday went to the wire. Syrcacuse, Charleston, and Dunedin each won masterpieces (we used to call them dillies) in dramatic fashion, while the lone loser on the day, New Hampshire, prevented the Jays from collecting their third consecutive minor league sweep. There were about a hundred First Star candidates for today's soon-to-be controversial Three Star Selection, but I'm sure you'll all agree today's choice is a worthy one.

Yesterday it was a 2 run ninth for the Orioles that handed the Jays a 5-3 loss. The first run came on Justin Speier's first pitch in the 9th that Larry Bigbie hit out of the park.

OK, what does that headline mean? Well, you figure it out.

It's time to distract the nay-sayers and the speakers/writers of the umpteen iterations of "it's a small sample size and I know I shouldn't be concerned but ... " with another round of Anagramatics. The subject? The 2004 Blue Jays, of course.

We haven't visited this turf in quite some time, so quickly ... this is all about personal anagrams, which can tell you everything you need to know about a person in that same quirky way The Magic Eight Ball works in Washington, D.C.

The rules for personal anagrams are simple: start with the letters in a name as it is used every day and rearrange them to reveal true meaning. If nothing works very well ... cheat.

Batter's Box Rap

With the first ten games in the books and all
The Blue Jays are playing .300 ball
And because they're having such an awful time
Today's introduction will be written in rhyme.

Ho-hum. Another sweep for the Jays' minor-league affiliates. Two shutouts, a 7-1 blowout, and a five-run comeback in the bottom of the ninth capped by a one-out, bases-loaded, game-winning double by one of the Jays' best prospects. Oh, and Vito Chiaravalloti's up to .452/.561/.903 in 41 PA. Yawn.

Another ugly loss as the Jays lose 11-2 to the Orioles.

We're going to the Dome, and there is still one free ticket left. For a classic pitching matchup, no less.

A clean sweep for the organization last night, and three of the teams remain in first place in their divisions. Many of the hitters are waiting for the warmer weather to get their bats warmed up. The Jays minor leaguers are winning on good pitching and timely hitting.

And laughed at all the shoppers
And security guards trailed us
To a record shop
We asked for Mojo Nixon
They said "He don't work here"
We said "If you don't got Mojo Nixon
Then your store could use some fixin'"

I don't know where the rest of the Bauxite staffers went, so I guess I'll start the thread. Bonus points for identifying why this title was chosen.

I know I'm in the minority, but I love the Jays new home whites. They've got to do something about those caps, though.

It's been a while since we've run a "Hijack central" thread, and it's going to continue to be the case, because in accordance with new FCC mandates, I've re-named it "Weekend Open Forum." While "The Thread Formerly Known As Hijack Central" was my first choice, the new title is much less violent. True, the FCC would rather me call this "Sunshine, Lollipops, and Rainbows: Everything is Super," or "Your Mom Always Said That If You Didn't Have Anything Nice To Say, Don't Say It." But I have my limits.

I'll kick things off with this statistic: the Expos have scored 10 runs in nine games. Say that again. TEN RUNS IN NINE GAMES. For all of Bud Selig's evil machinations (as opposed to all those benevolent machinations), I don't know if we can blame Selig for this one. What the hell, let's blame him anyway.