All four starters had excellent starts but only three of them got a win. Liam Hendricks and Daniel Norris pitched shutout ball for 5.2 and 6 innings respectively. Casey Lawrence and Kendall Graveman each allowed just one run. Lawrence was helped by Kevin Nolan who was 4-4 with a home run. Graveman was let down by the Lansing bullpen who coughed up his lead.

Anthony Gose and Juan Francisco each had a hit in the first and second innings to jump start the Bisons to a lead they never gave up. Kyle Drabek got the win although his numbers were only average. New Hampshire were soundly beaten as were Dunedin although Emilio Guerrero hit his first home run of the year. Dwight Smith was shut out. Lansing had a lead headed to the ninth but blew up good. Carlos Ramirez had three hits.

Dunedin saved the day by banging out eighteen hits. DJ Davis made an error that led to three unearned runs as Lansing lost. New Hampshire and Buffalo lost by a lot. JA Happ made a rehab start and pitched OK but did not dominate.

The affiliates were 4-2 tonight, with double headers for Buffalo, and Dunedin making up postponed games.  Dwight Smith continued to be the best hitter for Dunedin with two more strong performances.  As well, former First Rounder’s Ricky Romero and Deck McGuire each struggled in their starts tonight.

The affiliates took two of out three Tuesday night. The highlight was a walk-off win, the lowlight was a walk-off loss. One of the games was a rainout. Enjoy the ride on the Tuesday MLU train!

There were two games scheduled in the state of Pennsylvania and both of them were washed out.



The Buffalo Bisons were rained out in Lehigh Valley for the Iron Pigs home opener while the New Hampshire Fisher Cats saw their game scrubbed in Reading. The Herd will play a doubleheader in Lehigh Valley on Wednesday while the Fisher Cats game will be made up on May 19. 

The affiliates were 2-2 today, highlighted by an extra inning win by Buffalo.  Dwight Smith JR had a monster game against a rehabbing Cole Hamels in the FSL with Dunedin, to go along with a strong start by Daniel Norris.

After a perfect first night the Jays go 2-1 on Friday. Deck McGuire pitched well for New Hampshire and AJ Jimenez had three hits to lead the Fisher Cats to the win. Lansing got good pitching from three prospects plus good hitting from several hitters to win easily. Dunedin lost in extra innings despite excellent pitching by Taylor Cole. Buffalo were rained out.

Winners all round to start the season. Marcus Stroman, Aaron Sanchez and Matt Boyd all pitched well. Anthony Gose, Matt Tuiasosopo, Kenny Wilson, Ryan Schimpf, Kevin Nolan, AJ Jimenez, Dwight Smith and KC Hobson all had multi hit games.

Lansing played in the cross town showdown against Michigan State, details to come later.

Today is opening day for the minor leaguers. Three of the Jays full season teams start league play today. The Lansing Lugnuts play their annual exhibition game against Michigan State. The full slate is shown below.

The minor league season starts on Thursday but the rosters have been finalized.  Teams are flying in to their cities and ready to meet the media and season ticket holders before the games begin.

Two teams have released their rosters so far.

Over the next few days the rosters of the Blue Jays full-season minor-league affiliates will be released to the public. But for this upcoming season, Lansing has the potential to be a very exciting team to follow.

As we get ready for another season I thought I would spotlight a few players for whom 2014 will be a make or break year.  This category fits players whose prospect staus is on the bubble or almost gone.  The top prospects are generally not in the make or break category, they are on a path to the majors, they will get a second chance if they have a bad year.  Newly drafted players would not be make or break, they still have time to fix any problems or recover from a bad season or bad half-season.  Make or break are players who have been in the system for several years and have hit some bumps in the road, and those bumps could knock them out of baseball if the player cannot overcome them.

Yesterday I looked at the expected assignments for hitters coming out of spring training.  Today I will look at the starting pitchers.  Usually to start the season there will be at least one starter per two teams that is on the DL so for some teams I will list six starters.

It is only a couple of weeks until the 2014 minor league rosters will be announced.  Today I am discussing my predictions of the opening day assignments for the hitters.  Tomorrow I will look at starting pitchers.