Ryan Gold hit a grand slam in the sixth inning. Not only was that notable, it left Gold a double short of the cycle. He got that double in the eighth for a grande cycle. All the Blue Jay affiliates who played won. Buffalo had the night off. Ryan Noda went 4-4. Yennsy Diaz pitched well too. Here is your abbreviated Good Friday minor league update.

Santiago Espinal was a one man wrecking crew for New Hampshire, he drove in six runs including a grand slam. New Hampshire won. Lansing also won, Jordan Groshans had three hits while Juan De Paula pitched well. Hagen Danner is still without a single but he has all the other hits. Buffalo and Dunedin endured bullpen implosions. Danny Barnes's blow up nullified a strong offensive performance including a 441 foot home run by Vlad Jr. Dunedin lost in the ninth.

A 5-0 night on the farm highlighted a doubleheader sweep and mostly good pitching all around. #LetsGoBlueJays

The affiliates won two out of three Monday, including an overtime victory. Buffalo's game in Pawtucket was rained out. They will play two today. #LetsGoBlueJays

Nate Pearson needs innings, but gosh darn does he look like a pitching prospect. He pitched five innings of shutout baseball, striking out nine, walking none and, so as not discourage the competition, allowed one person to reach safely via bat. Please see Sportsnet for Vladdy Jr. highlights.

Vladimir Guerrero Jr. gets a home run. Kevin Smith, you get a home run. Anthony Alford, you get a home run. Despite those home runs, Buffalo and New Hampshire lost. Dunedin won with home runs from Ryan Noda and Cullen Large.

The season is a week old today and I thought we should take a peak at the hitting stats, even though it is a small sample size and for some hitters the weather has not been hitter friendly. Even so, it is fun to see what trends we are seeing early, even if they disappear in another few weeks.

The Fisher Cats were down to their final strike, trailing by two runs but came back from the dead to walk it off. That made up for the losses of Dunedin and Lansing. Buffalo were "colded out". Ryan Hissey was the big star in New Hampshire with Josh Palacios close behind. Patrick Murphy started and pitched well.

It was a no-win Tuesday that included a walk-off defeat. New Hampshire was rained out. #LetsGoBlueJays

Here are your highlights from opening day in the minor leagues. The affiliates split, 2-2. In three of the parks the weather was cold so pitchers can get a mulligan. Some of the lower level hitters might ask for a mulligan too, they might never have experienced cold like that.

The minor leagues get going today on four fronts. Buffalo, New Hampshire and Dunedin start at home, while Lansing start on the road. Dunedin's home game is asterisk worthy as Dunedin stadium is being renovated so the Jays will play their home games at the Phillies old home in Clearwater. Because of conflicts at the "new" stadium, with other college and HS teams, the D-Jays will play a handful of their home games on the road this year. Buffalo play this afternoon, all others tonight.

The Blue Jays are assigning minor league players to their teams this weekend. The teams will travel to their home cities on Monday or Tuesday with the local teams announcing the rosters soon thereafter. Today I will look at where the top 30 prospects will be assigned and take my best guess. These guesses are not exhaustive, I am mainly looking to place the names you know who are prospects.

Seems I've found as many top 30 lists as I'm going to at this point without subscribing to a dozen services. Time to summarize them before the season gets going.

The Bauxites have spoken. I received eight top 30 prospect lists and I have compiled them into a combined top 30. The resulting top 30 is similar in many ways to the Top 30 posted last week but there are a few key differences. The top nine on both lists have the same names with small changes in the order. Further down, the differences are bigger.

For the purposes of explaining the two top 30 lists, I will refer to last weeks list as the “official” list and this one as the “Bauxite” list.