Whew, it was not pretty.   Despite the farm clubs only scoring 7 runs in 6 games, New Hampshire, Dunedin and GCL Blue Jays managed to put wins on the board.

Two players involved one way or the other in the Roy Halladay deal had nice nights to highlight a 2-4 night on the farm.

Brad Glenn made the front page of Minor League Baseball tonight, as a result of hitting for the cycle. The rest of the evening featured 4 wins and 1 loss.

Over the course of the first three innings of their game against the Las Vegas 51s, the Portland Beavers scored as many runs as all six Jays affiliates combined on Sunday.

Overall the farm was not bad on Saturday.  2 losses and 5 wins with an outstanding day by third baseman Mark Sobolewski – 5 for 7, 2 doubles, two home runs and 7 RBIs.  The long ball blessed the 51s with Arencibia and Wallace each belting one, and producing 6 RBIs.

Pitching was the name of the game Friday, the Jays pitchers had a one hitter, a two hitter and a three hitter as the affiliates recorded four wins in five games.  Four Lansing pitchers combined on a one hitter.  Lansing themselves had only four hits but two of them were round trippers.  The GCL Jays had three pitchers combine on a two hitter.  The Jays had only five hits but one of them was a three run home run by Michael Crouse.  Three Fisher Cat hurlers combined on a three hitter and the hitters took it from there.  Auburn won a slug fest while Las Vegas lost despite a big night from Brett Wallace.

Dunedin and the DSL Jays were rained out.

Travis Snider had another monster of a game while Kyle Drabek didn't do so bad himself either. The whole thing shook out in a 3-3 night, and there were a couple of interesting performances.

One and Five: What a Wednesday on the farm, seventeen innings but  no cigar for Dunedin.  A Lugnut “W” and  “Ls” for the GCL Jays, New Hampshire and Las Vegas.  Our boys were outhit 62-46 and it showed.

We all know that prospect development in baseball is an uncertain and rocky process.  First round picks flame out and never make it to the major leagues.  Twentieth round picks or similar undrafted longshots do make it from time to time.  There is a saying in baseball development that in any year one third of your prospects will improve, one third will fall back and one third will stagnate. 

Last year was not a good one for the Blue Jays under this measure.  Approx one half of Jays prospects fell back last season while only about one sixth jumped ahead.  That might be why the Jays now have a new farm director and a new scouting director, not to mention a new GM.

So how are the Jays prospects doing in 2010?  Let's start with the Jays top 30 prospects for 2009, as selected by Batters Box.  We will also include the players obtained in the Halladay trade. 

The bats got the job done for three wins south of the border while the pitching down in the Dominican led to another victory on a 4-2 night for the affiliates.

Ooh, "The Emausculator". Can we start using that? (Sorry, I'm just feeling a little left out after Jordan Bastian came up with the Yunel Bomber tonight on Twitter. Genius.) Anyway, Monday night's games featured some bottom-of-the-ninth drama, and the affiliates came out with a 3-3 night, though if you count the DSL things tip in our favour.

The affiliates won two out of five on a day when most of the pitchers left their best stuff at home.

Saturday both day and night on farm was a disappointment with only teams from towns starting with an “L” getting the "W's". Overall our minor league teams were 2 and 4.  Las Vegas took advantage of the longball and Lansing dominated with 1 hit pitching.  The rest of the farm suffered from either weak hitting or weak pitching or both.

Jo-Jo Ryes made a good first impression by throwing a one hitter over eight innings to lead the Fisher Cats to victory.  Reyes had been pitching in AAA for the Braves so a step down to AA should see him pitching well.  Joel Carreno had another eight K's and Chris Hopkins hit a grand slam as Dunedin won easily.  Lansing came from behind for a narrow win.  The Auburn bullpen held up as Carlos Perez went 3-3.  The GCL Jays and the Las Vegas 51's lost.

It was also the All-Star break in the minors and yesterday saw the Triple-A and Double-A All-Star Games, with several Las Vegas and Fisher Cats players in action. They all went home losers, but that’s not what’s important now, is it? Meanwhile, Auburn got blown out and a ninth inning error cost Dunedin. The only victory was in the Gulf Coast League, where one man’s long journey back began to the majors began successfully.