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.

Oh my mama told me
There'll be days like this

If the parent club's opportunity of not getting home field advantage for this year's World Series wasn't bad enough, the affiliates were a combined 0-3 in North America and the Dominican.  Each team managed to blow a lead at some point with one club pissing away a five-run bulge.  If you don't bother to click the "More" link on this story, I wouldn't blame you but I still had to write the damn thing so just humour me, would ya?

A 4-1 night on the farm featured some good starting pitching, including the professional debut of a 2010 draft pick, and a standout offensive performance from yet another catcher.

One win outta four for the affiliates on Sunday but by far the most impressive performance came in a losing cause.

Saturday night on the farm, seven games, three losses and a triple play.  Sorry about the late submission, but your humble correspondent attended the Dunedin game, stayed up late to catch the late Las Vegas game, then fell asleep and woke up just a bit ago.

Kyle Drabek folowed up his no-hitter with six shutout innings as New Hampshire won easily.  JP Arencibia hit his 23rd home run as Vegas held on for a narrow win.  Egan Smith pitched six shutout innings as Lansing shut out Great Lakes.

Dunedin and Auburn both lost in extra innings.  The GCL Jays were well beaten although Jake Marisnick had three hits.

Travis Snider's rehab looks like it should be ending soon and David Cooper hit a couple of dingers and the affiliates went 4-3 on the day thanks to some good starting pitching.

Mike Green is back with the third and final episode of his travels in the North Eastern US.

We coasted into Auburn on the scenic two lane highway from Interstate 81 in the Finger Lakes region of upstate New York .  “Likes sort likes”, the line from the great Dutch film Antonia’s Line, came into my head as we passed through an obviously Republican town with accusingly well-manicured lawns, mandatory American flags in front of the houses and denizens in perfect nautical summer wear. Auburn was not one of those places.