The New York Mets and the Buffalo Bisons will be joined at the hip for the next two years, the Syracuse Chiefs officially said good-bye to the Jays by signing a two year deal with Washington and the New Orleans Zephyrs will hook up with the Florida Marlins for the next two seasons.  Where does that leave the Jays?  It's the place where Molly Sims, Nikki Cox and Vanessa Marcil used to work.  Sing it now, "A little less conversation, a little more action........"

Update:  The Blue Jays director of player development Dick Scott was at the home of the team's new AAA affiliate to announce their new deal.

Even though it appears that the New York Mets will sign an affiliation agreement with the Buffalo Bisons shortly, Syracuse.com reports the Syracuse Chiefs stockholders are now willing to sell part of the club to the Metropolitans in an effort to change the Mets mind to come to Syracuse instead.  Even though a Toronto-Buffalo affiliation looks like a pipe dream at this point, is there a tiny sliver of hope it could still happen?

It looks like the Toronto-Buffalo sports connection with start and end with the Bills.  The Buffalo News reports that the Bisons will likely sign a player development contract with the New York Mets, instead of with the Jays.  A blog at Syracuse.com linking a blog of the Mets beat writer at the New York Daily News also suggests it's pretty much a done deal with the Mets and the Herd.  

A Phelps had a multi-homer game. But, this Phelps wasn’t Josh, or even Michael, who apparently can accomplish nearly anything. Instead, this Phelps was a second baseman who slugged his Mahoning Valley Scrappers to victory over Auburn.

The Doubledays were leading 3-2 in the sixth when the rains came and ended the game early.  Brian Van Kirk had two hits and drove in two runs.

With the minor league season almost finished I thought it would be useful to pull together the scouting reports and interviews I published this summer.  Over the minor league season I was in Fort Myers to see the Dunedin Jays, in Lansing twice to see the Lugnuts, in Erie and Binghamton to see the Fisher Cats and in Auburn to see the Doubledays.  I have pulled together all my scouting reports and interviews into one thread for reference purposes.

As quickly as it began, it was over. With Dunedin eliminated last night, Lansing followed suit tonight as the young hitters were never able to muster up much of an offensive.

No wins on Wednesday.  Dunedin's season ends as they lose 2-0 in the playoffs.  Lansing lost game one and must win tonight.  Auburn completed the trifecta.

I spoke with Dane Johnson, the Jays minor league roving pitching co-ordinator, last week in Lansing.  We talked about several of the Jays pitching prospects and talked about more bad news for Gustavo Chacin.

Dunedin is behind the 8-ball in their best-of-three playoff series against Fort Myers and Auburn gives their fans a nice parting gift in their home finale.

I spoke with the Lansing Lugnuts manager, Clayton McCullough, last week in Lansing.  McCullough talked about his young players and highlighted what has impressed him this season.

The regular season is over.  Dunedin and Lansing will be the Jays affiliates that get playoff action this year.

I attended two Lansing Lugnut games last week, both Lansing losses.  The scouting report is below as well as some player comments.  Tomorrow I will have an interview with Lugnut manager Clayton McCullough and on Thursday look for an interview with the Jays minor league roving pitching instructor, Dane Johnson.  The first Lansing Lugnut scouting report is here.

Sunday marked the end of the regular season for some while others have to work on Monday as well.  In any event, it was all pretty boring stuff.  But Ricky Romero continued his rejuvenation.

This MLU contains four victories, including one of the walk-off variety; strong relief pitching and timely hitting. It also contains pitchers batting, managers being ejected, one major leaguer on rehab, another waiting for September 1 and hoping for a recall and a third trying to correct what has largely been a disappointing season. It doesn’t contain any news about Travis Snider.