Nathan Starner threw five hitless innings as four Lansing pitchers combined for a one hitter.  Syracuse rode the hot hitting of Curtis Thigpen, Rey Olmedo and Howie Clark to victory while Dunedin threw their game away.  New Hampshire were all wet and will play one and a half today.

The sweeps are over as Syracuse and New Hampshire win.  Another pitcher gets injured, Ismael Ramirez pulled a groin muscle.  Curtis Thigpen had four hits, David Smith had three.  Mike Green is away today so the regular prospect watch will wait until next week.

Another whitewash of the affiliates. Syracuse batted around in the first inning but didn't have a baserunner after the fourth inning. New Hampshire received five straight walks in the ninth inning but it was too little too late. Michael MacDonald and Brandon Magee had ground ball to fly ball ratio's of 16-1 and 17-3 respectively. Syracuse and Dunedin could not get timely hitting that would have turned their losses into wins.

A 2 out of 3 night for the affliates, as Tomo Ohka was not the only Japanese import in the system to help his team emerge victorious.  

On a personal note, I think this week's headline is a nice bounce back effort from last week's debacle, which I apologize for.  I was pressing last week but now I'm back on the beam and I'm ready to carry on the momentum for the rest of the season and finish up strong.

With all the injuries on the major league team the Jays have had to bring in new players to fill the gaps in the minors.  Three of them played Sunday, Andrew Good started for Syracuse, Mike Venafro pitched in relief.  Howie Clark played for New Hampshire.   Syracuse blew a lead but won in extra innings with a home run, New Hampshire and Lansing lost.

The affiliates only won one game but there were some encouraging pitching performances.  Ismael Ramirez only allowed one earned run in seven innings for Syracuse.  Russell Savickas made his AA debut and gave up two runs in six innings.  Kristian Bell made his first start of 2007 and pitched five shutout innings and Nate Starner had one bad inning but struck out eleven in six innings.  Curtis Thigpen played second base and made an error.

With nothing going right for the parent club, some Jays fans hoped maybe the minor leagues would bring some good news. If that’s the case, it’s not going to happen today, as two blowouts and one extra-inning loss means only one win on the farm. We’ll take a look at what happened, as some pitchers continued to struggle, some batters continued to hit and the low minors continued to make errors. However, nobody got hurt, and that's what's important. Seriously.

Jesse Litsch was the top performer yesterday as he threw 7 hitless innings.

The Friday Minor League summary is on Thursday this week. If you promise to ask no questions, I'll promise to tell no lies. It works out better that way. The farm affiliates went 2-2 yesterday.

It has been that kind of season.  When the good guys rally, they fall just short.  When the guys in the business suits, as Willie Nelson calls them, rally, they come out ahead.  The farm affiliates ended up 1-3 on the night.

A contender for the lame title of the year award!!  Dunedin managed to split a doubleheader on the road and that was the only win of the night for the affliates.

Three wins and no losses for the affiliates, all wins were come from behind efforts.  Syracuse had to tie the game in the ninth and win it in the twelfth.  New Hampshire went ahead in the seventh while Lansing scored seven runs in the fifth to turn around a 3-0 deficit.  Michael MacDonald and Orlando Trias each made their first starts since being promoted and each had some learning to do.

One win in four attempts for the affiliates.  New Hampshire behind outstanding pitching from Jesse Litsch won 3-1.  Aaron Mathews and Dustin Majewski led the offense for the Fisher Cats.  Elsewhere Ty Taubenheim feels like Roy Halladay, AJ Wideman pitched well for Dunedin while Travis Snider continued his education in Lansing.

The affiliates split the four games as Mike MacDonald earns a well-deserve promotion to Syracuse. None of the Jays organization’s starting pitchers pitched well last night, although Josh Banks remains undefeated. However, some of the bats came to play, including Sergio Santos who is trying to prove that his demotion to Double-A was a mistake and that he's overcome his struggles at Syracuse.

The farm affiliates went 3-1 on Thursday. After a brief review, it's on to the statistical summary of the 2007 performances of the organization's top pitching prospects.