Jesse Litsch gains revenge on the team that gave him a rude welcome back to AA ball from Toronto two weeks ago.  Meantime, a suspended game that was well in hand from last month helped the affiliates come away with a split of their 4 games.

Syracuse scored five runs in the first inning, New Hampshire scored four in the first and both teams won.  Lansing did not score in the first and lost.  Ryan Klosterman hit a grand slam, Robinzon Diaz had four hits, Josh Banks gave up back to back jacks but otherwise pitched well.

John Thomson gets blown out, the Fisher Cats win, and Lansing splits.  In the second game of their doubleheader Lansing avoided a no hitter when Chris Emanuele singled with one out in the seventh.  David Purcey has a sore elbow and will miss another start.

The affiliates coordinated their schedules well, as just as one breaks for all-star weekend, the other schedules two double-headers, so those who follow the minors can still get their fair share of games. If that’s not enough to spark your interest, last night also featured two pitchers debuting at Double-A and New Hampshire putting on a fine ninth-inning rally. The only question is: did it succeed?

We have the pitchers again this week. The names remain the same (with one exception), but next time we will have some numbers on the 2007 draftees. Meanwhile, the farm affiliates went 1-3 again last night.

Yesterday afternoon after work, Gerry and I enjoyed beverages, conversation and Blue Jays at a local pub. As you might imagine, minor league matters came up more than once. Gerry posed the question: who is the Blue Jays third best prospect after Snider and Thigpen? We both threw out names and ended up throwing up our hands. We also discussed the mid-season prospect poll, and agreed that 2007 draftees should be eligible. Auburn's season starts on Tuesday, and so you can expect a poll about 2 weeks after that. I will probably use the poll results to choose the players for the Friday summaries.

The minor league affiliates went 1-3 on the evening.

Kyle 'X' Phillips and Kyle Yates led the way in the minors yesterday.

Dunedin opens another can of whoopass on their Yankee counterparts and there was a fantastic relief effort elsewhere on the farm.  However, it wasn't enough to tip the scales for the affliates as they fell on the wrong side of .500 by dropping 2 out of 3 last night.  

On Saturday all the minor league teams won except for Lansing.  Sunday was opposite day as Lansing delivered the lone victory with a run in the bottom of the ninth.  Chris Reddout pitched out of a bases loaded and no-one out jam in the eighth to get the win.  Jonathan Baksh throws out a run at the plate that inning then leads-off the ninth with a single and scores the winning run.

Ismael Ramirez was taken off the 40 man roster earlier this week so of course he pitches his best game of the season on Saturday, one run allowed in five innings.  Ty Taubenheim pitched a seven inning two hitter as the Chiefs sweep a doubleheader.  New Hampshire score five runs in extra innings to win, Dunedin scored the winning run in the bottom of the eighth.  Lansing took the only loss on Saturday.

After tonight’s loss I don’t have the energy to write anything too detailed. Instead, I’ll prove short summaries of each game and then highlight three notable performers for each team. These performances are usually good, but occasionally are notable for other reasons. Tonight, the Blue Jays resolved to strike first, even with runs from the other team imminent, so we’ll see how their affected their results.

With the addition of some new talent to the minor league system yesterday, a depth chart incorporating some of the new talent, in lieu of the usual Friday summary seems in order. The Jays had seven picks in the first, supplemental and second rounds.

But first, a brief update. The farm affiliates went 2-2.

Two down in Ohio. The top farm affiliates visited Akron and Toledo and were flattened. Did I mention that it is Draft Day? Check out Pistol's superior coverage at this very website.

The Jays score 6 in the 9th to win and you want to know about the minor leagues??

The affiliates were 1-3, with two ugly losses.

"Dayton", with or without an "a" , were too much for the two Jays affiliates last night.  The "always exciting" sacrifice fly turned out to be difference in each case.   A rainout and a scheduled day off at the upper levels of the farm system prevented last night from being a total disaster.