Say it loud. Say it proud. Leance has pop in his bat. Two homers (and two strikeouts) led Pulaski to victory, as the farm affiliates went 4-2.

The pun was so nice, he used it twice.

Dustin returned to Double-A last night, the D-Jays At The Bat didn't help out Casey one bit, the Devil Rays' affiliates paid back Syracuse and Lansing for the 12-3 thrashing of the parent club and there was a little dispute involving the French. All told, a 2-4 night on the farm.

With the way the bullpens on the full-season teams were pitching, Dunedin was lucky they were rained out. Only the short-season teams picked up wins last night.

So you understand less
as the pages turn

The Toronto Sun sports section? Maybe. But the lyric applies to these minor league updates in a way too: We can hazard an educated guess as to how a SkyChief might perform were he promoted to The Show next week, but by the time we get down to Pulaski virtually anyone on the roster could be the next Mike Piazza or the next Jeromie Spillman. The results last night: 3 wins and 2 losses, plenty offence but not a lot of pitching.

The top three teams win, the next two suffer bullpen losses, and Pulaski are blown out, but Wesley Stone, the Jays top high school pick this year, has a nice first start, including his first pro tater.

So, Dick Scott sent out an e-mail to the farm affiliates on Saturday morning. It was simple. Starting pitchers are expected to throw shutouts, while the hitters are expected to hit a few homers. Lo and behold, the clubs by and large listened and the plan worked, as the farm affiliates went 5-1.

Bauxites have spoken, and they are not wildly impressed with the position prospects, but put them in this order:

1.  Lind
2.  Cannon
3.  Roberts
4.  Quiroz
5.  Hattig-tie
5.  Thigpen-tie
7.  Pettway-tie
7.  Patterson-tie
9.  Griffin
10. Negron

I am quite sure that Bauxites collectively have done a better job of appraising prospects than I did. Well done, everyone. It's cool that Pettway and Patterson ended up tied.

Only the Blue Jays' full-season A-Ball teams came away with victories last night, including a doubleheader sweep in Dunedin and a big win for Lansing. Altogether amazing achievements for the A-level athletes -- alliteratively, anyway.

We've spoken about the minor league pitching prospects. How about the top 10 hitting prospects?

Here are my choices:


1.  Quiroz
2.  Roberts
3.  Hattig
4.  Lind
5.  Thigpen
6.  Cannon
7.  Griffin
8.  Negron
9.  Pettway
10. Patterson

What do you think?

Bauxites have spoken. I tallied the votes using a 10-9-8-7-6-5-4-3-2-1 scale and here are the results:

1. Dustin McGowan
2. David Purcey
3. Brandon League- tie
3. Francisco Rosario-tie
5. Zach Jackson
6. Ricky Romero
7. Shaun Marcum
8. Josh Banks
9. Casey Janssen
10. Chi-Hung Cheng

The hitters poll will be coming later this morning.

David Bush defeated a Snead-less Richmond; New Hampshire gets some revenge on Erie; Lansing start the second half with a win; Auburn records their first win, and Pulaski are still looking for win #1.

It's mid-season and time for prospect polls. Let's start with the pitchers. Here is my list:

1.  Marcum
2.  League
3.  Jackson
4.  Purcey
5.  Banks
6.  Cheng
7.  Rosario
8.  McGowan
9.  Davis Romero
10. Janssen

Ricky Romero's off my list until he pitches. If I were to put him on, he'd be #6. What are your lists? Feel free to flame away at me, while you're at it!

I'm telling you, kid, the public will lap it up! This moving-picture sensation has it all! There's the fallen phenom, returning from the operating table to pitch a masterpiece! There's the powerful kid with an artillery name tailor-made for Broadway! There's a bad-blood rematch that goes badly for the heroes! There's one team throwing a huge lead away, and another overcoming a huge deficit! Thrills, heroics, failures, triumphs, and a whole lotta longball! It'll be the movie-house hit of the year! Write it down, kid -- this show's gonna make us all stars!

They call it short-season ball, but the previews are just as long.

The Auburn Doubledays have averaged 51 wins over their last three years. In other words, going year-by-year and adjusting for a full 162-game season, they have won the equivalent of 100, 123 and 110 games from 2002 to 2004.

Alas, in every one of those years, they lost in the first round of the playoffs. Let's see how the Atlanta Braves of the NY-Penn League fare this year with the following players:

Auburn and Pulaski struggled in their short-season debuts, while the Fisher Cats made Justin Verlander feel most welcome in his AA debut.