John Sickels' top 20 Jay prospects are up. For comparison, here is Jordan's top 30 from September.

Brandon League and David Purcey are the top rated prospects on John Sickels' list. Aaron Hill and Josh Banks rank 1, 2 on Jordan's.

It is time to plan the minor league rosters for 2005. When I asked Dick Scott how he allocated the players to the teams he acknowledged that he first places his top prospects and then fills around them. He also said that 90% of the decisions are made before the players report in the spring; so let's see how we would do it if it was our call.

After the holiday break, the winter leaguers returned to action. Ismael Ramirez got back on track with a solid start (5.2IP, 5 hits, 2 earned runs, 0 W, 3K).

Here's your Jay winter league report:
Puerto Rican League-Caguas
Rob Cosby- .263/.309/.434
Miguel Negron- .228/.365/.329

Venezuelan League
Zulia
Guillermo Quiroz- .245/.359/.491
Lara
Rodney Medina- .309/.377/.400
Oriente
Jorge Sequea- .241/.365/.443
Ismael Ramirez- 35.2 IP, 31 H, 9 W, 28K, 2 HR allowed, 4 HBP, 3.71 ERA, 5-1

Miguel Negron borrows a chapter out of Jayce Tingler's book in Puerto Rico, sporting a .250/.378/.368 line. Guillermo Quiroz hit his 5th homer for Zulia in the Venezuelan League, and is hitting .250 but with power and reasonable plate discipline.

Since we last talked, Ismael Ramirez went to 5-0 for Oriente in the Venezuelan League, after allowing 2 earned runs on 4 hits and 2 walks with 3 strikeouts in 6 innings against Lara. He's now gone 34 innings, allowing 25 hits and 7 walks, while stiking out 27 and surrendering only 2 homers.

We'll get things started for the week with yesterday's Saguaro's boxscore. It turns out that Rosario may not be spent after all; he threw 4 shutout innings, allowing 2 hits and 2 walks while striking out 4.

Dry wash is a nice oxymoron. In the desert, a wash is a riverbed that is normally dry, but will fill during rainy periods.

Here is your weekly AFL spot. We'll get things rolling with yesterday's Saguaro boxscore. We will have some BBRadio of the game on Wednesday the 10th here.

Javelinas, by the way, look like small designer pigs, and are adept at eating cactus. Don't ask. They are not actually pigs but peccaries. Now you know.

Here is a place for all things AFL. Here's yesterday's Saguaro boxscore to get things rolling. It's a very pleasant sight to see Hill, Hattig and Big Vito in the heart of the batting order and doing so well. Rob tells us that the Saguaros' games on November 2 and 4 will be on internet radio courtesy of mlb.com.

Time for a quick update on the Arizona Fall League and the Peoria Saguaros, managed by AAA Syracuse skipper Marty Pevey and home to six Jays prospects of varying degrees of interest. The Saguaros sit last in the three-team American Divison with a 2-4 record; they beat previously undefeated Phoenix 14-7 yesterday, a memorable game for Jays hitters -- for the pitchers, meeeh, not so much.

The Syracuse Skychiefs are the Blue Jays top farm team, the closest team to the big leagues and the source of many of the call-ups the Blue Jays needed in 2004. Not counting the September call-ups, there are nineteen players who played in both Syracuse and Toronto this season. The injury bug that hit the Jays put a strain on the Chiefs from which they could not recover.

What a season! The Fisher Cats first season was a resounding success, as they caught fire in July and August, and stormed to an Eastern League title.

The Dunedin Blue Jays had another successful year winning a first half title, finishing second in the back half of the season, but ending the season with a disappointing loss to Tampa in the playoffs. They played in front of generally small crowds, home attendance averaged 594, second lowest in the league. Cross-town neighbours Clearwater, led by rookie manager Mike Schmidt, led the league with 2078 average home attendance.

The Alley Cats were the Blue Jays Low-A affiliate in the South Atlantic League this year. Next year, the low-A affiliate will be the Lansing Lugnuts of the Midwest League. Charleston drew 1,842 fans per game, well below league average, to old Watt Powell Park; they will be playing in a newly constructed stadium beginning next year.

Summer is officially heading out the door when the Arizona Fall League rumbles to life. Syracuse manager Marty Pevey has been rewarded for suffering through a brutal Skychiefs campaign with the reins of the Peoria Saguaros. Pevey should be considered a prospect himself: managerial stints in the AFL are often considered auditions for big-league positions. The AFL gets underway in the first week of October: for those of you who'll be in the 48th state this autumn, here's the Saguaros' home schedule. For those of you wondering what a saguaro is, we offer these tantalizing choices:

A) cigar
B) cactus
C) Padre Armand Saguaro, founder of a famed 19th-century Jesuit mission near present-day Peoria
D) scorpion