Vito Chiaravallotti was back in the line-up for the D-Jays. That's good news.

Chris Baker starts tonight for Syracuse, Gustavo Chacin for New Hampshire, Josh Banks for Dunedin and TBA (Marcum?) for Charleston.

Four to watch

With the April Farm Report (to be posted later today) covering most of the real prospects in the Blue Jays’ system, this edition of Four to Watch focuses on a quartet of minor-league veterans whose chances of reaching The Show have passed, but who continue to take the field and lead the clubhouses that younger prospects are only passing through.

Syracuse: Glenn Williams, 3B, 26
83 AB, .229/.244/.542, 13 R, 0 2B, 1 3B, 8 HR, 15 RBI, 1 BB, 22 K

He’s leading the entire Blue Jays system (including the Toronto outlet) with 8 home runs, yet longtime Australian minor-leaguer Glenn Williams probably isn’t in line for a promotion. That’s at least because of his .244 on-base percentage and 1/22 BB/K ratio, statistics that make you think you’ve misread a column and should double-check. It’s also pretty rare to see a 0/8 2B/HR ratio. This is Williams’ third year in Syracuse, and his power surge is all the more remarkable considering he jacked only 3 balls out of the park in 210 AB last year. If he can maintain the round-tripper heroics, then Williams will at least solidify his status as a fan favourite in northern New York State.

New Hampshire: Kevin Frederick, RHP, 27
0-0, 1.80, 10 G, 0 GS, 10 IP, 7 H, 2 BB, 13 K, 0 HR

A former closer in the Twins system, Frederick was claimed off waivers by the Blue Jays at the end of the 2002 season and assigned to then-New Haven. He split 2003 between Double-A and Triple-A, but distinguished himself in neither location. Although his raw stuff allowed him to strike out a batter an inning, he walked one every other inning and gave up way too many hits (72 in 54 IP last year). He’s off to a much better start in 2004, however, raising the possibility that he could be finding some effectiveness. Let’s see what another month or two brings.

Dunedin: Andy Torres, RHP, 26
3-0, 0.93, 11 G, 0 GS, 19 IP, 14 H, 4 BB, 17 K, 0 HR

Small (5’9”, 160) but tough, Torres was late coming to professional baseball, making his Rookie League debut at Medicine Hat in 2002 at the age of 24. He’s been used as a closer the last couple of seasons in Auburn and Dunedin, but has yielded that role to Bubbie Buzachero in Dunedin this year and now pitches in a set-up role. Torres posted a solid 23/67 BB/K rate in 75 frames last year, which helped him to a 2.16 ERA; he’s picked up where he left off in 2003. If he were a few years younger, he might attract more attention; as it stands, he’s a very useful veteran presence in a Florida State league bullpen that no doubt benefits from his steadying influence.

Charleston: Clint Johnston, 1B, 26
79 AB, .228/.337/.443, 16 R, 8 2B, 3 HR, 19 RBI, 14 BB, 18 K

Flipping through another team’s fan site, I found this reference to the Alley-Cats’ Clint Johnston by a writer who was attending a game Johnston appeared in: “Is he still playing?” Indeed he is: Johnston was a first-round draft choice of the Pittsburgh Pirates in 1998 out of Vanderbilt – as a pitcher. After four unsuccessful, injury-plagued years as a hurler, Johnston was left unprotected in the minor-league portion of the 2002 Rule 5 Draft and was snagged by the Jays, who announced their intention to convert Johnston to a position player. This wasn’t as radical a move as it may seem: a number of teams thought the Pirates erred in making Johnston, a two-way collegian, take the mound. He struggled with the bat in his first 1 ½ years, but he posted a strong .318/.438/.485 line in 66 AB with Auburn last year. He has power and patience, though he may never hit for a high enough average to move up higher. So here’s a salute to Johnston, and to all of these players who labour in dimly lit stadiums and endure endless bus rides to play the game and help mentor the organization’s true prospects. They deserve a day in the sun.

I'm very glad to hear that Medina's back in action -- he's a sleeper whom I expected to surprise some people this year. As for Perkins, perhaps this DL trip is an indication that his struggles so far this season have been at least partly health-related.

So is McGowan still being promoted, ir has this outing made the Toronto brass think twice about moving him to Syracuse?
As for Perkins, is there any idication what specifically may be wrong?

I wonder what's happened to Arnolds fast ball. In college he was
a reliever and would routinely be throwing in the mid nineties.
There has been speculation that Arnold may be better suited to the
bullpen. Who knows he maybe one of these pitchers who can throw
hard for one or two inning and then his fast ball goes away. I'll
tell one thing though, when Ricciardi traded for Arnold a year ago
he described him as a stud pitcher. Clearly Arnold is no stud pitcher

My girlfriend and I were able to make our second trip to Syracuse this season, catching Saturday's and Sunday's games against Rochester. I'll try to give you my take on each game.

Saturday's game saw Josue Matos get the call on the mound against Rochester's Matt Guerrier. The Skychiefs had a chance to score early in the first with 2-out walks drawn by Alex Rios and Simon Pond but Rochester starter Matt Guerrier retired Glenn Williams to end the threat. Rochester got to Matos for a run in the 2nd and then a couple of homers (fortunately solo shots!!) byo Brian Simmons (of all people!) and Chris Heintz in the 4th on a day when the wind was blowing out. Simmons' homer was definitely wind-aided. It was 3-0 Rochester and I was beginning to think I'm going to be 0-and-7 seeing the Jays (0-4) and Skychiefs (0-2 at that point) in person this season. But, finally, the home team responded, getting to Rochester starter Matt Guerrier with a couple of solo homers of their own in the 4th. The first belted by Simon Pond and the second by Gabe Gross, which was a real rainmaker. Both of them went to right field where the wind was blowing out but I thought they made good contact and would've had a chance to go on a normal day. My girlfriend was especially happy about Pond's homer because she was born in Vancouver and was probably the loudest person in the ballpark when Pond was rounding the bases. If anyone was at the game was wondering who was yelling all the North Vancouver and B-C cheers, it was her. There was 3 B-C'ers playing this week-end, with Pond and Jeff Guiel for the Skychiefs and Justin Morneau for Rochester. More on him later. Rochester looked to respond in the top of the 5th and had runners on the corners with 2 outs and Matos needed to bailed out. That led to Josh Towers coming to the rescue, who needed all of 1 pitch to escape the jam and keep the score 3-2. Towers induced a hard hit grounder from the Red Wings' Josh Rabe to Shawn Fagan at first, who made a nice play to knock it down and make the unassisted play to end the inning. In true vulture style, Towers would get the "W" when the Skychiefs scored 3 runs with Russ Adams igniting the rally with a hard smash off the glove of Justin Morneau at first. Adams really had a good AB, he worked the count in his favour to 3-1, fouled off a couple of pitches before getting his double. Anyways, the ball hit by Adams went off Morneau's glove, trickling into right field, allowing Noah Hall to scamper home all the way from first. Rios and Pond drove home the other runs with RBI singles to score Adams and Fagan to make it 5-3 for the 'Cuse. That would prove to be enough but barely. Josh Towers was mowing 'em down from the bullpen retiring 7 straight but Justin Morneau would put an end to that with a towering home run to right field to lead off the 8th to make it a 5-4 nailbiter. But Towers settled down retired the next 3 batters to finish up with a very tidy 3 1/3 innings relief of one hit ball. He was very deserving of the "W". But Rochester would make things interesting in the 9th when Mark Lukasiewicz walked the immortal Matt Scanlan, batting all of .130, on four straight pitches. Then came Aquilino Lopez to close it out. He got some help from his batterymate, Tim Whittaker, who gunned down Scanlan on a strike-em-out, throw-em-out situation after Chris Heintz went down swinging. Hell of a peg by Whittaker, it wasn't even close. Then Lopez struck out number 9 hitter Alex Prieto swinging to end the ball game. Skychiefs Win! Skychiefs Win! It was refreshing to see the bullpen from the organization actually save a close one. Pitching wise, Matos allowed a lot of baserunners, giving up 9 in 4 2/3 innings but he did a decent job in limiting the damage. He was topping out around 86-87, Towers was around 90 I believe, and the same for Lopez. Hitting wise, Rios went 1-for-3 with an RBI single and a walk and his two outs were on hard hit balls. Gross had a nice game as well with the solo jack and a solid single. Pond was perfect with his solo homer to get the 'Chiefs on the board and a game winning RBI single. Special kudos to Guillermo Quiroz who was signing autographs for a lot of fans near the dugout at the end of the game after coming out of the bullpen.

Okay, now my thoughts for Sunday's game. It was Jason Arnold vs. Dave Gassner on another windy afternoon at P&C Stadium. I'll tell you, that place is a real wind tunnel. I thought I was in Chicago at one point. I'm amazed the program seller doesn't lose any programs. But anyways, we got to the game a little late and didn't settle into our seats until the 2nd inning so I didn't get a chance to score this one. It was a nice pitchers duel for the first part of the game. Arnold was cruising along and bailed out Russ Adams, who dropped a pop up in the 3rd inning, I believe it was, with runners on. It would turn out to be a very rough day for Adams but as mentioned, Arnold bailed him out and held Rochester at bay. Dave Gassner was also putting up the zeroes on the board as he baffled Syracuse with his offspeed slop hovering around 82-86 mph and going as low as 72 mph. However, the Skychiefs got on the board first when Glenn Williams and Gabe Gross singled and Guillermo Quiroz brought them home with a 400-foot single off the wall in centerfield. I thought that one was out of the park and maybe GQ did too, as he was thrown out at 2nd. Gross ran through the stop sign put up by Marty Pevey at 3rd and it was a good thing he did as Gross scored standing up. That seemed like a page from the John McLaren school of 3rd base coaching. It was 2-0 Syracuse after 5 and I thought it was going to hold the way Arnold was pitching. But, much like I thought Syracuse's goose was cooked Saturday after they trailed 3-0, Rochester responded with a 3-spot thanks to another towering HR by Justin Morneau followed by a 2-run shot by Michael Restovich to bring home a Josh Rabe walk. Arnold lost Rabe on a 3-2 pitch before the homer. That was it for Arnold, who was pulled for Mark Lukasiewicz. He walked the first batter he faced on 4 pitches for the 2nd day in a row but he prevented any further damage in the 6th. Rochester essentially put the game away in the 7th when they got to Lukasiewicz (hate typing that name) for 2 runs, thanks to an RBI double by Luis Rodriguez, who would eventually score on a sac fly by Morneau (they kept him in the park! yay!). Syracuse would make it interesting by loading up the bases and Simon Pond came through by spanking a 2 run single to right score Jeff Guiel and Shawn Fagan. Unfortunately, the rally ended when Jesse Crain, who yielded Pond's single, struck out Glenn Williams swinging stranding Rios on 3rd and Pond at 1st. Vinnie Chulk, who went the final 2 2/3 innings, for the Skychiefs would give that run back as Alex Prieto got one airborne over the 408 foot sign in centerfield to make it 6-4 Rochester. But the Skychiefs tried to rally again as Gabe Gross led off with a single. However, Quiroz struck out on 3 pitches and Noah Hall also went down swinging as the umpire ruled it was a foul tip. It was too bad because Hall fouled off some touch pitches. But Jeff Guiel would bring home Gross by flaring a double down the left field line for his 2nd second-bagger of the day. That left it to Russ Adams to bring him Guiel. Unfortunately, he was probably the one guy you did not want up there in that situation. He looked lost at the plate. His previous at-bat resulted in a check swing ground out and he was unable to check his swing on Jesse Crain's first pitch in the 9th. On the next pitch, Adams lifted a harmless fly ball to Josh Rabe to end, what turned out, to be a terrific ball game. It was a rough day for Adams, who went 0-for-5 with an error.

Other observations, Quiroz had an interesting day behind the plate. He was 2-for-2 in throwing out baserunners and did so rather easily, nailing Augie Ojeda and Alex Prieto. GQ was so pumped out throwing out Prieto I believe it was in the 5th, he sprinted for the dug out thinking the inning was over, except for one small detail. There were only 2 outs. It was pretty funny and I'm sure GQ heard about it after the inning was over. Gabe Gross had a terrific date at the plate, going 2 for 3 with 2 solid singles and a walk. His lone out came out after fouling off several tough 3-2 pitches from Dave Gassner in his first AB before striking out. Jeff Guiel did his best to bring the Skychiefs back with a couple of hustling doubles in the late innings and Shawn Fagan had a hit and a walk and made a nice catch on a sharp liner to first. Here's my 3 stars of the week-end.

1. Simon Pond - 2-for-2 Saturday with a HR and 2 BB, 1-for-3 Sunday with 2 RBI and his first stolen base of the year.
2. Gabe Gross - 2-for-4 Saturday with a HR, 2-for-3 with a walk Sunday.
3. Josh Towers - 3 1/3 innings of one hit relief to earn the W Saturday.

All in all, it was a great weeek-end of baseball and it's reaffirmed my faith in the sport after watching some horrible games at the Dome. I've also warmed up to P&C Stadium. Again, aside from the turf, it's a decent place to watch a game but it's no Frontier Field. It's well worth the trip and Sunday was great because it was $1 dollar tickets and $1 parking. Not too shabby. I did take some pictures so if anyone is interested, I can e-mail them once I pull them off my camera. Sorry for the War and Peace-type post here but I just wanted to let everyone know what was going on with the boys at Triple A. Thanks!

Tahnks to JKCL and #2 for the writeups. It is great to read in person accounts of the game.

I believe four of today's five minor league games can be heard live, including Shaun Marcum's start in Game #1 of a doubleheader against Lakewood.

Josh Banks won his 4th game against a tough St. Lucie squad. Banks went 6 innings giving up 6 hits including 2 homers, with 1 walk and 4Ks. Vito doubled and tripled. Charleston swept a doubleheader tonight. Details from anybody listening?