I was at the game in Buffalo yesterday.  Here are some notes:

Rosario had a bad day, his control was off and he went deep into the count most of the time.  I spoke with pitching coach Rick Langford and he said it was Rosario's worst start of the year.

Similarly Dustin McGowan's location was off too.  It is fun to see a 95 mph fastball and a 80 mph curve and the curve was working well yesterday.  Like AJ Burnett, if McGowan can throw it where he wants to he could be very, very good.

CC Sabathia is one huge pantload, he could be an NFL lineman.  His thighs are huge and he is sporting a large beerbelly, you have to wonder how durable he will be in another few years.  He is listed at 6'7" and 290 pounds.  His slider is one tough pitch to hit.

John Hattig was the pick of the hitters, three hits, all hit hard, including a very nice line drive off Sabathia.

Sergio Santos was better than I expected, although my expectations were low.  He did not look totally lost at the plate, as Jim Callis said he did last year.  I am not saying he is ready for the majors but it looks like he is making progress.  Santos does have a major league shortstops arm.

Wayne Lydon looked lost at the plate, as good as he was in spring training, he was the opposite yesterday.

Ryan Roberts has developed a one handed finish to his swing.  He still is taking big hacks and had a nice hit but his swing probably needs to be a bit more in control for the bigs.

John-Ford Griffin's swing looked a little more compact, he might be trying to cut down on his strikeouts.

The lefty Cheng picked off two Cedar Rapids' baserunners, and another was thrown out trying to steal, in his 5 innings. 

NH, and to a lesser degree, Syracuse have both struggled scoring runs this year.

However, scoring in the minors is down a lot this year.  There was an article at BP that went through some of the numbers .  The IL and Eastern League are both at their lowest levels over the past ten leagues.  Other leagues are similar with the FSL and Sally leagues being average.  The Texas League is the only league with offense higher than normal so far this year.

Good to see Pettway and Hetherington have good games. 

I think Hetherington is going to turn out to be a good one.  If he can add some power (he is only 23 and likely should) to his ability to get on base he will be a good hitter.  He is playing CF and must have some defensive ability as well.

Pettway is really starting to worry me.  The second coming of JFG seems his upside.  He has 26 K in 75 AB in low A!

Could it be that the replacement umps are calling the strike zone as designed rather than the postage sized zone being taught to the pros and this is leading lower scoring and consequently, umpire abuse.

http://bluejays.scout.com/2/525261.html

Unexpected promotion after a solid start. He struggled last year and is hot this season