I watched a bit of the Lugnut game last night.  A couple of observations.  The team is good and has a swagger.  You'd have to say that everyone with the exception of maybe Bryson Namba (who looks bad) you could envision playing in the majors. 

Gus Pierre is incredibly athletic.  He ran down a ball in foul territory and really made it look pretty.  It was really something to watch, there were three players converging on it, Knecht, Namba, and Pierre and Pierre looked like a thoroughbread gliding to the ball.   To echo what the announcers and others have said, he looks mechanical on the routine plays like he's trying to focus on his footwork and such right now.  It leads to errors.  I think he'll sort it out, he needs repition.  It'll come. 

Lance Durham hit a no-doubter.  He looks a lot bigger than last year in Auburn and there's some serious leverage to his swing.  He doesn't get cheated up there and goes up swinging hard.  He has a Prince Fielder-lite feel to him but that's being generous and he's years away from realizing anything sort of that.

Michael Crouse is quite the unit.  He looks like a bright ball player.  Dived in right field to make a play, missed the ball, but it was the right situation with no one on and two outs. 

Casey Lawrence can sure pitch.  Doesn't possess the velocity of a Jansen but he was working fast and throwing strikes.  He might dominate at the lower levels but at the upper levels he might struggle because his stuff isn't over powering.  Count me as a fan though.  Gotta love a guy who works fast and throws strikes. 

Carlos Perez looks a lot bigger than people give him credit for.  I mean, every Loon player that came up were smaller or the same height as Perez.  He seems to have added some weight/muscle.  As catcher, he sets up and catches the ball similar to Russel Martin.    

Arhens/Jackson/Tolisano can all hope for a bench role on a major league club one day, but even then, they have some work ahead of them.

Lance Durham is already 23 and will have to move quickly to become a prospect.

Is this really their logo???

I thought Podsednik had a guaranteed $500,000 under his contract with the Jays, even if he didn't make the major-league squad.  I'm surprised that the Jays would write off that investment so quickly -- especially since Podsednik was injured for several weeks -- unless another club has agreed to take over the full $500,000 commitment.  But in the latter case, wouldn't it be listed as a trade, not a release?

According to the Jays' website, they had a "handshake agreement" with Podsednik that if he wasn't going to be the first guy called up when they had a need in the outfield they would let him go if he wanted.  I'm disappointed they prefer Patterson to Podsednik.  Patterson is not nearly as good a hitter, and from what I've seen, including tonight, Patterson is one of the worst baserunners I've seen in a very long time.  I'd have called Podsednik up right now.  Sure, Podsednik isn't a real centre fielder anymore, but I'd be willing to live with him there for a few days if Davis had to miss a bit of time again.  You'd be vulnerable if Davis suffered a long term injury, but you could use Wise if you absolutely had to, or make a deal to get somebody.  Disappointing, again.

Nice game tonight by Davis.  Hopefully, he can turn his season around.  Lind and Bautista are carrying far too much of the load, offensively

Apparently Carreno had quite the game today for New Hampshire.  One hitter for 7 innings, finished off by Crawford and Farina with no more hits allowed.

That is putting it kindly, Podsednik was never a real centre fielder and hasn't even been adequate in left field since 2007 if UZR is to be believed. Podsednik has been a better hitter over their careers, but would it surprise you that they put up almost identical wOBAs (.323 to .325) and wRC+ (.98 and 1.00) last season?

As frustrating as he is to watch, I would highly doubt that Patterson brings that much less to the plate now than Podsednik and given that only one of those two can play CF the latter's release seems reasonable to me given the choice between the two. Besides, if you were to tell me that either of them would see significant playing time this season I would have said the Jays were in trouble, regardless of which one played.

Judging from the play-by-play & the 51s twitter account it looks like Cecil was a little hurt by his defense early, but he was able to grab some DPs to be able to go 7 innings. If there isn't an improvement in Drabek's command in his next start it's probably time for a switch-a-roo.

Mike, I watched some of the game on Milb.tv last night, there are no gun readings on the screen  but I did hear the announcer mention that Cecil was hitting 87mph on the gun, so I'm guessing any improvements come from Cecil getting the ball down, he did seem to have a good feel for his changeup last night as well.

I assume that Podsednik's release is, to a large extent, related to his foot injury:  the fact that he seemed to conceal it when the Jays signed him, the fact that the injury increasingly seems to be chronic and recurring, the fact that it potentially affects his running game (the main reason for acquiring him), and the fact that it prevented him from competing for an OF or bench job in spring training -- which was the only time when he really had a shot at the job.

The most encouraging news about Podsednik's release is the fact that the Jays are now publicly confirming that Thames had jumped ahead of Podsednik on the depth chart.  It's a further hint that Thames is progressing faster than we initially expected, and a hint that Thames could be promoted within the next few weeks.