The Houston Astros have reached a player development deal with the Oklahoma City RedHawks of the Pacific Coast League and that means the Blue Jays and the Las Vegas 51's will still be together for at least the next two seasons according to the National Post.

UPDATE 09/21 @ 6:30 p.m. - The Jays have officially announced a two-year PDC with the 51's.

Baseball America will begin publishing their league top twenty lists this week.  I thought I would take a shot at guessing which Jays might make the lists.

This is a tricky objective because I don't know all the prospects from other organizations nor will I be examining the non-Blue Jay rosters of all the minor league teams to see who should make the list.  I will approach this purely from a Blue Jay perspective.

The Blue Jays minor league season ended with a whimper last night.  The Fisher Cats were eliminated in three straight games to mirror the Dunedin Jays who were swept in two straight.  New Hampshire were unable to score until the ninth inning of game three, they had 29 scoreless innings in the series up to that point. 

Second verse, same as the first.

If the offence on the major league team takes a night off against a tough lefty, why should the minor league offences not get to do the same thing? That’s the thinking New Hampshire and Dunedin subscribed to, as the teams didn’t even match the one solo homer notched by the parent club. The teams combined for no runs, as a potential pitching duel in the Double-A playoffs materialized, while Dunedin was eliminated from the playoffs at the hands of the damn Yankees. Dunedin was extra sure to let their sleeping bats rest, as they gave them a second straight day off and didn’t score a run in their playoff series. Nevertheless, congratulations on a fine season.

The Dunedin Blue Jays are down one game to nothing to the Tampa Yankees in their best of three first-round series in the Florida State League playoffs.  In other news, the Jays signed a pair of Player Development Contracts by extending one and beginning a new partnership.  Also, the Jays paid tribute to the Pacific Coast League's MVP and shone the spotlight on the team's top four draft picks in 2010 on JaysVision during Monday's game.

 

Two of the affiliates played their last game tonight, and two others will be starting their postseason tomorrow. Monday's action featured three games and Lansing was the only one to earn a victory... but what a victory.

2-4 on an extremely boring final Sunday of the minor league season.  Aside from the no-hitter with two outs in the final frame, that is.

Offence was the theme for winning Saturday night on the farm with Las Vegas and Auburn bats burning brightly.  And 9 K’s from Dunedin pitching helped them past the Yankees.  New Hampshire saw some good individual performances but fell short to Portland.

Just two of the five affiliates in action were victorious.  A dominanting pitching performance is the highlight of this Friday night.  The lowlights were a lack of plate discipline in a pair of games.

It was a perfect night on the farm and some Jonathans and and an Oliver did some major damage.

Dunedin and Lakeland played a marathon that is a strong contender for game of the year in the minor leagues. The game went 17 innings and was scoreless through the first 16 frames. Arguably, that’s not the most impressive fact from the game, as one team was no-hit through the first 13 innings. There were several fine pitching performances throughout the minors and I could tell you some interesting facts like that the 4 non-Triple-A saw 11 total runs scored in 44 innings, but wouldn’t we all rather just get to the game of the night, and of the year?

The Jays affiliates were almost perfect last night.  Two extra innings wins and a pair of two-run victories boosted the affiliates to a 4-1 record. 

This has been mentioned in these parts earlier but the Auburn Citizen recently speculated the Doubledays affiliation with the Blue Jays will come to an end after the 2010 season.  Reporter Kristin Kowaleski-Wolford claims it's the Jays are the ones who are walking out, a complete role reversal from the Syracuse-Toronto break-up.  She also makes comments in her blog about the D-Days/Jays parting of the ways.  Last week, Kowaleski-Wolford spoke with Charlie Wilson, the Jays director of minor league operations, about the possible end to the affiliation.

 

Someone please tell me if I am crazy. I opened up the first box score of the evening and thought "hey, new box scores! These are purdy!" However, upon venturing back to old MLUs to find out when exactly the change took place, I discovered that they've been in use for at least the last four weeks. So, either all the MILB box scores have been retrofitted, or I'm a ball short of a full count. WHICH IS IT???!?!