Joe Inglett had five hits and six RBI's on July 4th to lead Vegas to a big win.  New Hampshire won 2-1 behind Kenny Rodriguez first AA start of 2009.  Dunedin, Auburn and the GCL Jays also were winners, Lansing the only losers on Saturday.  Among the prospects David Cooper, Moises Sierra and Trystan Magnuson are all hot right now.

The affiliates went 3-for-4 on the night, which wasn't too bad considering how they've performed on Friday nights in previous weeks. Both New Hampshire (!) and Dunedin had nice offensive outbursts.

The weather didn’t completely let up as two of the eight scheduled games were either cancelled or postponed. The other six games went ahead as the affiliates went 4-2. There were several fine pitching performances, including a fantastic game by Brad Mills in his return to Triple-A, and an offensive explosion at Double-A.3

Five of eight scheduled games were rained out.  Both Florida teams had doubleheaders scheduled after rainouts on Monday but a second day of rain gave them a second day off.  The three affiliates who did play all won.  Las Vegas wielded the lumber for 16 hits, and benefitted from good middle relief as did New Hampshire.  Lance Durham had a big night for Auburn. 

And that's pretty much it.  Two rainouts limited the affiliates tally to a 1-3 night on the farm.

The lower level teams each played a doubleheader on Monday, going 3-1. New Hampshire got rained out for the second straight day, and Lansing had the day off for the second straight day, while Marc Rzepczynski continued his fine season for Las Vegas.

The Jays' affiliates had an off-day, a postponement, and a suspension. In the remaining 3 games, they went 2-1.

Dunedin won a doubleheader 3-1.  That is they won game one 3-1 and game two by the same score.  Every other affiliate lost.   Fabio Castro had another poor start as Toronto's surplus of young pitchers shrinks again.  Mills, Castro, Cecil, and Purcey have each had their struggles this season.  This is common with young pitchers which is why the Jays say they are targetting 2010.  Dave Delucci had two more hits and is now 6-11 in his last three games, with four of those hits being of the extra base variety.

The Jays' affiliates had more rain-outs (2) than wins (1) on the night. Enough said.

It was a second consecutive good day on the farm with the affiliates posting a 4-2 record and the only defeats occurring in the Gulf Coast League and Double-A. Las Vegas won behind some strong relief pitching after David Purcey did not last long in his start. New Hampshire lost, but Dunedin won with a big inning and Lansing pushed across the winning run in the bottom of the eighth. Strong pitching lead the Doubledays to victory while the Gulf Coast League Jays lost after a disastrous first four batters to the game.

Everyone won (seriously, the affiliates actually had a collectively-solid night) except the young kids in the Gulf Coast League... and they lost in extra innings.

Blowouts were the rule rather than the exception but the exception featured arguably the best pitching performance turned in by a Jays farmhand this season.  It was a 3-2 night for the affiliates with Lansing enjoying the day off, save for one Lugnut who was at the Midwest League All-Star Game.

Adam Loewen hit his first home run of the season among his three hits.  Another Canadian, Randy Schwartz, also homered for Auburn.  Those home runs helped the only two affiliates in action to wins.  Dunedin used their strong bullpen to pitch five shutout innings waiting for the offense to break out.  After being one hit on Sunday, Auburn two hit Jamestown on Monday.

Believe it or not it is mid-season in the minor leagues.  Lansing finished their first half season on Sunday.  Dunedin, strangely, have three first half games left after their all-star break.  Las Vegas and New Hampshire realize it could be a long second half unless they start to play a lot better.  Seeing how it is mid-season Marc Hulet and I reviewed the first half for most of the Jays top prospects.  You will see that there has not been a lot of movement among the prospects.  The jury is still out on the high schoolers drafted in 2007 and 2008, those players have to just play and you expect them to really show what kind of prospect they are in the year they turn 21 or 22.  Some of the Jays top ten prospects, such as JP Arencibia, David Cooper and Brad Emaus have had first halves to forget.  Several other lower ranked prospects such as Moises Sierra, Danny Farquhar, Trystan Magnuson and Tim Collins have down well in the first half.  Some of the Jays top prospects should lose their prospect status this season, Travis Snider, Brett Cecil and Ricky Romero will come out of the top ten with enough major league time.  With the struggles of some of the other top ten names and the good play of some of the lesser ranked prospects, ranking the Jays top ten prospects at seasons end might be a tough job.

Three affiliates, in fact, were doomed by big innings, as Las Vegas was the only club to land in the win column.