Eligible players are ones who have signed and played at least one game in the minors, and are not currently on the major league roster. Alphabetically, the players I considered are: Adams, Ahrens, Arencibia, Josh Bell, Butler, Cannon, Diaz, Eiland, Hatch, Liuzza Jeroloman, Majewski, Mathews, Olmedo, Patterson, Santos and Snider. My top ten are:

1. Snider
2. Santos
3. Arencibia
4. Ahrens
5. Mathews
6. Olmedo
7. Jeroloman
8. Eiland
9. Diaz
10. Patterson

After Snider, there is plenty of room for disagreement. What do you think? I'll tabulate the votes and post the results after Canada Day.

...it doesn't matter what his name is, Brett Cecil can pitch. The farm affiliates went 4-2.

A 2-3 night for the affiliates.  Lansing had the best night winning 16-9.

The affiliates go 2-4 in what was an interesting night on the farm. Ricky Romero made his long awaited return to the mound, there was an inside the park homer in New Hampshire, a fan favourite was plunked twice in Triple A action, and so were three Gulf Coast League Blue Jays, all in the same inning. Find out more in today's episode of the Minor League Update.

Syracuse had four hits as Josh Banks took the loss.  Auburn had four hits as Kyle Walter took the loss.  Lansing had five hits as Zach Dials pitched well and Po Keng took the loss.  New Hampshire had seven hits as Kurt Isenberg took the loss.  Dunedin had nine hits as Russ Savickas lost in relief.  A bad day on the farm, it was tough to find the three stars.

Syracuse and New Hampshire were the only winners.  New Hampshire came from behind with three two run home runs while Dunedin and Auburn coughed up the leads.  Chip Cannon had a couple of the home runs for the Fisher Cats while Jesse Litsch and Lee Gronkiewicz pitched well in AAA.  Paul Philips had problems in Dunedin, John Tolisano hit his first home run as a Jay.  Brett Cecil, the Jays third pick, made a successful debut.

Last night was a night of several surprises on the farm. Lansing won due to production from an unexpected spot in the lineup. New Hampshire lost to a surprising degreee. The GCL Blue Jays were strangely already pinch-hitting for the team’s first-round draft choice.

And Victor Zambrano couldn’t complete four innings, gave up a bunch of hits and several walks and turned a lead into a deficit. Oh well, some things never change.

It's the hitters summary this week. The farm affiliates went 6-1 last night to partially offset the sting of the game in Toronto.

The phonetically similar first-rounders Ahrens and Arencibia had similar debuts, and Ricky Romero had a (reasonably successful) rehab start in Dunedin last night. The farm affiliates went 2-5.

Dunedin scores their last two runs on bases loaded walks to defeat Lakeland.

The affiliates were 3-0 on the night, with 2 rainouts and an A Ball All Star Game.

Jesse Litsch gains revenge on the team that gave him a rude welcome back to AA ball from Toronto two weeks ago.  Meantime, a suspended game that was well in hand from last month helped the affiliates come away with a split of their 4 games.

Syracuse scored five runs in the first inning, New Hampshire scored four in the first and both teams won.  Lansing did not score in the first and lost.  Ryan Klosterman hit a grand slam, Robinzon Diaz had four hits, Josh Banks gave up back to back jacks but otherwise pitched well.

John Thomson gets blown out, the Fisher Cats win, and Lansing splits.  In the second game of their doubleheader Lansing avoided a no hitter when Chris Emanuele singled with one out in the seventh.  David Purcey has a sore elbow and will miss another start.

The affiliates coordinated their schedules well, as just as one breaks for all-star weekend, the other schedules two double-headers, so those who follow the minors can still get their fair share of games. If that’s not enough to spark your interest, last night also featured two pitchers debuting at Double-A and New Hampshire putting on a fine ninth-inning rally. The only question is: did it succeed?

We have the pitchers again this week. The names remain the same (with one exception), but next time we will have some numbers on the 2007 draftees. Meanwhile, the farm affiliates went 1-3 again last night.