AJ Jimenez is back off the DL and recorded four hits. With Austin Bibens-Dirxk doing his part by fanning twelve, Dunedin won. New Hampshire also won a close game on two solo home runs and shutout pitching. Buffalo split a doubleheader with Ricky Romero pitching in the win. Lansing were beaten up.

Stand up on your feet, put your worry down — and everyone of you all around, come on y'a'll let's take it.

Word has it that former Yankees standout Chien-Ming Wang has opted out of a minor league deal to take on a major league contract with your Toronto Blue Jays. The sinkerballer is slated to start Tuesday instead of Esmil Rogers.

Only two affiliates in action tonight as two affiliates suffered weather malfunctions. The DSL affiliate played today, but of course we don’t know what happens until a day later. It’s draft night so wild prediction; Richard Urena hit for the cycle and Dean Bell went 1-5, striking out his first four at-bats then hitting the game winning homerun in the bottom of the ninth. His dad was proud. In the real world Deck McGuire had a somewhat typical start for our AA affiliate—cruising through five innings before the wheels came off in the sixth. In fairness he was up to a hundred pitches by that point. The Fisher Cats lost 7-2. The other team playing tonight probably wished they too had been weathered out. Lansing fell to the visiting San Diego affiliate. They committed four errors in this one and if not for a light-hearted comeback attempt in the eighth, there wouldn’t be much here to take home.

The Draft is here!  I'll post our picks here and scrounge what I can on our new Blue Jays.

10. Phil Bickford RHP HS California

LA Times article

Scouting

More Scouting

In all honesty, it’s a lot more difficult to speculate with any conviction on who the Jays might select at ten than at seventeen and twenty one as we did quite well last year. Alex Anthopoulos was on Buster Olney’s podcast the other day and said the same—that it’s difficult to figure out who is going to fall to ten. At the backend of the first round you’ve probably got two or three guys you know are going to be there and probably don’t mind “reaching” for someone that quite possibly could be available in the supplemental—especially so when you have extra picks as the Jays have had in recent drafts. This year at ten, the Jays are probably looking “up” at the draft board than down.

Tonight the farm went 0-5, highlighted by another strong performance from Andy Burns.  Chad Jenkins had his first career AAA start, and Dustin McGowan pitched in back-to-back games for the first time in nearly 7 years.

Now we're up to bat — a little bit of laughs, a little bit of pain...

The lowlights were a pair of one-run losses and a shutout. The highlight was a come-from-behind victory.

And all I want from tomorrow is to get it better than today.

A 4-0 record by the affiliates is a good way to start the week as the Dominican Summer League Blue Jays begin another season.

This afternoon the farm went 1-3, with the only win coming from Buffalo.  Dustin McGowan continued to struggle, and further-delay his arrival to Toronto.  As well, Dunedin faced a former starting pitcher with mlb success, trying to make it back to the majors.

And how do I choose and where do I draw the line between truth and necessary pain?
And how do I know and where do I get my belief that things will be all right again?

Ricky Romero had something to take comfort from in his start for Buffalo. He pitched six innings and his last four were good. Many people wonder what's wrong with Ricky? I remember seeing Romero pitch in AA back in 2008. That was when Romero was being looked at as a bust, his ERA in AA was hovering around 5. Romero's WHIP in AA, over parts of four seasons was 1.56. Romero made 52 starts in AA, that is a full two seasons worth. Everyone was wondering why was Romero a bust? I was sitting beside a Blue Jay scout at the game and he said to me, after one inning, "he has the tools, lets see how he uses them". Romero has good pitches, he pitches well when he has some idea of where the pitches are going. Something clicked for Romero in 2009 and he turned from a bust to a full-time starter. If it happened in 2009 I think it can happen again. I do think it is mainly mental and I also think that Ricky needs to have some success, then build on that to restore his confidence and slow down his mind.

Buffalo lost their game when Chad Beck gave up a walk-off home run in the ninth. New Hampshire were well beaten. Dunedin's game was suspended in the second inning. Lansing took a big early lead and held on, barely, for the win.

Earlier this year I presented a top 10 list of minor league pitchers according to Age-Adjusted Dominance Ratio - a stat that I developed last year as a quick method of assessing a pitcher's dominance by weighing strikeouts against walks, HBP. HR and Hits.