Two blow out wins and one fairly big loss for Josh Banks.

A 2 and 2 night on the farm, with the 3 Stars brought to you by the letter C.

The starting pitchers turn in five very good starts, two of them shutouts by Cameron Reimers and Shawn Marcum. Casey Janssen allows one run and gets promoted. Brandon League and Davis Romero pitch well, but don't win.

A late homer was the highlight of a 1-2 day for the farm affiliates, as the offences struggled to score runs.

The parent club might have experienced some bad luck last night, but the farm system needed no karmic assistance at all: a rare and welcome organizational sweep was punctuated by a power outburst in Dunedin and a couple of simply superb pitching performances. It all started, as everything seems to these days, with a late grab for power in Ottawa.

The Syracuse Skychiefs entered 2005 with expectations of at least a winning record, and perhaps a division title. April ended with the team's record at 10-11 and expectations have been replaced by inconsistency as the best way to describe the first month of the season. May has not started much better for the Chiefs but they have won two in a row.

It's an express version of the minor league update tonight. The farm affiliates went 3-1, with the help of three fine starting pitching performances.

The Lugnuts scored nine in central Michigan, Sarasota was SOL in the FSL, pitching continues to dominate in Double-A and thanks to Ryan Glynn and Jason Arnold, there was no trouble in Triple-A.

Josh Towers' K/BB ratio may be the talk of the town, but Shaun Marcum and Casey Janssen aren't far behind. It was a 2-2 night on the farm.

One month into the season, the Fisher Cats sat at an even .500, 11-11. That they won 11 games is a testament to the strength of their starting pitching; that they lost 11 is largely a tribute to how remarkably bad their offence has been.

A disappointing 1-3 night for Toronto’s minor leaguers, and an update on the Three-Star standings.

The D-Jays had mostly good weather this April, and responded by scoring over 5 and 1/2 runs per game. Unfortunately, their fine pitching staff surrendered over 5 runs per game, and so the team ended up with a 13-10 record for the month. They are in third place, 3 games behind the Lakeland Tigers.

Tough times continue in Syracuse. New Hampshire didn't hit, Dunedin didn't pitch. Lansing salvaged one win for the minor league affiliates, thanks to Yates and his cast of characters. (I am posting this early because it is done, I will add links on Monday morning)

It was another wet day, but a hard rain did not fall in Dunedin and Dayton, Ohio. The farm affiliates, led by Zach Jackson's gem, split their two games.

...is to throw yourself at the ground and miss.

Two wins and two losses for the farm teams last night. One of the things I've always found hardest to understand about introductions to Minor-League Updates is their habit of continuously stating and repeating the very very obvious, as in, It's a nice day, or You're very tall, or Oh dear, you seem to have fallen down a thirty-foot well, are you all right?