From the second place team in the NL East to the leader, the Jays tough interleague schedule continues. Most of the team's misfortune has occurred in NL parks; nevertheless they have the third worst interleague record of any AL team, behind only the lowly Royals and Orioles. It won't be an easy task to right the ship, as Toronto faces a Nationals team led by the most exciting young pitcher and hitter in baseball, both of whom are en fuego. Will the (not so cold anymore) north be enough to cool that heat? That's what the Advance Scout is here to tell you (plus next week's winning lotto numbers).

The affiliates were 3-2 on the day with New Hampshire's struggles continuing. Adam Lind and Travis Snider both enjoyed big games.

Three wins in four tries for the affiliates as a top prospect returned to action.

Our farm boys came up empty handed Friday night unable to record a single victory.  Two games, a single game and a make-up were canceled due to rain in Dunedin.  That saved us from the bad side of a total sweep.

The Seattle Mariners, led by Kevin Millwood, blanked the Los Angeles Dodgers 1-0 and shut them out in the hit column at Safeco Field Friday night.




Kevin Millwood (6IP, 1BB, 6K), Charlie Furbush (0.2IP, 1K), Stephen Pryor (0.1IP, 2BB, 1K, W), Lucas Luetge (0.1IP), Brandon League (0.2IP, 1K) and Tom Wilhelmsen (1IP, SV) teamed up for the first combined no-hitter in the majors since 2003.

The Jays travel to Hotlanta to take on a pretty good Braves team. Making matters more difficult, Toronto arguably gets the Braves three best starters, while the bluebirds will run out arguably their three worst (by ERA at least). It's a rematch of the 1992 World Series - let's hope that the winners are once again from the true north strong and free. Advance Scout, activate!

Yesterday we looked at the extended spring training stats for the hitters, today it is the pitchers.  The stat sheet lists 44 pitchers of whom 26 pitched over 20 innings.  That 20 inning limit is what we will use for analysis today.  Most of the pitchers under 20 innings were hurt, are relievers, or players on rehab assignments.  The most innings pitched is 37 by Deivy Estrada.   Norris, Osuna, Musgrove and the other 2011 draftees were mainly in the upper 20's in innings pitched.

Sam and Kelekin gave us great coverage of the draft this week. Today Kelekin wraps it up with his summary and his opinions on the best of the draft. We will also use this thread as the signings thread. Over to Kelekin.........

With the 2012 draft in the rear-view mirror, it’s time we examine some of the players drafted by the Blue Jays and grade the draft. There is no question that this was a top-tier draft by Toronto, taking many high ceiling players in the first three rounds.

Okay, no, they didn't ACTUALLY have six complete games on the farm on Thursday, but six official results went in the books, four of those wins.

The extended spring training season ended yesterday.  Newly drafted players show up for a mini-camp starting this weekend and by the middle of next week the minor league short-season teams will be selected.  The Vancouver Canadians start their season in eight days time.   The short season rosters will change a lot in the early stages as newly signed players show up, get assessed, get into game shape and are assigned to a team.

I have received a copy of the statistics from extended spring training and here are some highlights.

An off day, two suspended games and a loss do not equal an exciting minor league report.

Scott Richmond just didn't have it last night, he gave up seven hits and five runs in the first two innings.  The 51's were put into a hole they couldn't climb out of.  In AA the Richmond Flying Squirrels had two hits off Joel Carreno.  One of them was a solo home run and it put the sad sack Fisher Cats in a hole they couldn't climb out of.  Dunedin rescued the day by winning easily behind Sean Nolin and Gabe Jacobo.  Lansing were off.  Unusually, neither the Las Vegas or the New Hampshire hitters could register an extra base hit.

You can make a decent argument that Clifton Phifer Lee is the best starting pitcher in baseball. Granted, thanks to the intidimidating presence of future first ballot Hall-of-Famer Roy Halladay, it might be easier to argue he's not even the best starting pitcher in his own team's rotation. (And thanks to the continuing emergence of Cole Hamels. may even earn a bronze in the City of Brotherly Shove). But the case can be made for the lithe lefty.

Still, look at his performance last night against the Dodgers -- 7.2 IP, six hits, two runs, one walk, 12 strikeout, seven shoutout frames to begin the game. What's that, it  must be his seventh or eighth win of the year already? Um, not quite ...

The Jays record a nice win tonight, although the defense was not stellar. Big night for Colby Rasmus with a 5-5 night, combined with a bad error. Brett Lawrie hit leadoff and had three hits.

Just wanted to draw your attention to the fact there was some minor league baseball Monday night!  Lansing and Dunedin celebrated "Draft Night" with victories to earn a split for the affiliates.