This POTD looks at the rubber match between the Blue Jays and Red Sox at the Dome Wednesday afternoon.

It was a 3-for-4 night for the affiliates, as New Hampshire’s bats were relatively quiet while those in Las Vegas exploded. Perhaps that’s not a huge surprise. However, given all the young hitting talent at Triple-A, it may surprise you to see who was leading the offensive attack.

The lower three teams won while what happens in Vegas needs to stay in Vegas.   The undefeated Lansing Lugnuts continued to roll behind unheralded starter and Michigan native Jesse Hernandez who pitched seven shutout innings.  Andrew Burns hit his first home run to get the scoring going.  Dunedin also won again to run their record to 4-1 behind Casey Lawrence.  New Hampshire won 3-2 with Drew Hutchison pitching six shutout innings but it wasn't Hutch's best start.  Brad Glenn homered and scored twice to lead the offense.  Las vegas were bad, the bright spot was Adeny Hechavarria who had three hits, including a based loaded triple.

 

A major league manager expressed his admiration of a former head of state and was met with a 5-game suspension. Fidel Castro is not an MLB-approved strongman - could we imagine such a penalty for expressing admiration for a dictator who did far worse, such as Pinochet? Would the same punishment have occurred if Guillen had been manager of the Tigers?

The affiliates did very well in towns beginning with Dayton.  Everywhere else, not so much.

I'm not sure how one would look this up, or even if it's worth looking up at all. But as the Yankees finally erased the "0" in the team's 2012 win column today, I started thinking about an oddity regarding the team's pitching staff.

Nobody has noticed -- again, perhpas because it's not worth noticing? -- that four of the five pitchers in the '12 Yankee starting rotation have last/family names that end in vowels -- Sabathia, Kuroda, Nova and Garcia. (Thanks a lot, Phil Hughes.) And that doesn't even count recent off-season acquisition Joel Pineda (yet!) ...

When you also consider the Bronxpen is anchored by a guy named Rivera and includes stalwarts named Rapada and Soriano (but we're not counting the silent-lettered Cory Wade here), there could be an awful lot of Yankee games pitched entirely by pitchers with Italian/Latin/Far Eastern vowel-ending names. And when Pineda returns from injury, if he bumps Hughes back to the 'pen (though he seems more likely to bump Garcia), the Yankees could get upwards of 140 starts from the ends-with-a-vowel Name Club For Men. Would this be a record?

I have no idea. Do you?

The following wholly unscientific observational data is pulled from BaseballReference.com's list of the Top 200 winningest pichers of all time, From Cy Young's 511 at #1 down to Sandy Koufax's T200 total of 165 ...

The Red Sox come to town after being blown out of Detroit, losing all three games by a combined 26-14 margin. I'm not sure which of their three losses was worse - coming back to tie it at 2-2 in the 9th on Friday, the first blown save by Jose Valverde in a year, only to then lose it in the bottom half of the inning? Getting wrecked 10-0 on Saturday? Or blowing leads of 7-5, 9-7, 10-7 and 12-10, finally falling on a two out, two run home run to Alex Avila in the bottom of the 12th. From the opposite end of the spectrum, they were really all quite enjoyable.

Will the Jays be able to keep the beat alive against the suddenly seemingly vulnerable Red Sox? All this, and more (well, not really), on a new episode of Advance Scout.

There was only one minor league game during Easter Sunday and the 51s took the loss after giving up 10 runs to Oakland's veteran-laden triple-A club.

The Lugnuts went nuts on the basepaths to key a doubleheader sweep.  That represents all of the wins on the farm for a Saturday night.

Yes. it's time for Opening Weekend Overreactions, or as we like to call is here at Da Box, Overreaction Sunday ....

Should anyone be concerned? Or does the headline say it all?

The Boston Red Sox are, right now, the worst team in baseball, as they are 0-2 and have been outscored, 13-2 -- they're the only team in baseball with a double-digit negative run differential.

The Sox' East Coast metropolitan nemeses, The Yankees of New York, share their 0-2 misery, but have been outscored "just" 15-12. On the gloomy side, baseball's All-Time Greatest Closer (TM), Mariano Rivera, blew one of those games in the ninth inning.

Atlanta's Braves, also 0-2, join the Red Sox in offensive futility, having scored just two runs, though they have given up just five.

Other winless teams include the Padres (0-3) and five more 0-2 starters, in the Cubs, Giants, Rockies, Twins and Indians.

Should anyone be inching toward the panic button yet? (Well, no -- of course not. It's early April.) But which of these teams are actually showing a sure-to-be-continuing trend?

Some games were closer than others, but all the boyz on the farm made us proud on Friday evening. Las Vegas was a winner and so was Lansing, both squeaking in runs in the late innings. The D-Jays behind some great pitching put the shut out hurt on cross town rival Clearwater while New Hampshire put their second win in the books for a good start to their defence of last year's Eastern League Championship.

It is a rare, perhaps unprecedented, occasion when the minor leaguers share opening day with the major league squad. Three of the Blue Jays four full-season affiliates  played official games tonight, while the Lansing Lugnuts participated in their annual Crosstown Showdown exhibition against the Michigan State Spartans. In was a good night all around on the farm for everyone except the 51's pitching staff.

Unusually this year the Blue Jays and their minor league affiliates start their seasons on the same day.  All four full season affiliates are in action but the game counts for just three of them.  The Lugnuts play their traditional pre-season game against the Michigan State Spartans, a game that is a bigger deal in Lansing than the home opener.  This game is the real home opener for the Luggies, in the minds of the Lansing residents.  I believe it's also the first $2 thirsty Thursday so the college students can fill up on cheap beer.

It's baseball time - for realsies. We kick off the 2012 baseball season with our first Advance Scout. What lies ahead? Mystery? Danger? Suspense? Romance? Baseball?

Mostly baseball.

On, to the Advance Scout!

BASEBAAALLLLLLLLLL!!!!!!!

...was the general mood last night as Anders, Thomas, and I convened to talk opening day, AL East, and the back end of the rotation.

Subscribe here. Listen here.