The highlights were wins over Yankees and Padres affiliates.  The lowlights were a doubleheader sweep and an affiliate barely keeping the opposition under 20 runs.  It was a 2-4 night on the farm. 

Long-time Bauxites may recall that the very first, debut, edition of Baseball's Hall of Names (back on March 15, 2003) was spurred by the creation of an "All-Food" team ... you know, Bob Lemon, Darryl Stawberry and the like.

What prompts this trip down memory lane?

Only this ... the Texas Rangers have today purchased the contract of RHP Mark Hamburger from Triple-A Round Rock... PLEASE, Rangers, hurry out and acquire Pittsburgh catcher Eric Fryer to form the greatest fast-food battery in the history of the sport! And get a side of Jeff Frye with that, won'tcha?

That is all. I am SO happy.

The Blue Jays roll in to Baltimore after salvaging their series against the Rays. The team has 28 games left, 14 each at home on the road. The good news is they play the Orioles a total of 6 times. The bad news is that with one exception, their other 22 games are against teams fighting for a division title (Red Sox [6], Yankees [6]), or the playoffs in general (Angels [4], White Sox [3]). The worse news is the exception is the Rays [3], and we all know how the Jays do against them. If the team wants to finish the season with a winning record, they'll need to beat up on the Orioles to give themselves some cushion. Can they do it, without John Farrell who will sit out the series with pneumonia? Find out next, on Advance Scout.

Bluefield clinched the division title yesterday and today is the last day of their regular season with the playoffs starting tomorrow.  Elsewhere, New Hampshire won big to keep them ahead in their division chase.  Dunedin lost and their division lead is down to 1.5 games.  Lansing had a nice come from behind win and Las Vegas and Kyle Drabek had a bad day.

The bats were alive on Sunday as the affiliates lost just one game. Darin Mastroianni and Jon Talley led the attack for their respective teams.

How have the Jays been vs the league at each position and are things improving? This is a big question for 2012 and beyond. Is JPA's 98 OPS+ enough for a catcher? What about Encarnacion's 113 OPS+ at DH?

Dating at least to "Casey at the Bat," baseball has, more than any other North American sporting event, inspired a fair amount of poetry. (You could say this is the art form of going fron "bat" to "verse.")

Today, sample the work of veteran Bauxite Rusty Priske, whose poem "Thrill Of" is part of his online collection, and who knows?, maybe part of his next book. (His first book, Rusty Priske: Trapeze Artist is available for preview on the site linked above.)

So in this thread, Bauxites -- consider it the "Arts & Letters" section of the site -- give shout-out feedback to Bauxite Poet Laureate Rusty ... name your own favorite baseball-themed poens -- and if you have heard from the muse of baseball yourownsellf, let us know right here!

Consider Brandon Morrow.

A slow day on the farm, as the Jays' affiliates go 2-5 despite some nice pitching performances.

More than 60 Ks from the Farm’s hurlers, including  8 for Ybarra and 7 for Bongiavanni, could only achieve a W/L split.  Talley slammed a Slam for Dunedin.

The Jays take on Tampa Bay for a rare Friday to Monday, four game series. This series will survive hurricane Irene while other east coast series are being rearranged to avoid hurricane-outs.

DeWayne Wise has been claimed by the Jays on waivers to fill the CF hole. Colby Rasmus will go on the DL tomorrow. I guess Wise rated higher than Darin Mastroianni who has been left to his major league memories in Las Vegas. But seriously bball12 might have a point here, why didn't the Jays recall Mastro? It is not a vote of confidence in Mastro.

John Farrell is on the one day DL, he has been diagnosed with pneumonia. Under doctors orders Farrell will miss today's game and will probably be back tomorrow, but like all of us, he is day-to-day. Don Wakamatsu is in charge tonight.

A few days ago Farrell thought this team could win 88 games, I hope that doesn't mean the Jays play all the veterans in September to pad the team's record.

Four wins in seven tries for the affiliates on Thursday.

Jim Thome is the Cleveland Indians' all-time career home run leader with 334.

Now, Thome has been traded, via waiver claim for a PTBNL, to ... the Cleveland Indians!

Maybe the latest 600-homer guy can bring his career full-ciricle now and retire with the Tribe ... in the playoffs?

The ballot is now ready:

http://www.tangotiger.net/scout/

Thanks for participating!

What are the Blue Jays up to?

Mike Lavery at TheBaseballPage.com has an interesting take on what's up in The Mind of Anthopolous and even previews the 2012 Jay lineup. Give it a read and weigh in ... whatchathink, Bauxites?