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.

Sam and Kelekin did a great job yesterday with their draft board.  They didn't get everyone they wanted but getting two of their "wants" in a competitive draft is pretty good.   They are back with their day 2 wish list.  Drafting for day 2 starts at noon today.  Sam and Kelekin will add capsules of some of the drafted players in the comments section as the day progresses.

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Rounds two to fifteen of the 2012 MLB Draft will take place on June 5, 2012.  After what was a solid first day of drafting the Jays will look to day two of the draft to continue to add high upside talent.  In past drafts, teams drafting early on day two would have likely contacted prospects to re-evaluate bonus demands, and in most cases there would have been an early rush on those prospects that had fallen due to signability.  Some teams seem to have set themselves up to perhaps take a run at some of the prospects with bonus demands, but it appears as though most have  blown their bonus allotments on their first pick(s).  I don’t know if I have a great handle on where the Jays sit at the moment.  I think all their picks so far are signable, yet I don’t know if there are any major bargains of the lot.  Davis might get done below slot and maybe Stroman, but Smoral will want some money and both Nay and Gonzales will want to be paid to forgo college commitments to Arizona State and Texas respectively.  In sum, I don’t think you’ll see the Jays going after any of the guys that are considered tough signs. 

 

 

Bauxites sam and Kelekin have stepped in with their predictions for the draft.  Thanks guys.

 

The first year player draft is upon us and what has taken scouts, crosscheckers, the director of amateur scouting, special assistants to the GM, and the GM months and probably years to compile, Kelekin and I have done in a couple days.  In fairness, our draft board is only for the Jays’ first couple picks, while the Jays will be working off a board of hundreds of names all personally scouted by staff several times over.  For example, Jays’ scout Blake Crosby was reported to have seen every one of Aaron Sanchez’s starts in his draft year.  Unfortunately Kelekin and I have not seen these prospects in person, but we have done our youtube research and based a lot of our board off the various scouting reports that circulate on the Internet.  We have tried to provide links to each player on our board so readers can formulate their own opinions.    

The 2012 first year player draft is tomorrow and Toronto picks 17th and 22nd overall. The Jays have five picks in the first 60.

With two games in extras and a doubleheader in High-A, only Lansing played a standard game on Saturday. The affiliates went 2-3 and a top prospect got rocked.

The Blue Jays system is about to get an infusion of talent with the kickoff of the June amateur draft on Monday at 7 p.m. The draft will take place Monday-Wednesday, concluding with the 40th round. The Blue Jays have two first round selections and three picks in the supplemental round. And now on to the current minor leaguers... with the affiliates going 4-1.

Raining hits for Las Vegas, Rain delays in New Hampshire, Rain out in Dunedin, Rain make up for Lansing.

Seaver threw one, but as a Red, not as a Met. Gooden threw one, for New York even, but as  a Yankee -- not as a Met. Koosman, Matlack, Gentry, Cone, Viola, Nolan Ryan -- many more great pitchers throughout Met history, and not one had ever thrown a no-hitter for the Flushing nine.

Until today.

Santana pitches first no-hitter in Mets' history

Your thoughts, Bauxites? 

The Jays are a game up on the Red Sox in the standings, and a million games up in our hearts. Advance Scout!

Vlad Guerrero played his fourth game on Thursday for the Dunedin Blue Jays. The man among the boys also hit his 4th homer. His OPS is a mere 1.550 in those games. One might surmise he is very close to being a Toronto Blue Jay instead. Robert Coello probably shouldn't get real comfortable. Otherwise, how was it for the farm on Thursday? They went 2-1 with one game suspended.

Read on for details.

The affiliates split their games last night behind a trio of solid starting pitching performances and an abbreviated outing from Chad Jenkins, who was returning from injury and on a pitch count.

That headline courtesy of Bauxite BlueJayWay from the Advance Scout thread.  The Jays are once again being accused of stealing signs.  That assertion was strongly suggested by Baltimore starter and losing pitcher Jason Hammel in the wake of Wednesday's 4-1 victory by Toronto at the Dome.

Three teams played last night and they scored 28 runs, had 42 hits and there was a total of 51 runs scored in the three games.  Las Vegas had 19 hits and lost.   New Hampshire were rained out.  Travis 'd'Arnaud continued his hot streak as did Jon Talley.  Adam Lind and Yan Gomes had some hits and so did Vladimir Guerrero.   KC Hobson keyed a big comeback for Lansing.

I reached out to the Jays concerning Mitchell Taylor and I have been told he retired last spring. Obviously Taylor had some issues both during last season and in the off-season. The Jays wouldn't comment on specifics but they say Taylor is not on any roster at this time and has been placed on the voluntarily retired list.