The Bluefield Blue Jays (Appalachian League) players saw their 2011 season come to an end after losing 4-1 to Johnson City on Sunday.

No one takes Catcher ERA seriously. This is wise.

I'm going to talk about it anyway.

Blue Jays pitchers with different catchers. The Data Table....

The Bluefield Blue Jays lost the opening game of the Appalachian League Championship by a run. Despite losing to the Boise Hawks, the Vancouver Canadians are headed to the playoffs. Meanwhile, Nestor Molina continued to look impressive as the New Hampshire bats had a good evening in Maine. And, Chris Woodward will get another taste of the majors, as the first of the September promotions has been made. His absence allowed Jayson Nix to lead the offensive attack in Nevada with Adeiny Hechavarria trailing not far behind.

The only farm club to lose Friday, New Hampshire, managed to clinch at least a playoff bid in the Eastern Division of the Eastern league when close contenders all lost their contests.

Toronto enters this one 14 games behind the Yankees for the wild card. So if they can sweep them...

Voting for the 2012 Ford Frick Award is underway on the Baseball Hall of Fame’s Facebook page.  Tom Cheek is on the ballot again, as are a host of other names you’ll know and appreciate. Take 45 seconds and vote, won’t you? And tell us here that you did and who you cast your lot behind!

A playoff series will go to the wire while a Lansing starter dazzled.

How important is .500, versus other things?

It was a really uneventful life as far as anyone doing anything particularly interesting happening, but victory was secured in the two most important games, with one team extending their division lead and another winning it's first playoff game.

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.