The farm featured some great pitching performances from top prospects, but the best performance (possibly of the entire year) came from an unheralded DSL pitcher.

With Henderson Alvarez being called up to start this week, here is a preview of what you will see on Friday.

So for almost a week now, Batter’s Box has proudly displayed a feature thread entitled, The Messiah Is Coming.

That got me thinking, though “Jesus” (pronounced, “gee, zuss”) is probably not an appropriate nickname for the lad, there have been an awful lot of major leaguers in the past and present who bore the given first or middle name “Jesus” (pronounced, ironically, “Hey, Zeus”) – in fact, more than 40 such men have played the Great Game, and that’s more than enough to cobble (er, carpenter?) together a viable Hall of Names squad.

It’s a pretty good team, though the pitching is weak and there is, sadly, no bona fide closer (so no opportunity for a genuine “Jesus Saves” pun).  We do have a manager and All-Stars (almost) all the way around the infield, as you’ll see when you meet ....

It was an ugly day on the farm with just one win.

Now that the short-season minor leagues have passed their halfway mark I thought I should remind you, through photographs, of what these kids look like.  These pictures are from spring training in Dunedin.  Today I will focus on a couple of left handed pitchers.  Tomorrow it's three right handers and on Wednesday some hitters.

We got your losses. Everywhere except Vancouver and the Gulf Coast League.

Hitters to the left, Hitters to the Right – That Makes for a Great Firday Night.

Seven games, six wins and a whole whack of dominant pitching.

Brett Lawrie has been called up by the Jays.

Travis Snider is headed back to Las Vegas.

Carlos Villanueva is headed to the DL.

Luis Perez is recalled but will pitch out of the bullpen.

There were 3 great pitching performances on the farm, plus plenty of late inning fireworks.

A .500 night on the farm and it would have been better had it not been for an extra-innings loss and another loss of the come from ahead variety.

One of the youngest (read: born during the strike year) Jays minor-leaguers earned the first star as the farm went 4-2.

It was an off day on the farm as the affiliates went 2-4.

Toronto’s affiliates had two on walk-off victories last night. One of those came on the always-exciting walk-off balk. New Hampshire also swept their doubleheader with a pair of one-run victories. Unfortunately, it wasn’t so rosy everywhere else, as Vancouver was shut out and Las Vegas lost by 11 runs and not one, but two, position players pitched in relief for the 51’s.

Saturday began quietly, but ended with a flurry of deals, including Ubaldo Jimenez. Here’s the place to discuss yesterday’s trades and any deals consummated today.