Eddie Michels, who writes for a number of outlets, reports that the injured Jessie Litsch has begun his rehab assignment.

Anybody get the license number on that truck?

Yesterday saw two newly-promoted pitchers give very strong efforts in their first starts at their new levels. It also saw a couple of strong efforts out of the bullpen, which also included one reliever, recently demoted, return to dominating his old level. Las Vegas exploded for 17 hits, including three by the streaking David Cooper, but the bats were nearly absent in New Hampshire and Dunedin.

The June 6-8 amateur draft fallout is already beginning. So far we've heard that about five draft picks have signed with a handful of undrafted free agents also coming to terms - although all moves have yet to be confirmed by the organization. The Vancouver Canadians' season begins on Friday (June 17) so we should be seeing a bunch of player signings (likely lower picks) become official in the coming week. 

Let's keep track of the transactions in this thread:

Twenty-eight runs and 46 hits on the farm led to a 3 and 1 evening for our stars in waiting.  Only Lansing came up short, while Las Vegas, New Hampshire and Dunedin turned in good plate performances to secure their wins.

In pre-honour of Jason Frasor tieing Dave Stieb for 3rd most appearances as a pitcher, an Advance Scout.

Three top pitching prospects delivered top performances on a 2-3 day.

A nine-game losing streak for a last-place team will do that to a guy.

Replacing former catcher Bob Geren, at least in the interim, is former catcher Bob Melvin.

Who's next?

This = Pitching. That = Hitting.

With all the focus on the draft and the status of Brett Lawrie's third metacarpal the big boys continue their winning ways in Kansas City.  It wasn't a pretty victory, the bullpen tried to give it back, but an ugly win is still a win.

Today it's a day game at 3pm Toronto time.  Ricky Romero takes on Luke Hochever, the Jays have to be favourites in that match-up.

Brett Lawrie's timetable to reach the bigs has been pushed back again.  After initial reports that he suffered only a bruise when he was hit in the hand by a pitch from Tucson's Anthony Bass last week, The National Post reports the pride of Langley, B.C. is expected to miss at least two to three weeks with a broken bone in his hand.  Hat tip to Bauxite dan gordon for the heads up.



Brett Lawrie was hitting .354/.415/.677 with Triple-A Las Vegas at the time of his injury to go along with 15 home runs, 49 runs batted in and 11 stolen bases.

Update @ 8:40pm - Sportsnet.ca has video of Jays skipper John Farrell talking about Lawrie's injury.

At least the big club won!  Yep, the affiliates were 0-4 with Dunedin having the night off.  Find out who got the unceremonious send-offs in this woeful edition of the MLU.

On a night when all eyes were turned toward an entirely different set of potential future major leaguers, the farm system had a light schedule, and went 1-1. Adam Loewen can't earn wins anymore, no longer being a pitcher, but if hitter wins were a thing he would have earned one. Click through to find out how!

Who did the Toronto Blue Jays use the 21st pick of the 2011 MLB Draft on?  Tyler Beede, a 6-foot-4 righthanded pitcher from Lawrence Academy High School in Massachusetts.  Committed to Vanderbilt, the word is the Jays will have to pay big time for Beede to join the nest and not join the Commodores.  It won't be easy but the Jays may have a good one here according to ESPNBoston.com.



Tyler Beede, the Blue Jays first pick of the 2011 MLB Draft.

• Update 1:  Jays select OF Jacob Anderson, Chino HS, California with the 35th selection.
• Update 2:  Jays select RHP Joe Musgrove, Grossmont HS, California with the 46th selection.
• Update 3:  Jays select OF Dwight Smith Jr., McIntosh HS, Georgia with the 53rd selection.
• Update 4:  Jays select RHP Kevin Comer, Seneca HS, New Jersey with the 57th selection.

More details below...

As expected, the Pittsburgh Pirates selected RHP Gerrit Cole with the first overall pick in the 2011 MLB amateur draft.  Seattle passed on Rice 3B Anthony Rendon and took LHP Danny Hultzen from Virginia with the second pick.  Arizona went with RHP Trevor Bauer at number three.  Baltimore selected the first high schooler in RHP Dylan Bundy from Owassa, Oklahoma.  The first position player was taken by Kansas City, who went with the hometown kid in OF Bubba Starling from Gardner Edgerton High School in Kansas at number five.  Rendon slipped to Washington at number six.



You can follow the draft on MLB.com live by clicking here.