Toronto Blue Jays third basemen are 0 for their last 45, after the 0-for-6 effort yesterday. Edwin Encarnacion has become a peripheral figure who may find playing time on the field hard to come by. Nix has gone through a rough stretch since returning from the DL. Toronto’s .170 average from third basemen ranks last in baseball and they’ve contributed 3 homers and 15 RBI. Meanwhile, Las Vegas continues to enjoy the Brett Lawrie show.

We get to witness history this year.

I recently received the stats for the Blue Jay players in extended spring training.  These numbers are not published on milb.com because extended spring is unofficial baseball, the games are scheduled by each team, they play locally against other similar extended teams and the results are not reported.  Rehabbing players also play in these games.  In this story I will let you know how some of these players are doing in these invisible games.

But first a question......name the starting pitcher/prospect in extended spring training who has the lowest ERA, the lowest WHIP, the highest K rate (16/9IP); and the best strikeout to walk ratio.  Here is a clue....it's not who you think.

Las Vegas and New Hampshire won big, combining to score 26. Meanwhile, the lower affiliates fought their opponents hard and lost two games by three runs, combined.

I had just finished writing up last night's report and was clicking over to another tab to check on someone's final line when I accidentally hit the 'X' the Da Box tab. Had I saved a draft? Of course not. So here we go again. Abbreviated, this time.

I talked with the Lugnuts new first-year manager Mike Redmond at the start of this month when I was in Lansing.  Redmond played parts of thirteen years in the big leagues and retired with a lifetime .287 batting average.  Redmond was never a starter, his maximum at-bats in any one season was 272.  But he was on the Marlins team that won the world series in 2003.

The 2011 draft is less than two weeks away and, as usual, there is no hint of who the Jays might take.  The Jays first pick at number 21, then in the supplemental first round they pick at number 35 (Scott Downs); 46 (John Buck); 53 (Kevin Gregg); and 57 (Miguel Olivo).  The Jays also pick twice in the second round, with another Scott Downs related pick added to their regular selection.

The mock drafts are out in force. 

So, it looks like we might finally have a good Molina.

The Houston Astros took two of three from the good guys last weekend and save for a Clint Barmes error in the second game, they might have had a sweep.   Today's POTD looks at the series finale at the Dome Sunday.

The Houston Astros logo appears on the left field scoreboard prior to the introduction of the starting lineups.

The two Travises (or should it be Travi?) sparked the Blue Jays affiliates to a 3-1 night on the farm.  Find out which of the Travi made the cut in the three star selections of today's MLU.

Mystiqued.

The farm went 2-2 and even went 25-25 in terms of runs on Monday night. The evening featured more of the same stuff we've come to expect from the farm: offense from Las Vegas and errors from Gustavo Pierre.

There's a young pitcher in North Texas who is starting to cement front-rumner status for 2011 AL Rookie of the Year -- except I'm not sure if Alexi Ogando is eligible, after pitching 41.2 innings out of the bullpen last year.

When Neftali Feliz was temporarily moved to the Ranger starting rotation during Spring Training, the club felt they could make the move in part because Ogando was around as a dominant setup man who could close for a pennant-defending squad in Arlington.

Then, the Rangers re-thought that move, left the '10-dominant Feliz in the closer's role, and moved Ogando to the rotation instead. Monday night in Arlington, Ogando tossed a five-hit shutout against the White Sox to move to 5-0 with a 1.81 ERA and a 43/14 K/BB ratio over 59.2 innings in eight starts.

When I was in Lansing I took some shots of Garis Pena showing how to play shortstop.  I added in a shot of Scott Gracey to congratulate him on his promotion.  Finally I link to videos of Drew Hutchison; Sean Nolin; Egan Smith; and Misaul Diaz with two of the plate appearances ending in fly balls to Jake Marisnick in centre-field.

The day the universe changed.