Vince Horsman and Kenny Graham are the pitching and hitting coaches respectively for the Auburn Doubledays in the New York-Penn league.  Kenny Graham is new to the organization and not well known here.  However Vince Horsman is a Canadian, from Halifax, Nova Scotia, who played parts of five seasons in the major leagues including a whole four innings with the Blue Jays in 1991.  After bouncing around a little after his playing days Horsman hooked on with the Blue Jays and is now in his second season as the pitching coach with the Doubledays.

I spoke with both coaches last week in Auburn.

This week, the Jays head north to deal with three good lefty starters and a punchless offense. It should be a good series - quick and to the point. Enjoy it, 'cause there are some epic ballgames on the horizon.

Some odds and ends from around the majors....

The official city motto of the great metropolis of Orlando, Florida, is "The City Beautiful." Anyone who's ever seen Orlando Hudson play second base might quickly convert that to "The Glove Beautiful," while older fans might counter with Orlando Cepeda as "The Big Bat Beautiful." Yankee fans of the past 10 or 12 years might insist on "El Duque Bonito." Hey, this might be a pretty good team! Although ...

Great day on the farm as the affiliates went 5-1 thanks to strong pitching as only 9 runs crossed the plate in six games.  The collective bullpens were the true stars allowing just a single run in 20 combined innings.

A casual observer would say that the boys on the farm need to work with their hitting coaches to limber up the lumber and produce some runs.  In 8 games on Saturday their were only 16 runs scored and half of those came in games won by the D-Jays and the Babiest (GCL) Jays.

You may be paying good money for Sportsnet Ontario, or even all four Sportsnets; despite this you may be unable to watch tonight's Jays game... unless you get your cable from Rogers.

Reportedly, the Blue Jays have locked up Ricky Romero to a five-year contract extension that will be worth $30.1 million. It will cover all of Romero’s years of arbitration eligibility and his first year of free agency.

The Auburn Doubledays game was postponed because the Connecticut team bus broke down and they were unable to get home to play the game.  Dunedin were rained out so both teams will play doubleheaders on Saturday.  

New Hampshire played nineteen innings and lost.  Las Vegas just had to play nine to lose.  Lansing won a close game.  Daniel Arcila of the GCL Jays had a double, a triple and a home run, but no single, as the GCL Jays won.

No, it doesn't involve the Jays, calm down ... but August (post-"deadline" deals) can and do happen.

Jose Guillen, sporting a surprisingly robust slash line of .255/16/62, heads from Kansas City to San Francisco today, in exchange for a player to be named later and cash considerations. This is Guillen's TENTH big league home, which has to be at least close to a record of some sort. He not only switches teams and leagues, but also catapults from the um, not-contending Royals place of business to a real live Bayside pennant race. (SF trails the Padres by just 2.5 games and currently leads the NL Wild Card mess.)

The extremely sparse ESPN.com report of the deal is here. Any thoughts, Box Nation?

There was a 96% chance that there wasn't going to be an Advance Scout today, until the Jays pulled it out in the 9th against the hated Red Sox. The last Advance Scout was in September of 2008; the Blue Jays had gone 11-1 in their last 12, they were 6.5 games behind the Red Sox for the Wild Card, and had a 4 game series against those same Sox before finishing the year with 6 against the O's and 3 more each against Boston and the Yankees. If they had gone 3-1 in the series (or even swept) they would have been 4.5 or 2.5 back... so of course they promptly lost 3 of 4 to end their faint hopes. When it looked like the triumphant return of the Advance Scout, 2010 edition, would result in that same fate, it seemed like a sign to hang up the keyboard for this season. But with faint hope kept alive, we continue intrepidly. On to the Advance Scout!

Marcus Knecht is a Toronto native who was selected in the 2010 draft by the Blue Jays with the 113th overall pick.  Knecht was assigned to Auburn in the New York-Penn league and he has been playing well there.  I caught up with Knecht in Auburn this week to discuss his baseball life, so far.  Also, here is some of what Baseball America said about Knecht before this years draft:

Knecht's 6-foot-3, 210-pound frame generates plenty of bat speed and raw righthanded power. He ranked among the national juco leaders in hitting (.453) and homers (21), though he struggled at times to make consistent contact against good velocity. Knecht is more than just a slugger. He ran a 6.55-second 60-yard dash during Connors State's scout day in the fall, and he earns solid 55 grades on the 20-80 scouting scale for his speed and his accurate arm. He lacks the instincts for center field and played left for the Cowboys this spring, and it's possible he could play right field as a pro.

Brad Glenn homered twice while Henderson Alvarez got hammered, again. It all resulted in a 1 win night on the farm with the top two affiliates taking the night off.

As suggested by Matthew...

Who are the Toronto Blue Jays top ten in career home runs as a Blue Jay among players who have never led the team in homers during any season? No fair looking it up.

Speaking of saves...