Bobby Bell was promoted to AA to start the season and he has had a mix of starts, some good, some not so good.  Bell was drafted in the 18th round of the 2008 draft.  Initially Bell was used as a reliever, he had one of the best change-ups in the system and his control was excellent, he didn't walk a batter in that first season.

Jose Bautista has hit three home runs in the past two days, and now has 11 on the season, tied for third in all of baseball. In a season filled with "who saw this coming?", well.... who saw this coming???!

There were only two games on the minor league schedule on Monday night, but we can still say it was a perfect night.

Travis Snider has been placed on the 15 day DL (retroactve to May 15) with a sprained right wrist. The Jays will activate Edwin Encarnacion tomorrow. Randy Ruiz is in the lineup tonight as the DH, hitting ninth. Fred Lewis will be in RF, Adam Lind in LF.

Good ol' Baseball Reference has just eaten up more of my time. They added WAR (Wins Above Replacement) ratings for all of the Jays era and beyond. So, who are the best Jays by this measure and do we agree with it at all?

I take it as an article of faith that if I really pay attention, every time I see a major league game I'll see something I've never seen before.

Only three games on Sunday but that doesn't mean there wasn't good news for Jays fans.

Like #2 JBrumfield I took my camera to a Jays game.  In this case it was Friday nights slugfest between the Rangers and the Jays.  Here are some of my favourite pictures from that night.

Saturday was ike Friday, three affiliates won, Las Vegas being the only loser, and Adam Calderone was the hitting hero again.  Calderone drove in the first three Fisher Cat runs in support of Kyle Drabek.  Drabek was matched up against Casey Kelly, one of Boston's top prospects.  Drabek pitched seven shutout innings for the win.

Henderson Alvarez had to face Jimmy Rollins as well as the rest of the Clearwater side and he pitched six shutout innings and kept Rollins off the bases.  Jon Tolisano had three hits including a home run.  Dunedin and Clearwater also finished a game suspended earlier in the season and Dunedin won that one too.  Adeiny Hechavarria hadone hit in each game and so far is hitting the ball on the ground most of the time.

Lansing were down 3-0 in the eighth but came back to win.  Brad Mills had a rough start and Las Vegas were blown out.

Ricky Romero rickrolled the Rangers with his first complete game shutout and Jose Bautista went deep twice in the Jays 6-0 win over Texas Saturday afternoon at the Dome.

Bob Uecker would have had fun calling this one last night.  Lyle Overbay, Travis Snider, Aaron Hill, Adam Lind and Vernon Wells each hit the long ball as the Jays erased a 9-3 deficit to beat the Texas Rangers 16-10 at the Rogers Centre Friday night.  It was the kind of game the ladies would enjoy!

Adeiny Hechavarria made his debut Friday night and went 1-5, his only hit was an infield hit.  But Dunedin did win as did New Hampshire and Lansing.  Ryan Tepera and Luis Perez had good starts and Adam Calderone carried the offense for the Fisher Cats.  Calderone had half the teams hits, scored half the teams runs, and drove in half of the runs too.  Las Vegas were blown out as Bobby Ray, Jesse Carlson, Merkin Valdez and Jeremy Accardo all had a rough game.

All the affiliates other than Las Vegas won.  Lansing blew a lead in the eighth inning but came back to win in the 13th.  Adam Calderone with two home runs and Bobby Bell with seven good innings led New Hampshire to victory.  Dunedin won despite Chuck Huggins not having his best start.  Mike McDade led the hitters with four hits including a home run.

So hooray for Dallas Braden for his recent perfecto, but what's with the Texas-themed given first name to a native of Phoenix, Arizona? And couldn't we have arranged it so that somehow the final batter in the gem was Austin Kearns or Austin Jackson? And wouldn't it have been WAY cool if the double-Texas-town-named Tyler Houston had been catching?

Okay, naybe not. But heads up for a Hall of Names team composed entirely of players who share a name (given first or middle, or family -- all good, unless noted otherwise) with one of the largest towns in the great sovereign nation -- er, U.S. state -- of Texas.

It wasn’t quite an episode of Too Many Molinas, but Las Vegas played host to a game that featured relatives facing each other and one of them delivering the game-changing hit. New Hampshire won big off a top Canadian prospect and a former Blue Jay. Fine relief in Florida prevented Dunedin from nearly blowing a sizeable lead and Lansing saw an impressive pitching performance that nearly gave the outfielders an entire evening off.