is playing the Royals.

All four minor-league teams won on Monday, though a Dunedin double-header loss prevented the farm from having a perfect night.

Today we feature some of the catchers in the lower levels of the organization. 

It is generally my firm conviction that when your team needs to establish something positive, there is simply nothing quite like seeing the Kansas City Royals on the schedule.

Watch that come back to bite me....

A fairly tame day on the farm but a 25 year-old continued an incredible start to his season.

Two excellent pitching performances and some excellent hitting helped Dunedin and Lansing to wins.  New Hampshire won despite a weak start by Bobby Bell while Las Vegas were fogged out.  Henderson Alvarez gave up one run over seven innings while Ryan Tepera did better, shutting down Bowling Green over seven innings with only three hits allowed.  On the hitting side Mark Sobolewski and Tyler Pastornicky were the stars, neither of them made on out on Saturday.  Pitchers have perfect games, hitters don't but these two had perfect Saturday's.  Eric Thames, David Cooper, Tim Collins, Daniel Perales, Travis D'Arnaud and Bradley Glenn also played well.

Ubaldo Jimenez just threw a no-hitter at a pretty good Braves line-up. As a young pitcher with a crazy motion, I'm sure some Rockies fans will be wringing their hands at the 128 pitches he needed to overcome 6 walks, but for the moment I'm sure everyone is just enjoying the moment.

So, did anyone watch the game?

Colorado Springs is one of the toughest parks for a pitcher, the elevation is over 6000 feet and the thin and dry air doesn't help breaking balls move as much as at sea level.  Think Denver with another 800 feet added on.  But Brett Cecil did fine Friday, pitching six innings and only giving up one earned run.  JP Arencibia provided the early offense with a run and two RBI's.  Brett Wallace and Brian Dopirak went back to back in the ninth to cap the win.

The other three teams were not as fortunate.  Travis D'Arnaud went deep again and Tyler Pastornicky appears to back in the groove.  Adam Loewen got his first home run of the season.  Randy Boone pitched well in relief.  Chad Jenkins improved on his first start ut didn't dominate.  Read all about it below.

... as has been reported here recently (and many, many times previous to that), Roy "Doc" Halladay (3-0, 1.13) is pretty good.

As if his usual doctoral brilliance weren't enough, Halladay, whose career batting average lies just south of .080, now sports a three-game hitting streak. Doctor, doctor ...

I admit my status as a fanboy -- I "follow" my childhood hero Tom Seaver on Facebook, where today "he" posted a link to this story by Matthew Futterman for The Wall Street Journal. It's a wonderful read, where statistical improbability meets the baseball diamond. Back-to-back cycles? Back-to-back-to-back no-hitters?

What's left to be done that reasonably can be done? What has Futterman missed? And who's gonna do what?

Bring it on, Bauxites!

I'll be massive conquistador.

It was a lousy night on the farm as none of the affiliates played particularly well.

The Jays acquired Fred Lewis for a player to be named later or cash today.  Jeremy Reed was returned to Las Vegas and Dustin McGowan goes on the 60 day DL.  Lewis will be a bench player per the tweets from the Rogers Centre tonight.

Hey, better late than never, right!

Somewhere J.P. Ricciardi is smiling.