The 51s held on for the win after a nail-biting ninth. Beyond that, more bleakness... and don't even look at the New Hampshire game report if you have a weak stomach.

Many reports have come out that the Jay pitchers are hitting their inning limit.  Lets look at the kids and see where they are against their recent past.  Speculation on who should/will come up to fill in is welcome.

Two wins in seven games. It seems relatively typical for the way things are going right now with this organization. One of the wins came in Las Vegas behind David Purcey and the other came behind a big night at the plate for Lansing. Tim Collins took a rare loss in New Hampshire and Dunedin lost a twin bill. Meanwhile, Auburn suffered another loss and the GCL Blue Jays fell apart in extra innings.

Three wins in four tries.  Ryan Schimpf went 4-4 with a home run to lead Auburn to victory.  TJ Beam pitched well as Las Vegas won.  And the GCL Jays won a slugfest 12-11, Michael Crouse is heating up and he added four more hits in this game.  New Hampshire took the only loss for the affiliates as a two out error in the ninth proved costly.  Brad Emaus however hit a home run and had three RBI's.  Dunedin and Lansing did not play.

It wasn't a good night for the Ricky in Toronto or Davis in Las Vegas but it was a good one for New Hampshire and the boys on the Gulf Coast.  Also, an Auburn Doubleday was representin' at the New York Penn League All-Star Game, yo!  Read on, my peeps!

We may have very different thoughts on this draft in five years if Jenkins reaches the majors quickly and pitches well and Paxton struggles after being drafted next year and flounders in the low minors. However, at this point in time, due to an unprecedented failure to sign their top picks, there is no grade to give the Jays other than an F (or perhaps a generous D-).

The Dallas Morning News is reporting that the Texas Rangers completed a trade Tuesday morning with Houston, re-acquiring (after a seven-season absence) catcher Ivan Rodriguez for two minor-leaguers. (Yes, yes, Friend of Batter's Box Jamey Newberg broke the story well before the DMN did ... we love the Internets!)

The Jarrod Saltalamacchia injury made some sort of deal inevitable, and Pudge will likely back up Taylor Teagarden. What would be the Toronto equivalent of this "golly-gosh, he's back home for a pennant race" North Texas story? Jays re-sign Alomar?

Jordan Bastian of bluejays.com has twittered that Travis Snider is rejoining the big club while Joe Inglett gets to say hello to Cosmo once again by heading back down to Las Vegas.  A tip of the ball cap to Bauxite "razor" ramone for alerting us in an earlier thread about Snider returning in a story from the Las Vegas Review Journal.

The Jays' affiliates need help! Too bad they won't be getting it from three of their top 4 picks, as James Paxton, Jake Eliopolous, and Jake Barrett failed to sign on draft deadline day.

A 3-2 night for the affiliates featured a pair of excellent starts and another nice performance by a Double-A speed demon.

The New Hampshire game would have been fun to go to.  Randy Boone pitched a one hitter over seven innings and Danny Farquhar twice had to get out of bases loaded jams with a couple of timely double plays.  Lansing and Auburn played games where all four teams reached double digits in hits, Auburn came out ahead where it matters, Lansing did not.  Dunedin and the GCL Jays each split a double-header, Dunedin were no-hit in game one and needed an Adam Loewen home run to win game two.  Another Canadian, Michael Crouse had a nice day for the GCL Jays. Las Vegas lost despite home runs from Travis Snider and Brian Dopirak.

The big boys were 0-3 on the night but the short-season teams picked up the slack with three wins. Dunedin's game was postponed due to rain.

It's safe to say that the Vernon Wells contract has turned into a millstone that will weigh the Jays down well into the next decade. However the situation would not be as dire if Vernon was still a solid, if unspectacular, major leaguer. However even that faint dream has become a nightmare, as Vernon has turned in an awful season so far. All of which begs the question - is Vernon Wells the least valuable regular in baseball?

It was a quiet night on the farm with two extra-inning losses, a victory in Double-A and a game where Auburn almost should have left their bats at home. There were a couple of strong starts, but there were some difficulties in the pen and a 3-run ninth inning gave away one of the games. Although he didn’t get a star, Kevin Ahrens hit a homer and drew a pair of walks.

Let's start with our shocking statistic of the day, the one that will make you think "who?"

Since rookie Tommy Hunter joined the Texas Rangers rotation on a regular basis back on June 28, he leads the American League with a 1.97 ERA, over eight starts.

That has led the Rangers TV crew, Josh Lewin and Tom Grieve, to tag the young righty with a wonderful nickname that works on about six levels: Tommy "Big Game" Hunter. Genius!

In honor of that, let's dole out some other "those really should be" nicknames to players around the game, Toronto and otherwise. The do not need to be -- and in fact, shouldn't be! -- "real" nicknames, but rather just plays on words using player names.

A few rules (and examples) ...