David Cooper had a big night, three hits including a two run game winning home run in the ninth inning.  Lansing won in extra innings, or rather South Bend lost it as the Lugnuts last five runs were unearned.  The GCL Jays won behind a three hitter.  Las Vegas, Dunedin and Auburn each lost.

The Milwaukee Brewers have done some house cleaning.  They have designated utilityman/former 35 home run slugger Bill Hall for assignment, sent down shortstop J.J. Hardy to AAA Nashville and fired pitching coach Bill Castro.  Replacing them respectively are Jason Bourgeois, Alcides Escobar and Chris Bosio.

The affiliates could easily have gone 6-0 but they had to settle for a split as two games got away in extra innings and another was lost in the late going.  The hitting with runners in scoring position was abysmal but there were a number of good performances turned in on the hill.

Jordan Bastian from bluejays.com twitters that Randy Ruiz has been called up from AAA Las Vegas to replace the released Alex Rios.  Give the Jays credit for calling up a player whose last name begins with "R" and also has four letters.  You'll know the team is in real cost-cutting mode if he wears #15 because the "R" is in already in place and they can recycle the "I" by moving it over.  They'll have to shell out for a "U" and "Z".  I hope it doesn't kill the team's budget.  Actually, he was wearing #3 in Spring Training so that may be the number he'll wind up with.

Update 08/11/2009 @ 7:00 pm:  Ruiz will indeed be wearing #3.  I'm sure Rogers is happy it's only one number to sew on the jersey.

Las Vegas had 19 hits in their win.  Angel Sanchez had three of them and 7 RBI's including a grand slam.  Sanchez has been hot recently with the bat, hot streak or new level of performance?  Time will tell.  Dunedin as a team had three hits but still won on a Jesus Gonzalez home run.  Lansing and the GCL Jays both lost in extra innings.

Numerous reports say that Alex Rios has been sent to the Chicago White Sox for no return.  JP is saying this gives the team more flexibility and the money will be re-invested.  We'll see.  

More to come.

Sorry for the delay, folks.  Only one win on Sunday but some impressive performances from the cream of the crop helped ease the pain.

The Blue Jays have until August 17 – one week – to sign players drafted in the 2009 amateur draft. Toronto has 23 players left unsigned from the draft, although 12 of them were selected in the 39th through 50th round. However, the first five selections still remain unsigned, as does the team’s sixth round pick.

I was in New Hampshire a couple of weeks ago to see two games and, with real life interfering, I am only now getting around to a scouting report.  In addition to my scouting report I spoke with Gary Cathcart, manager of the Fisher Cats, and Tom Signore, pitching coach.  I have added their comments to my own.

How, oh how, did everyone get so carried away?

New Hampshire found their bats and scored early and often to reverse their lack of hitting in the previous two games.  Dunedin won behind good pitching by Chuck Huggins and a home run from John Tolisano.  Auburn also won in a group effort.  GCL Jays lost a squeeker but Las Vegas and Lansing were easy losers.

The Yankees called up pitcher Josh Towers from Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre and optioned reliever Mark Melancon. Towers was 4-6 with a 3.42 ERA.

Never give up on a dream, kids.

UPDATED!

Another lousy Friday night with two wins out of six.

Remember Spike Lundberg? Spike is quietly retiring and moving into another area of his baseball career -- read on for details.

Lundberg, a one-time Syracuse SkyChief (pictured, left) was a good friend to Batter's Box in his brief run through the Jay organization, even joining us here online in 2004-05 for some Q&A, the cleverly-named Ask Spike and Ask Spike II. He left the Jays after one season (2005) and hooked on with the Dodgers, where Spike was named the Southern League's "Most Outstanding Pitcher" for 2006, as he  went 15-2, 2.27 in 23 starts for the  AA Jacksonville Suns.

Spike pitched professionally across a dozen seasons for 14 teams in four big league organizations -- in order, TEX, PHI, TOR and LAD -- as well as the Mexican League and the independent Atlantic League.

He rang up a career mark of 102-79 in that time, including an 81-62 mark at AA/AAA. He reached double digits in season wins four times, including that career high of 15 in '06.

His Blue Jay career ...

It seems like the Cleveland Indians are giving the Pittsburgh Pirates a run for the Biggest Fire Sale of 2009.  They have traded Carl Pavano to Minnesota for a player to be named later.  Pavano joins Victor Martinez ,Cliff Lee, Ben Francisco, Ryan Garko, Rafael Betancourt and Mark DeRosa among those who have been traded away from the Tribe this season.  Their website slogan, "Are You In The Tribe?", should be changed to "The Tribe Has Spoken!".