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) ...

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.