Since that hot 27-14 getaway of blessed memory, by going 17-32 since the Blue Jays have given 15 games back to .500. By strange coincidence, they gave away exactly 15 games to .500 on those two Road Trips From Hell - the 0-9 trip in late May and the 2-8 run that just concluded the first half.

So what the hell happened there, anyway?

Las Vegas, New Hampshire, Dunedin and Lansing all had the night off because they're enjoying their All-Star breaks.  However, Auburn and the boys from the Gulf were in action.  Find out who won and who lost in today's truncated minor league update. 

So apparently there was a baseball game on Tuesday night -- a Major League Baseball game, even, although it's true, it was an "exhibition." (Wait, this time it counts -- is that still an "exhibition"?) Some guy named Barry O'Bama (I think -- is that Irish?) threw out the ceremonial first pitch.

Roy Halladay started the game for the winning team -- that's a sentence not written frequently enough in these parts! -- and the same team that always wins this game, they won the game. Woo -- surprise, surprise, surprise.

So our Question(s) of the Day ... Did you watch any of it? Did anyone watch all of it? If so (or if not), why? (or why not?) For those who did watch, did anything stick with you as truly memorable?

My apologies for the lateness. I'll make up for this transgression by being as brief as possible.

It's All-Star Season, and as such, the Eastern League will soon be holding their all-star game and home run derby. The only Fisher Cat who will participate in the derby is, as you can probably guess, Brian Dopirak. But there's another participant with Blue Jay ties. Try to guess. I dare you.

Roy Halladay, recently named the American League's starting pitcher in the All-Star Game tomorrow, shared his thoughts recently on the possibility of being traded.

The full season affiliates went 3-1 on Sunday while Auburn dropped a pair to halve things for the day.

Batters Box caught up with Dick Scott on Saturday as he was watching a GCL game in Florida.  Dick told us some bad news about Brad Mills and Kyle Ginley; had some promising news for Brian Dopirak; and talked about the year so far for Brad Emaus, JP Arencibia and David Cooper, among others.

The Fisher Cats won to prevent another whitewash on the farm.  Good pitching by Adrian Martin and home runs by Nick Gorneault and Brian Jeroloman paced New Hampshire.  David Purcey and Shaun Marcum took the loss in their starts.

Fresh on his return from the minor leagues, Jonathan Sanchez tossed a no-hitter for the Giants as they hosted the Padres tonight; the home team won 8-0.

Too bad nobody had Sanchez in the official Batter's Box "Who Will Toss the 2009 Season's First No-No" pool. The cash award, after factoring in the odds, would have been approximately four hundred billion dollars (Canadian).

 

The affiliates managed just two wins on the night. What else is new?

In this morning's typically excellent and detailed Newberg Report -- the best baseball e-newsletter on the Internets -- friend of Batter's Box Jamey Newberg checks in on the Halladay Question. Here's what he had to say -- warning, it's quite long -- so give it a read and respond.

(Keep in mind, Jamey is a registered Bauxite, so he may well see what you write!)

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There are issues involved with the hypothetical marriage between the Rangers and Roy Halladay that weren't factors when Texas traded Mark Teixeira two years ago, but there are a few things instructive about the 2007 trade that, in part, helped put the Rangers in the position that they're now in, able to compete with anyone in terms of loading up an impact package of young players to close a huge deal ...

There was lots of free baseball on the farm yesterday, but given how things are currently going I’m not sure how much people really wanted more ball. Of the seven games, four went into extra innings and there was a total of thirteen free innings. It didn’t make much difference to the bottom line and the affiliates only won two of the seven games in an unremarkable day on the farm.

Auburn were no hit through eight and two thirds.  It should have been a complete no-hitter except for an error by Mahoning Valley in the ninth.  But then two singles ruined the moment and the no hitter was gone.  New Hampshire were no hit until the sixth inning and they finished with two hits in eleven innings.  The GCL Jays didn't score until the ninth inning.  Dunedin and Lansing were rained out.  Las Vegas were the exception, they scored twelve runs.  Travis Snider got back in the groove with three hits including a home run and a double.

Jordan Bastian from bluejays.com reports that former closer B.J. Ryan has been released.  His replacement, Scott Downs, has been activated from the disabled list after suffering a toe injury trying to run out of the batter's box in Philadelphia.

Luis Perez stated his case for a promotion with a strong start for New Hampshire and Dunedin made just enough contact at the plate to earn the only two wins in the system on Tuesday.  The rest of the affiliates didn't fare as well thanks to a come from ahead loss, two extra-inning setbacks and a no-hitter.