Congratulations to Marc Rzepczynski on earning his first major league win as the Blue Jays downed the BoSox 6-2 Saturday afternoon at Rogers Centre.  Hopefully, the young lefty will go on to win more games than the last guy who wore #34.

After a rough night on Friday the affiliates fought back with five wins. I witnessed the Fisher Cats win 5-2 over Connecticut.

Notes from New Hampshire

* There were over ten scouts at the game, including the Yankees, Red Sox, Rays, Giants, Angels, Reds and Brewers.
* Most scouts who saw Marcum's start on Thursday were impressed although his fastball was at 85-87.  Pitchers coming back from TJ surgery take a while to get their velocity back
* Scouts were impressed with Casey Janssen, they said he was throwing well at 92 mph and was pitching down around the knees.  Janssen is scheduled to pitch again Sunday.
* Kyle Ginley has had elbow surgery to re-route a nerve
* Zach Dials had gone to Dunedin with shoulder fatigue and was kept there until his arm regained full strength
* The scouts had two questions for me, (1) will Halladay be traded?, and  (2) Will JP be fired?

Robert of Dudek returned to action the other day, and in the course of the ensuing discussion he noted:

91 mph is a below average MLB fastball now (for a righthander). Richmond is a serviceable starter, but it is very unlikely to become an ace.

Now he's probably right about that second sentence, but later for that. It's the notion of an average major league fastball that has caught my attention. Oh look! It's a  Bright and Shiny Object - and away I go. I'm gonna need a Data Table....

Interesting listening on the radio here in Texas recently ... I was tuning in to one of Dallas/Fort Worth's three all-sports radio options, and the discussion turned, as it almost always does, to the Cowboys. (The four sports seasons here are football, playoffs, draft and training camp.)

Then the question came up -- no, it wasn't really a question, it was more of a pronouncement -- that  the typical North Texas sports fan, if given a choice between a Rangers World Series championship and a Cowboys Super Bowl appearance (not even a guaranteed win), would almost unanimously and virtually without hesitation take the latter. Throw in a Mavericks title and a Stars cup to the Rangers' fictional rings, and the Cowboys would still come out on top said some of the most conservative and consistent sports journalists in Texas.

That got me thinking about Toronto ...

The Jays affiliates have had pretty poor results on Friday nights so far this season, so let's take a look and see how they did last night... (Spoiler Alert: It's not pretty)

The Blue Jays' attempt to build a contending team has failed.

All eyes were on New Hampshire last night as one of the best prospects in all of baseball faced off against a rehabbing starter whose absence from the rotation has been sorely noticed in Toronto this season. The game did not disappoint and provided one of the few bright spots on the farm last night. Las Vegas nipped a close game from Tacoma, but Dunedin was shut out, Lansing and the GCL Blue Jays were both blown out and Auburn lost a tight game on a pair of errors.

Former Jays closer B.J. Ryan has signed a minor league deal with the Chicago Cubs.  He'll look to join former Toronto teammates Ted Lilly, Reed Johnson and Randy Wells in the Windy City.  He's to report to the Cubs rookie-level club in Mesa, Arizona on Sunday.

With all the recent talk of trading Roy Halladay and retooling I have two questions rolling around in my head.  First, if the Jays are to begin retooling who can they count on being ready to help the big club in 2010?  And secondly, with all the promotions to the big league team this season, who is the Jays best prospect who has not yet appeared in the big leagues?

The bats in Dunedin and Lansing thawed out.  The Auburn bullpen blew a good start by Egan Smith, the GCL Jays were short on hitting with just three hits.  Casey Janssen threw a shutout inning for Dunedin.

It's pretty obvious that the Blue Jays 2009 season so far breaks nicely into two quite distinct halves: that rollicking 27-14 start (good times!) and the alarming 17-32 run that took them to this week's Break in the Action.

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.