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.

Yesterday Gerry asked "3. Finally, as much as I love Halladay and the value he has delivered to the team, what are the prospects for a 32 year old pitcher with 2000 innings and a lot of heavy workload in his arm?  While Doc has delivered tremendous value to the Jays, will he continue to deliver it trhough age 37?  I don't know the answer to this question but I am sure the Jays have analysed it and have an opinion.  Someone here could look at comparables and see how they held up through age 37."

I had a quick and dirty look using the Play Index at Baseball Reference.

When you log on to ESPN.com and the top story listed is Blue Jays GM: We'll listen to Halladay offers, well, naturally that grabs your attention. Go read the story yourself -- not actively shopping, blah blah, have to consider our options, etc. etc. You've seen this story before -- just insert the names "Santana" and "Twins" where you see "Halladay" and "Jays" and it should ring more than one bell.

So, a whole bevy of questions for loyal Bauxites ... is this an early white flag? Should the team even consider trading the good Doctor? What if it's the Yankees or Red Sox who make the best offer? And -- get creative, kids -- what realistic package would you like to see coming Toronto's way if this were to actually happen?

P.S. We can all agree (can't we?) that the best answer to "who should the Jays trade Roy Halladay for?" Is "Nobody. Ever."

Adam Lind is one of five players vying for the last spot on the All Star Team (barring injury replacement). You can vote for him up a million times a day by going to http://mlb.mlb.com/mlb/events/all_star/y2009/fv/ballot.html.

Well, uh, a couple of days ago. Still, better late than never. We'll take a look at the two sides.