Today is opening day for the Auburn Doubledays with the GCL Jays starting next week.  The Jays have not signed their top six picks so the Auburn roster will likely change a lot over the next week or two as those players sign.  Usually the Jays are prompt in signing their number one pick, this year they appear to be slower.

Down on the farm the full-season teams went 2-2 with the top two teams victorious.  Marc Rzepczynski had a good start in what could be his final AA start.  He is rumoured to be headed to AAA to replace Cecil or Mills.

Kyle Ginley, Alan Farina and Marty McLeary were each activated and Ginley and Farina pitched.

So... where exactly does the Blue Jays pitching stand at the moment? Why don't we investigate.

Both Lansing and Dunedin put on impressive offensive displays, while Las Vegas received a great pitching performance from Brian Burres (no, really).

I was saving this for tomorrow, but with the prospect of three pitchers hitting the DL all at once, it seems best to add this information to the discussion.

John Feinstein wrote a book titled "Next Man Up" a few years ago.  The book followed the Baltimore Ravens for a season and the title of the book comes from the theme that football is a game of injuries.  Football is a tough, vicious, injury-causing game and teams are always looking for the next man up to replace someone who has to leave the game due to injury.  The Blue Jays current theme is Next Man Up. 

Four losses, four uninspiring pitching performances.  Fabio Castro and Luis Perez did not pitch badly but didn't pitch well enough to win.  Henderson Alvarez continued his slide backwards.  The four affiliates scored ten runs between them, two two's and two three's.  Not much to write about on this night.

Yesterday Joe Posnanski and Bill James had another of their interesting exchanges over at SI.com and this time the subject was the contemporary obsession with keeping pitch counts low.

I have some highlights from the discussion and - to justify my participation - some Data Tables!

Gonna free fall out into nothing
Gonna leave this world for a while

It was just about this time last season when a three week death spiral cost John Gibbons his job. What's different about this one?

Actually, Lansing was in Dayton, so that headline doesn't make any sense apart from the terrible pun. Lansing did beat up on the Aces though, to highlight a 2-1 night on the farm.

2-2 on Sunday for the affiliates.  Horrible nights for the Fisher Cats and Lugnuts were offset by a great start from David Purcey and some big bats for the D-Jays.

Has anyone else noticed that Brandon League has been absolutely lights out coming out of the bullpen this season?

Game two of the Las Vegas doubleheader, top of the seventh, game tied at 0-0, Dave Delucci leads off with a single, steals second and scores the eventual winning run on a sacrifice fly.  The only other win was Dunedin who won 11-0 behind an Eric Thames home run and great pitching from Kenny Rodriguezz and Trystan Magnuson.

Two wins and two losses... Not bad for the affiliates given the poor seasons they all seem to be having.

Las Vegas won big in Colorado behind a great night at the plate by Jason Lane. New Hampshire was postponed while Andrew Liebel suffered another loss in Dunedin. Meanwhile, a former Blue Jay farmhand came back to haunt the Jays as scored the winning run in Lansing’s extra-inning loss.

Here are some links and analysis following both days of the draft.