Funny how a 9 game losing streak shifts the Jays from massive depth in the pen and rotation with a solid offense to a team needing help everywhere :)

Lets do some overall checking...

Mistakes in the field, struggles with runners in scoring position and mediocre starting pitching all led to losses in the minors as the affiliates won one of five games. Brad Mills’s rough start to the year continued, as he remains winless, although on the positive side Travis Snider went 2 for 4. The Fisher Cats had a rough day in the field and Dunedin could muster little offence. Top first base prospects helped do the affiliates in, as Lars Anderson was 3-5 and Eric Hosmer was 2-4 with a pair of doubles in the first game of Lansing’s doubleheader.

Sorry, folks;  Life and work got in the way of a full minor league recap.  Here's an abbreviated look at Wednesday which was actually a good night.  3 games, 3 wins, all in the final at-bat.  Too bad the big club blew it.

Games like that make us all crazy.

Three affiliates managed five runs in their three losses.  The other scored ten and won in a 1-3 night on the farm.

And so do Jays' affiliates, apparently. Sometime I need to compile their collective record on Mondays. I don't expect it to be good. Though considering how the affiliates have been doing, the other days of the week probably aren't much better.

Alex Anthopoulos has a long title, it is Vice President, Baseball Operations & Assistant General Manager for the Blue Jays.  This year Alex has been talking to the media a lot, he appears regularly on the Fan590 and also sat in for some innings with Jerry Howarth on the radio broadcast over the weekend in Atlanta.  As JP Ricciardi has taken a step back from the microphone Alex Anthopoulos has stepped up to take his place.  We did not know Alex was going to be this popular last January when we first approached him but we hope this interview fills in some of his background which includes time with Les Expos.  Also Alex explains what his job entails at diffeent points of the season.

But first this interview needs some context.  Batters Box originally contacted Alex January to do the interview, Alex promptly agreed, so we got started and Alex answered the first few introductory questions.  Then Bart Given left the organization and Alex's workload increased and the second round of questions went unanswered until this last weekend.  Some of the questions and answers have been overtaken by events, or might appear old, and I am not sure if Alex answered some of them in February or last week. 

But despite that uncertainty we do have questions and answers and things to talk about and Batters Box thanks Alex Anthopoulos for taking the time to answer given his heavy workload this time of the season.

Mo' determined to fold the set
I ain't even started yet
So if you ain't ready you better get ready
I know I do it better when I'm being opposed
Stick ya chest out, keep your chin up
'Cause sometimes you gotta get knocked down to get up

2 -for-4 for the affiliates on Sunday.  Las Vegas walked off with an improbable win, and Lansing's bats channeled the big club's to ruin a fantastic start by a quickly developing prospect.

Las Vegas scored four runs in the bottom of the ninth to win their game.  Tim Collins gave up a solo home run in the ninth inning of a tied game and took the loss for Dunedin.  New Hampshire had a man thrown out at the plate in the bottom of the ninth and lost by a run.  

Things started off well at the top with Las Vegas creaming Oklahoma, but the other affiliates dropped the ball and went 0-for-3.

It's the 23rd day of May.

There was a lot of late inning scoring in the three games on Thursday.  Adam Calderone hit a grand slam in the eighth for New Hampshire to give them a two run lead but the bullpen gave up eight runs in the eighth.  Las Vegas fought back to tie a game they had been behind in all night but Bill Murphy and his defense blew it in the ninth.  The bright spot was Lansing whose bullpen has been somewhat unreliable early in the season.  The Lugnuts led 6-2 but the bullpen coughed up three runs in the eighth and it was worry time, but the offense bailed them out with four more in the ninth to seal the win.

The Blue Jays have sent Travis Snider to AAA Las Vegas to get his swing back in order.  The 21 year-old left fielder has struggled this season with a .242/.292/.394 mark with just three home runs and 12 RBI.

Update May 22/09 @10:20 a.m.:  Joe Inglett gets the call back to the bigs according to the FAN 590.

Update May 22/09 @ 11:25 a.m.:  Jays assistant GM Alex Anthopoulos confirms Inglett's call-up on the FAN 590.

Update May 22/09 @ 5:15 p.m.:   "Rapid" Ricky Romero and "The Fugitive" Casey Janssen are back.  Bobby/Robert Ray and Brett Cecil will say yo to Cosmo!  Tip o' the cap to our posters for pointing this out.

The less we say about it the better
Make it up as we go along
Feet on the ground
Head in the sky
It's ok I know nothing's wrong . . nothing.

No sense trying to be a wordsmith here.  This series sucked turd from the get-go for the Jays as they lost 5-1 to the Red Sox Thursday evening.