Three weeks into the minor league season and I was already resigned to writing about four losses and exactly no intriguing performances.  But the first Sunday in May threw that theory for a complete loop with three wins and the unexpected return of a legend.

April was not a kind month to the Jays affiliates.  The New Hampshire Fisher Cats are the only affiliate with a winning record and several of the Jays top prospects are off to slow starts.  Because the minor leagues start their season later than the major leagues most affiliates have played around twenty games, some of those in very cold weather, so it is not time to panic, yet.  But May is an important month to set the tone for those June promotions.  Marc Hulet and I look at April in the minor leagues.  All numbers are from April.

It hasn't been a great start to the season for the minor league affiliates but Saturday was a day to take some comfort and hope. The lower three affiliates each scored in the double figures and there were some good pitching performances.  Hopefully the bats will wake up and get the pitching to support them.

The Dunedin pitching staff threw a one-hitter but the one hit was a home run.

First and foremost, the mighty Roy Halladay. Even if he hasn't quite rounded into full Doc mode yet.

Things were not overly fun on Friday night with the affiliates compiling a 1-4 record. Pitching continues to be an area of disappointment - but some of the bigger-named hitting prospects need to step things up a notch too.

If any members of the Las Vegas pitching staff followed the afternoon game in Kansas City they were likely well aware that at least one spot would be opening up on the big league roster after a second poor start in a row by Brian Burres. If they checked the MLB website within a couple of hours they would have seen not only confirmation, but also that Brian Bullington was demoted and a second spot had opened up. The question was whether Fabio Castro would be able to rise to the occasion. Even without the intrigue of who will get the promotion it was an exciting night on the farm anyway, as all three games were decided by one run and two went into extra innings.

After Thursday afternoon's game, the Blue Jays optioned two of the three Brians (Burres and Bullington) back to AAA Las Vegas.

There was a shutout in Double-A, but that wasn’t the best pitching performance of the night. There were only three contests last night, as Las Vegas had the night off, and the affiliates won two of them. Dunedin lost a one-run game as the heart of their lineup struggled at the plate. And Brian Dopirak, among others, continues to hit.

Update on the early going in the BBFL.

Given the economic situation I thought I'd keep an eye on the Jays attendance this year.  We'd all like the payroll to go back up next year, and I figure this years attendance will be a factor in that decision.

In four short years
I've gone from rags to riches

That's my boy!  Scott "Big and" Richmond went seven solid innings as the Jays trumped the Royals 8-1 Tuesday night at Kauffman Stadium.  Mad props and big ups to the former Edmonton Cracker-Cat as he improves to 3-0 on the season!

Las Vegas and New Hampshire couldn't buy a key hit but Dunedin and Lansing had no such problems in a .500 night on the farm.

My original intent was to get March out of the way early. Somehow it didn't quite work out that way.

And now April's almost gone. I wonder when I'll get the next one of these done? Sorry 'bout that.

Two new Blue Jays made their Toronto debuts in the weekend series against the Chicago White Sox.  Not only do Bryan Bullington and Brian Burres have the same first name (though spelled differently) and the same initials, their surnames have the same first two letters, they're also pitchers and they're both 28 years old.   Their arrivals give Toronto three pitchers named Brian, joining Brian Tallet.  No truth to the rumour he'll change his name from Tallet to Bullet.  Now that would be cool.  Brian Bullet!  Kinda like this guy.

This is just more of the hard-hitting analysis you've come to expect here and we're proud to pass on the savings to you in these challenging economic times.

Seems like the only way you can get a win out of the Jays' affiliates these days is to have a major leaguer making a rehab start...