"if you're going to come out here and play, you might as well win."
-- Cito Gaston, yesterday

Today the Blue Jays enjoy their first off day, and it's safe to say that even those of us who were starry-eyed optimists about this year's team  (I think that's WillRain and myself) weren't expecting a 10-4 start.

The affiliates dropped three of four on Sunday.  To be honest, there wasn't a lot to get excited about.

MLB.com says don't be surprised if Raul Chavez gets his first start behind the plate for this afternoon's 1:07 p.m. EDT finale against Oakland at the Rogers Centre.

Marc Rzepczynski bounced back from a bad start to deliver a good one yesterday.  Brett Cecil came off a good start and had a bad one.  The Ryan's, Page and Koch, did not put their teams in a position to win.  New Hampshire had the only win and are leading their division.  Brian jeroloman stayed hot while the bats of David Cooper and Brian Dopirak appear to be warming up.

The day started well (New Hampshire) and ended well (Las Vegas) but the middle was kind of ugly - especially in Florida. When the dust settled, the affiliates shared a record of 2-2.

Toronto’s minor league affiliates won two of their three games on Thursday, as all three teams were involved in contests that were decided by two runs. Las Vegas’ offence centred around the home run, Dunedin’s was powered by their 1-2-3 and 9th hitters and New Hampshire saw a very fine pitching performance by their starter and a trio of relievers.

The Twins should be thankful they managed to take one out of four.  Roy Halladay and the offence were nails as the Jays creamed the Twinkies 9-2 Thursday night at the Metrodome.

Wearing number 42 to honour Jackie Robinson really agreed with the Jays yesterday as they thumped the Twins 12-2 Wednesday night in their penultimate regular season game at the Hubert H. Humphrey Metrodome.  There's no truth to the rumour that every Jay will wear number 122 for tonight's game.  Besides, they got number 32 on the hill tonight and speaking of Hill, number 2 did more than alright in last night's ball game. 

The affiliates had some good pitching tonight.  Fabio Castro pitched six shutout innings, Alsn Farina started and did well.  Tim Collins was outstanding, again, in relief.  Henderson Alvarez and John Anderson also pitched well.

What's surprising you so far this year? That the Orioles, Mariners and Padres are all 6-2? The Mets are 3-4? AL pre-season darlings Cleveland and Boston are 1-7 and 2-6, (not so) respectively?

On an individual level, did you really think Nick Swisher would be hitting .458? Or that he'd be lagging behind Emilio Bonifacio (who?) at .485  or the greatness of Cristian Guzman at .515? Is that really Toronto's Adam Lind leading the major leagues with 12 RBI?

So exactly what -- teams, players, individual feats -- is surprising you so far this 2009 season? Who will keep it up? Who is destined for a spectacular fall?

Reidier Gonzalez pitched well enough to win and well enough to finish what he started but he wasn't allowed to as New Hampshire lost a heartbreaker.  Lansing got pasted but Dunedin slugged their way to a win.  Las Vegas was rained out last night in Salt Lake.

Sportsnet is reporting that Jesse Litsch is going to the DL with his strained right forearm. Lefty reliever Bill Murphy will be coming up from Las Vegas to take his spot on the active roster.

It's been a tough day for baseball fans of a certain age. We've lost a voice and now we've lost a ... well, a personality.

As noted here on Da Box earlier, legendary Phillies broadcaster Harry Kalas passed away early yesterday; later in the day, we learned that 1976 A.L. Rookie of the Year Mark "The Bird" Fidrych was found dead under a pickup truck at his home, in what is being reported as an apparent farming accident.

Bear with me here ...

Believe it or not, a "Twinterview" is not an interview conducted during a Twins game, even though that's exactly how it happened. Guess you'll just have to click through to find out what the bleep I'm talking about...

On the first Minor League Update of my career, I almost gave you an update about the Syracuse SkyChiefs (if that's what they're still called). No joke. I looked at the box score and realized I had no idea what I had signed up for. Anyway...