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...

The American League leading Toronto Blue Jays head to Minnesota to face the upstart Twins. Let's just hope the Jays aren't stuck for the next two months waiting for a recount. On to the first Advance Scout of the season!

Poaching a headline off Braden, or Ned as I like to call him, the Jays could not use the brooms in Cleveland, falling 8-4 to the Tribe Sunday afternoon. 

I'm not a Phillies fan. Most of you probably aren't either. But this, sadly, is big news ...

Longtime Philadelphia Phillies broadcaster Harry Kalas has died at the age of 73. Kalas, who had also filled a voiceover role for NFL Films since 1975, was taken to a hospital after passing out in the broadcast booth before Monday's Philadelphia game against the Washington Nationals. Read more here.

Last night, around 7pm, I settled in with my laptop ready to pen my first Minor League recap of the season.  At 7:01, I was finished.