I apologize for the lateness of today's report.  I was in Wisconsin over the weekend for a Coldplay concert and speaking of cold play (see what I did there?), I managed to catch a Brewers game on the way back where Jeff Suppan got whacked by the Nationals, or more specifically Josh Willingham, 14-6.  With family in the Cheesehead State, I've been a fairly regular visitor to Milwaukee but Milwaukee has certainly had its share of visitors.  The French missionaries and explorers began visiting there in the late 16th century.  In fact, Milwaukee is an Indian name.  It's pronounced "Meel-wah-kay" which is Algonquin for "the good land".

Anyways, it was a busy day for the affiliates as they posted a 5-and-3 mark.  The teams that don't rhyme with Jays had a very good night while the ones that do didn't, save for one game.  Make sense?  Good!  Read on and rock on, my peeps!

Great question recently from Bauxite Ron: "This just in, Ichiro is a good hitter. On a 0-2 count, he was able to hit a ball out of the strike zone to win the game. Despite being 35, I wouldn't rule out Ichiro getting 3000 hits Stateside. Has he done enough to be a Hall Of Famer?"

My initial reaction was "Oh my God, yes, of course! Why even ask the question?" But on closer look, there is an argument to be made ...

"The only constant factor to be found in my thinking over the years has been opposition to accepted opinions."
  -  Pierre Trudeau

Bill James, who hasn't had much to say about the subject over the years, offered up some provocative thoughts about how the Steroid Era will look down the road.

Fabio Castro had a fantastic outing, and there were great individual offensive performances on each team (edit: except Dunedin. Yuck.), despite some lousy team performances.

What's the difference between these two teams anyway?

Everybody's got an opinion. I, however, have the Truth.

Another ugly day on the farm included just one win, all the way down in Low-A ball while two pitchers, including a rehabbing righty, left their starts early.  Happy Monday!

Portland played New Hampshire a few weeks ago so they thought they knew how to run on Darin Mastroianni's arm.  After Mastroianni threw a runner out at the plate the third base coach/manager might have reconsidered.  After the second out at the plate they might have stopped running.  The third assist for Mastroianni was at third base so that one could be blamed on the runner.  But the fourth Mastroianni assist, at home, should have caused the Portland manager to reconsider his opinion.

The GCL Jays beat up the two Indian reality show winners.  Scott Richmond pitched well in his final rehab start.  Overall the affiliates went 4-2 with the top two teams losing.

TAM (54-44)        000 001    422 001  10  17  1
TOR (47-51)        222 201    000 000   9  16  0
Price, Cormier (4), Thayer (6), Balfour (7),  Choate (8), Wheeler (8), Howell (6-2) (10), Nelson (12)
Tallet, League (7), Accardo (8), Downs (9), Frasor (10), Camp (0-5) (11)

And what did I think of today's game?

It was a three-win night for the affiliates, which is an excellent result given their past performances this season on the same night of the week. The wins came as the result of some nice pitching performances. Dunedin also received some offense with four players going yard for five homers in total.

The six minor league contests yesterday included four shutouts, a bullpen and fielding meltdown and an outburst at the plate for a struggling affiliate. Two Toronto affiliates threw shutouts while two others were held off the scoresheet, as the Fisher Cats were on the wrong end of a one hitter. Dunedin held Sarasota off the scoreboard through 7 innings but ended up losing 5-3 in part due to three errors. Meanwhile, Auburn had their biggest scoring day of the year with 13 runs in a blowout win over Williamsport. Three strong pitching performances meant all the stars of the evening went to starting pitchers and none were awarded to hitters.

ChiSox ace Mark Buehrle threw just the 17th regular-season perfect game in MLB history today. He's also just the 24th pitcher in MLB history to toss multiple no-hitters, as this is his second.

Thanks to Bauxite Forkball for the heads up.

Randy Ruiz hit a three run walk-off home run to lead Vegas to victory.  Auburn won a doubleheader 6-5, that was the score in both games.  Henderson Alvarez retired the first 13 hitters he faced as Lansing won.  Carlos Perez led the GCL Jays to a win.  Dunedin scored eight on their way to a win, only New Hampshire spoiled the organizational sweep.

The highlights - a rain-out and a scheduled day off.

Just another fun day in the baseball world Monday night and the Jays had nothing to do with it as they enjoyed the day off.

Lansing put on a clinic, playing one of the best games of the Jays' minor league season, a couple top prospects had good games, and a rehabber had a not so good game.