A big night by Kevin Barker helps Syracuse beat their closest rivals, Auburn gets a split in Red Sox Country and a high '07 draft pick swings a big stick in the Sunshine State but the affiliates only manage to win 2 out of 6.

Today is July 17, meaning we are now exactly two weeks from the supposed "trading deadline" of July 31. Of course, trades and waiver acquisitions will happen well beyond that "deadline," but for now, at least we are seeing the first stirrings of a potential trade market flurry. The Cubs have acquired former All-Star catcher Jason Kendall from the A's for a couple of warm bodies, a catcher they had already placed on waivers and a minor-league relief pitcher.

So the questions before you are these ...

The Yankees reclaimed second place in the AL East over the weekend by taking three of four from the Devil Rays. They'll try to make up some more ground on the Red Sox this week by throwing their Japanese import, their struggling ace, the 44-year-old guy they signed in midseason and their sinker master at the Jays.

Not sure what got me thinking about Disney's irascible rodents, but Chip and Dale were awfully persistent in getting what they wanted. Presumably, if they'd wanted World Series rings, they would have made a fine double-play combination.

But to be honest, there haven't been all that many Chips on the big league table, and a surprisingly low number of Dales as well. Can we chipmunk-ey around enough to to put together a legitimate Hall of Names team? Let's see ...

(After you! No, I insist, after you ...)

A 3-1 day on the farm, New Hampshire took eleven innings to win and David Smith delivered the win.  Dunedin got a rare five inning win and Lansing won the regular way to run their win streak to five.

The sixth inning was the pivotal one last night. Things went from bright to ugly real fast, but my mood was for some unknown reason light. No drugs were involved.

Shall we, pardon the pun, rehash it?

Boston has Manny, the Yankees have Rodriguez and the Jays have Manny Rodriguez who went 6-6 for Auburn, but it took a 2 run single from Leance Soto in the eleventh for Auburn to win.  Scott Campbell hit a two run home run in the eighth to power Lansing to the win.  Kevin Ahrens did well too as the bottom four teams each won.

After last night's game the Jays recalled Brandon League.

Jordan De Jong was sent to Syracuse.

Every once in a while,wandering -- okay, "surfing," if you must -- the Web allows you to discover something, quite accidentally that is, as the old Vulcan Spock used to intone, "simply fascinating.'

One place good for such surfing is the wonderful baseball site BaseballAlmanac.com, second perhaps only to the genius of BaseballReference.com on the entirety of the Web for MLB historical nuggets. Just this week, I was, um, researching something very important at work (yeah, that's it) when I stumbled upon the Last Player Standing/Born in Each Year page at the Almanac, which is essentially a monument to long-lasting players, listing ...

As Mike Green stated in yesterday’s minor league thread, “It was a good night on the farm.  Brandon League did his thing (4 batters, 1K, 3 ground outs) again. The Fisher Cats had a cool late rally with Robinson Diaz playing hero, and the A ball squads scored runs in bunches.” It’s as good a summary and introduction as I can give on a 5-1 night for the farm.

Before we get to the pitcher summary, a recap of Thursday night's games is in order. The farm affiliates went 3-3. Nate Starner continued his pace of striking out over a batter an inning, while walking one every four innings. If he keeps that up, we will be seeing his name more prominently featured.

Ordinarily, I'd beat myself into a frenzy in this introduction and bellow vaguely inspirational platitudes like "IT'S ON!" which, really, shouldn't be necessary given the name of the opponent and range of dates in the header immediately above this sentence. But I won't, because the reality is that it isn't on. Not yet, anyway. Ten games out of first place, the Jays have to serve Boston back to some degree in the second half before anyone in Blue Jay land can make any truly credible claims that it's on.

But the Jays are 2-0 at Fenway this year, and the two Sox who started those games also pitch the first two of this series, and it's only the middle of July, so there is hope.

On All-Star game night in double A and triple A, Josh Kreuzer set Dunedin afire with a late blast.  The farm affiliates went 1-2, and the double A All-Star game, with heavy Fisher Cat representation, was cancelled due to fog.

The Jays are 1 game under .500 at the break.  What do you expect to see in the 2nd half?

There was only GCL action on the slate yesterday. Apparently MLB doesn't want any competition for the All Star Game.

John Tolisano had the only notable performance on the day.