We have the pitchers again this week. The names remain the same (with one exception), but next time we will have some numbers on the 2007 draftees. Meanwhile, the farm affiliates went 1-3 again last night.

McGowan's been pretty consistent lately.

Over at The Hardball Times, David Gassko has a new article up summarizing (and crunching) some of the zone rating fielding data from Baseball Info Solutions for the first ten weeks of the season.  David mentions only the leaders and trailers in his article, and there's only one Blue Jay who gets a look in, Alex Rios who is the #1 overall rightfielder in the majors.  I thought it would be worthwhile to grab the data and see how the rest of the Blue Jays have fared... many thanks to David and THT for obtaining the data and boiling down the numbers into runs above/below average.

You've probably noticed that the Jays longest winning streak this season is... ahem... three games. Is this any way to win a championship? Or even a little respect?

Yesterday afternoon after work, Gerry and I enjoyed beverages, conversation and Blue Jays at a local pub. As you might imagine, minor league matters came up more than once. Gerry posed the question: who is the Blue Jays third best prospect after Snider and Thigpen? We both threw out names and ended up throwing up our hands. We also discussed the mid-season prospect poll, and agreed that 2007 draftees should be eligible. Auburn's season starts on Tuesday, and so you can expect a poll about 2 weeks after that. I will probably use the poll results to choose the players for the Friday summaries.

The minor league affiliates went 1-3 on the evening.

I heard on ESPN tonight that Pirate RHSP Ian Snell is the first pitcher named "Ian" to ever appear in the big leagues.

Actually, he's only the second player named Ian in the game's long history. The other is Rangers' 2B Ian Kinsler, 0-for-4 against Snell, who was dominant in allowing no earned runs in a complete game win. So we had baseball's first-ever Ian vs. Ian matchup. (Alert the media!)

But that got me to thinking ... who are the players who had or have truly unique given/first names? It's a harder question than you might think.

Kyle 'X' Phillips and Kyle Yates led the way in the minors yesterday.

OK, I had a nice piece all prepared on winning streaks, and the difficulty the Jays have in ever getting hot... and then I looked at last night's starting lineup.

Hard-throwing Justin Verlander threw the first no-hitter in Comerica Park history tonight in blanking the Milwaukee Brewers, 4-0.

It was the first Tiger no-hitter since Jack Morris threw one in 1984 and the first no-hitter in Detroit since Nolan Ryan of the Angels fired one of his two 1973 no-no's at Tiger Stadium.

It was the second no-hitter of 2007, following Mark Buehrle's gem against Texas in April. Batter's Box extends its congratulations to Verlander!

Now, then ... who's next?

Dunedin opens another can of whoopass on their Yankee counterparts and there was a fantastic relief effort elsewhere on the farm.  However, it wasn't enough to tip the scales for the affliates as they fell on the wrong side of .500 by dropping 2 out of 3 last night.  

Here's one. The Phillies are four games out.

The Jays take their two-game win streak to the China Basin Retirement Castle. They'll see two soft tossers and then Tim Lincecum. They also get to deal with the Barry Bonds circus, stuck on 746 homers for two weeks and eager to break out against any righty foolish enough to stake a claim to the outside corner. And Bengie Molina.

First person to crack a joke about how Bengie is a giant gets blackballed from all Advance Scout afterparties until Bengie's next triple.

The London Tigers are still riding high in the Carter division, holding off spirited challenges from the Clownfish and New Jersey Stratuses, but there's a change at the top in the other two divisions. The Eastern Shore Birds take over at the top in the Barfield division, and the Magic 9 ride a 9-2-1 week to a three game lead in Alomar.

Howard is one of those names ... as a family name, there's Ron and there's Ken and so many more; as a first name, there's Cosell and Hughes and an even wider variety. And believe it or not, in the world of baseball, even with so many given- and family-named Howards around, the most popular placement for it is as a middle name.

So, as we have witnessed the greatness of Ryan Howard hitting a baseball 700 feet every other day or so for the last year-plus, we find ourselves asking the fateful question ... Howard -- first, middle or last?

Let's find out ...

On Saturday all the minor league teams won except for Lansing.  Sunday was opposite day as Lansing delivered the lone victory with a run in the bottom of the ninth.  Chris Reddout pitched out of a bases loaded and no-one out jam in the eighth to get the win.  Jonathan Baksh throws out a run at the plate that inning then leads-off the ninth with a single and scores the winning run.