AJ Wideman had the best performance of the night as the affiliates went 1-3.

A superb pitching performance in Manchester, a huge comeback in the Sunshine State, and an extra innings thriller in Illinois gave the affiliates a 3-1 record last night.  It could've been a perfect night but a 9th inning rally in Central New York fell a run short.  A doubleheader in two different towns may have played a role.

That would be me.

Ty Taubenheim, David Purcey and Ryan Houston each were hit hard on Sunday.  Kyle Ginley pitched well but only for four innings.  Lansing were the sole victors Sunday even though they only had three hits in the game, Matt Lane had the key hit to drive in two runs, and that's all they needed.

Three wins, one loss and a suspended game Saturday as New Hampshire split a double-header, Syracuse and Lansing won and Dunedin were leading when the power went out.  The Chiefs won in the bottom of the ninth on a Howie Clark single, Travis Snider hit a home run and had four RBI's, and Victor Zambrano took a walk on the wild side.

Nathan Starner threw five hitless innings as four Lansing pitchers combined for a one hitter.  Syracuse rode the hot hitting of Curtis Thigpen, Rey Olmedo and Howie Clark to victory while Dunedin threw their game away.  New Hampshire were all wet and will play one and a half today.

No Cole Hamels this weekend, but the lefty the Jays do get to contend with might be even scarier...

The sweeps are over as Syracuse and New Hampshire win.  Another pitcher gets injured, Ismael Ramirez pulled a groin muscle.  Curtis Thigpen had four hits, David Smith had three.  Mike Green is away today so the regular prospect watch will wait until next week.

Friday: Dustin McGowan vs. Jon Lieber

Saturday: Shaun Marcum vs. Jamie Moyer

Sunday: Jesse Litsch vs. Adam Eaton

There's a bit of a gap between the top pitchers and the group after it. Price, Detwiler, Moskos and Brackman are all likely to go in the top 10. After that no starter stands out and there's a couple closers that are possibilities in the second half of the first round. The Blue Jays were reported to be interested in Vanderbilt closer Casey Weathers.

Another whitewash of the affiliates. Syracuse batted around in the first inning but didn't have a baserunner after the fourth inning. New Hampshire received five straight walks in the ninth inning but it was too little too late. Michael MacDonald and Brandon Magee had ground ball to fly ball ratio's of 16-1 and 17-3 respectively. Syracuse and Dunedin could not get timely hitting that would have turned their losses into wins.

When I was at the park on Monday, looking over the Game Notes, my eye fell upon the item pointing out that the next home run Frank Thomas hits will be the 493rd of his career. He will move, temporarily into a three way tie for 21st on the All-Time list, along with a couple of other pretty good first basemen: Lou Gehrig and Fred McGriff.

The affiliates went 0-4 last night.  However, a successful Litsch debut makes it a good night.

The draft is less than a month away. Time to look to see how the top college hitters are doing since the last time we checked in.

A 2 out of 3 night for the affliates, as Tomo Ohka was not the only Japanese import in the system to help his team emerge victorious.  

On a personal note, I think this week's headline is a nice bounce back effort from last week's debacle, which I apologize for.  I was pressing last week but now I'm back on the beam and I'm ready to carry on the momentum for the rest of the season and finish up strong.