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.

It's the final $2 Tuesday of the year! Will there be Bauxites in the house? Where will they be sitting?

Baseball for a toonie!

The second-place Orioles are the Jays' last opponent before interleague play. Baltimore will throw their top two pitchers and an Adam Loewen replacement at the Jays this series, plus one shellshocked closer too.

People do dumb things - you, me, and major league managers.

I'm only including myself to be gracious, by the way.

With all the injuries on the major league team the Jays have had to bring in new players to fill the gaps in the minors.  Three of them played Sunday, Andrew Good started for Syracuse, Mike Venafro pitched in relief.  Howie Clark played for New Hampshire.   Syracuse blew a lead but won in extra innings with a home run, New Hampshire and Lansing lost.

The affiliates only won one game but there were some encouraging pitching performances.  Ismael Ramirez only allowed one earned run in seven innings for Syracuse.  Russell Savickas made his AA debut and gave up two runs in six innings.  Kristian Bell made his first start of 2007 and pitched five shutout innings and Nate Starner had one bad inning but struck out eleven in six innings.  Curtis Thigpen played second base and made an error.