What happened?

That's a question asked frequently of a number of players who were, at least in some eyes, seen as "potential Hall of Famers" during their playing days.

Consider -- teammates Doc Gooden and Darryl Strawberry were both mortal locks for Cooperstown once upon a time, but had ... issues. Albert Belle and Carlos Baerga, another pair of teammates, once played at Hall-worthy levels, at least for a time; they had issues, too, though not of the same sort as the vagabond Mets of yore.

Dave Kingman was never really a Hall-worthy player, though he hit home runs like one for a while. Don Mattingly -- nothing wrong with Donnie Baseball, he just plain hasn't been deemed worthy by voters thus far.

So there appear to be five "true outcomes" for those who fell by the HOF wayside ...

Maldoff gives us the latest from JP on the FAN

Relax, it's just the New York-Penn League. The farm affiliates split 6 games.

Same rules as with the hitters. Players currently with the club, or who were drafted but have not yet pitched are ineligible. Davis Romero is ineligible because he last pitched with the big club. Here are my choices:

1. Brett Cecil
2. Ricky Romero
3. David Purcey
4. Chi-hung Cheng
5. Josh Banks
6. Kyle Yates
7. Eric Fowler
8. Paul Phillips
9. Ty Taubenheim
10. Tracy Thorpe

What do you think? The results will be posted on Monday.

Several players had their first pro home runs in the GCL yesterday as the affiliates went 4-2 on the day.

Thanks to regular minor league-watchers for your contributions. We had 19 ballots, with votes tabulated on a 10-9-8-7-6-5-4-3-2-1 basis. The #1 hitting prospect was unanimous, Travis Snider, but after that, the votes were spread widely. There was an interesting cleavage between the #7 and #8 prospects.

You want line drives, we got line drives. The farm affiliates' bats finally woke up and the result was a 4-2 record on the evening.

The bad news is that Oakland's a good team that's just beginning to learn how terrifying its best 9-man lineup can be. The good news is that Oakland's strong bullpen is thoroughly depleted and the Jays avoid Dan Haren.

John-Ford Griffin hit two home runs and Sal Fasano one to propel the Chiefs to victory.   Ryan Patterson and David Smith homered as the Fisher Cats won.   Manuel Rodriguez hit a three run home run in the first inning as Auburn won.  Dunedin won without a home run and with little help from Reed Johnson or newest Jay Scott Sauerbeck.  Lansing were the lone losers.  On Canada Day the eight Canadians in the Jays system went 1-8 six of them not playing on their day.

It's not often a major league manager calls it quits when his team has won seven games in a row. Mike Hargrove is doing just that.

And meanwhile, the Cincinnati Reds have dismissed Jerry Narron, exactly as Bauxites foretold when asked which manager was going to be the next sent packing.

In seven games the Jays affiliates scored fifteen runs, or just over two per game.  Despite that the affiliates went 4-3 in those games thanks to some strong pitching performances.  Does that sound like a major league club you know?  Michael MacDonald, Ricky Romero, Brandon Magee, AJ Wideman, Nate Starner, Wilfreddy Aguirre and Brad Cuthbertson all pitched well.   Justin Jackson had three RBI's.

The affiliates went 4-1 yesterday evening with only Auburn’s one-run loss to Williamsport spoiling the night. There was impressive pitching by Blue Jays farmhands in both Triple-A and the Gulf Coast League, while Lansing had one of its best offensive nights of the year, despite a lack of production from its most feared hitter.

Happy Canada Day, boys and girls. The Jays will spend this holiday weekend in Seattle trying to cool off the rampaging Mariners, who just swept Boston in a thrilling three-game set. Seattle trails Wild Card leader Cleveland by 2.5 games, and has 4.5 games on the Blue Jays. The Jays can't catch the M's this weekend, but they do have a great opportunity to do some damage against some of Seattle's weaker pitchers.

It is time for the pitchers this week. The farm affiliates went 3-4 on the evening.

Frank Thomas hit #500 today, a 3 run shot off of Carlos Silva in the first inning.