Congratulations to former Jay Carlos Delgado, who hit his 400th career home run yesterday. I may be missing someone, but I believe only four men who have ever played with the Jays for any amount of time have reached that particular milestone -- Fred McGriff (493), Dave Winfield (465), Jose Canseco (462) and now Delgado. Joe Carter hit 396.

Though four of those five men have earned a place in Blue Jay lore -- one of them partly for being traded for one of the others -- is it safe to assume that Delgado will be the first Jay (of any length of service) to reach the once-magical 500 mark? How many will he end up with? Will he wear a Jay or "NYM" into Cooperstown? And are any other former Jays on the radar to reach the 400 and then 500 milestones?

The calm after the storm sees the Jays top the A’s in unremarkable fashion.

Kyle Ginley had another dominant performance out of the pen last night. The Jays 17th round pick this year out of St Petersburg JC has had a strong year in Pulaski.

New Hampshire was the only affiliate to win on a 1-4 night in the minors.

Updated with a bonus widescreen desktop.

Fresh from Tuesday night's game, here's Gregg Zaun smashing into Jason Kendall at the plate:

As noted in the recent Dear Johns Hall of Names, entry, in building the historical Baseball's Hall of Names, we've put together more than 200 teams, though only 10 (now 11) of the 25 Most Common Male Names in the U.S. (would like to know of a Canadian equivalent free online somewhere?) have been covered. In making up for lost time, we now proceed to the third-most common given/first name in The Birthplace of Baseball, and maybe the greatest bullpen yet put together in Hall of Names lore ... that's right, it's time to meet ...

3 wins in 5 tries for the Toronto farm.

It’s the fourth annual fielding survey.  Jays fans are always near the top in turnout, and that's in no small part to readers from this site.   Who else except a Jays fan could have told the world about Orlando Hudson last year?

Please take a few moments, and participate once more! 
http://www.tangotiger.net/scouting/

When it rains, it pours.

On the off chance that people want to rehash this old history (gee, why would that happen?), let's have the facts in place.

Head-to-head fantasy ball plays much differently than roto leagues and, in my opinion, is much more entertaining. Many roto leagues are essentially decided soon after the All-Star break, compelling owners to waste their free time on fantasy football or even their spouses. In the BBFL, with only two weeks remaining in the regular season, most owners have tenuous grips on their current ranks. 0-12 or 1-11 thrashings are rare, but they do happen and can upend the standings in seven short days. Disaster, or salvation, is always just around the corner.

We've had a few recent POTDs of John McDonald out in the field making plays; it's about time to showcase the Minister of Defence with his bat again:

Maybe it was just a slow week for the A's, but this seems like a really boring team. Sweeping the Mariners is like the bus being on time -- yeah, it's cool and all that, but it's what you expected and five minutes later, you forget all about it. Not to mention that with Huston Street on the DL, I have very little reason to watch this series.

Nonetheless, you must read the Advance Scout if you wish to learn more than you'll ever need to know about Dan Haren; find out who the Mystery Tuesday Starter will be; and read about Kiko, Scutaro, the Big Hurt, and Swishahouse.

On to the Advance Scout!

So we worked up the All-John squad recently (and did so without making a single bathroom joke -- yay Batter's Box!) only to be reminded that there is an alternate way to spell that name, depending on your country of origin.

In fact, it's quite likely that more countries on this planet spell the name "J-U-A-N" than "J-O-H-N" anyway, so let's see about all the Juan Gones and the many Juanderful pitchers we've had in major league history as we meet ...

Two weeks left in the minor league season, other than in Auburn.  Dunedin and Lansing are in the playoffs based on their first halves; Auburn and Pulaski are trying to join them but both need to finish strongly to make it.  Yesterday Syracuse split a doubleheader as the new kids, Adam Lind and Curtis Thigpen, led them to victory in game 1.  Elsewhere New Hampshire and Lansing were winners. 

The Good Doctor teased the fans a little yesterday, but just as we were starting to consider the possibilities... there weren't any.