The Jays' top two farm clubs muscled their way to victories, while the lower clubs lost by an aggregate of 32-7!! Together, the four games were a microcosm of the parent club's season to date:

With the first month in the books, it's time to hand out some Minor League hardware:

The Jays lost game 1 4-3, but won the nightcap 10-6 as the F-Cat went 6-6 at the plate.

The Jays are 4 and 5 on the current road trip and win this afternoon would also mean a split in the four-game series against the White Sox. Miguel Batista takes the mound against tall righthander Jon Garland in a pay-per-view only (in Canada) Sunday afternoon game.

Batista has an impressive repertoire and has had good hop on his fastball all season. Unfortunately, his command has been sub-par, resulting in a lot of deep counts and more than the occasional walk - something that usually spells doom in the American League.

Garland has made 5 starts (and 2 relief appearances) against the Jays and is 4-0 with a 1.56 ERA from 2001 to the present. With Joe Kennedy now in the National League, Garland is the reigning Blue Jays killer.

Roy Halladay v Mark Buehrle - take two.

Ted Lilly v Dan Wright in the evening affair.

Hi. For those of you who are new here: at the end of every month, I like to write up a monthly report card for the Jays, grading each player on a scale from A+ ("we're not worthy") to F ("get out of town, and don't come back"). Here's the card for April.

Warning: my comments are remarkably free of statistical analysis, and occasionally are over-reliant on overworked metaphors. Read at your own risk.

Today's menu: a comeback victory in the bottom of the ninth, a fifteen-inning heartbreaker, and a pair of 6-1 thrashings (for the good guys) in the low minors.

...bring May Doubleheaders!

Last year was the year of the Marlins. This year, could it be the year of the Marlon? Ten members of the Batter's Box roster have cast their first monthly ballots in tracking progress for the eventual presentation of the 2004 Andujar Award. While 29 players received mention -- exactly half of the 58 who were "nominated" in various pre-season discussions on Da Box -- only one player was on all 10 ballots.

Ladies and gentlemen, meet your May 1 Andujar Leader ... Marlon Anderson. While the 10 first-place votes were split among six players, with nobody receiving more than two, Anderson nabbed 83 of a possible 100 points in this first in-season survey.

The details of where the '04 Andujars stand ...

For a change the Jays top tier teams were victorious, while "THE ALLEY CATS LOSE". Did we ever think we would see this day?

Woher die Schulden kamen
War wohl jedermann bekannt
Er war ein Mann der Frauen
Frauen liebten seinen Punk

The Jays have lost three straight games. Tonight they send Doc to break the losing streak. That's part of the reason why he's getting paid the big bucks.

Halladay (2-3, 3.53 ERA) vs. Buerhle (1-1, 5.93 ERA)

It's time the Jays started another streak, after winning three and then losing three in their last six games. Roy Halladay is always a pleasure to watch and once again he's matched up against a quality pitcher. Mark Buehrle falls into the "crafy lefthander" category. These days any lefty seems to spell trouble for the Jays.

Someone once told me that Buehrle and Mark Hendrickson have basically the same stuff. I agree. It's what you do with your stuff that counts.

Please welcome Batter's Box reader Dyl as he suggests a new 5x5 format for fantasy ball.

Detroit Tigers (and Toledo Mud Hens) hurler Fernando Rodney is scheduled to have season-ending elbow surgery tomorrow. What does that have to do with anything on Da Box? Well ... nothing, really. Except ... that's right, kids, it's time for another exciting installment of Baseball's Hall of Names! Woohoo!

It's simple, really ... what's the best possible team of players who had two first names? No, not of the John Henry Johnson ilk. Rather, those players like Frank Thomas -- and Fernando Rodney -- whose last name is also a first name.