Welcome to the Batters Box top 30 Blue Jay prospects for 2013. Five of your trusted minor league correspondents pooled their votes to come up with the list. The same trusty five shared the task of writing the prospect descriptions you see below.

The system has seen a lot of movement since 2012.  Travis d'Arnuad, Noah Syndergaard, Jake Marisnick, Adeiny Hechavarria, Justin Nicolino and Sam Dyson were traded.  Five of last years top six prospects were moved to get that extra win from the major league team.

In total, forty prospects received at least one vote.  Twenty three of the top thirty were named on all five ballots.  There was plenty of agreement over who the top twenty prospects were, in name at least.  After those top 20 there are a mixture of players at AAA who might or might not get more than a cup of coffee in the major leagues and on the other side there are a ton of kids in the lower levels who haven't shown much yet.  Do you value Deck McGuire or Ryan Goins higher than Jacob Brentz or LB Dantzler?  The former will probably play a limited role in the major leagues, the latter could develop into all-stars or they could flame out.  

As usual we have split the top 30 into three installments, running Monday through Wednesday. 

We hope you enjoy the list and the discussion.

The annual Batters Box top 30 prospects will go live tomorrow with prospects 30 to 21 in the spotlight.  Who will be #1?  Will it be Aaron Sanchez or has his prospect status dimmed?  Will it be Marcus Stroman, the new kid on the block?  Roberto Osuna and Daniel Norris improved their ranking this season as did Sean Nolin.  Or could it be a surprise #1, maybe Franklin Barreto who has shown the ability to hit at a very young age?

Baseball America started rolling out their league top 20's yesterday, the first Blue Jay relevant list comes out today with the GCL.

The Vancouver Canadians are the back-to-back-to-back champions of the Northwest League.

Still batting 1.000! The Canadians have won three straight league titles since leaving the Oakland A's and joining the Toronto Blue Jays as an affiliate in 2011.

Vancouver tied up the series with Boise 1-1 in front of a packed Nat Bailey Stadium.  Andy Fermin had a strong game scoring a run, and with a 2 RBI triple in the 7th inning.

The Vancouver Canadians were able to advance to the Northwest League final thanks in part to a Game 1 victory against Everett at Nat Bailey Stadium Tuesday. The C's hope to replicate that home magic today and tomorrow in the best-of-three championship against Boise.

Game 1 starter Tom Robson warms up in the bullpen.

Vancouver lose game one and now need to win both game two and three at home. Jairo Labourt pitched well until he tired in the sixth, the bullpen inflicted most of the damage. The hitters had a few early chances but they didn't score and didn't have much else to be happy with for the rest of the game.

Vancouver now make the long bus ride back to Canada. Because of that, game two is not until Sunday.

Vancouver won game 2 versus Everett, which clinched the series and another berth into the NWL Finals. 

Unfortunately Dunedin’s season came to an end as they lost 4-0 to Daytona and weren’t able to get a hit until the 9th inning.

The Vancouver Canadians are up 1-0 in their playoff series but the Dunedin Blue Jays are down 1-0.

The regular season came to a close for four of the affiliates and three of them won. The losing team has a big playoff game tonight.

Bluefield lost game 2 of their playoff series due to multiple defensive errors which lead to 4 unearned runs which ultimately ended their season.  Vancouver clicnhed a playoff birth with a win.  The remaining teams played their second last-game of the regular season. 

Bluefield started their playoffs on Saturday. Mitch Nay hit a three run home run for an early lead but Pulaski came back to go ahead. The Jays tied the game in the seventh and had the bases loaded with one out in the ninth but could not score. The Mariners scored 5 off a melting down Phil Kish in the tenth to take a 1-0 lead in the best of three series. Alberto Tirado goes today for the Jays.

Lansing were able to get the ninth inning walk off hit. The Bisons lost despite a gallant comeback. They are eliminated from the playoffs. Vancouver won and are still in the playoff hunt. Dunedin were shutout, New Hampshire were rained out.

Buffalo continued to hang in the playoff race, Andy LaRoche hit a three run home run, Kyle Drabek and four relievers held Rochester at bay.

New Hampshire were eliminated from playoff contention, Deck McGuire pitched well again but took a loss when the first hit off him in the sixth inning scored three runs.

Daniel Norris just allowed one hit in five innings in his debut for Dunedin. Dustin McGowan and Steve Delabar also pitched in that game.

Lansing had 17 hits and 8 runs, too little too late.

Vancouver's playoff chase took a hit with a loss. Bluefield have played poorly of late and start their playoffs today with Jairo Labourt on the bump.

Two Jays teams are in the playoffs. The Bisons tragic number is 2, but they are playing the team ahead of them, Rochester. Obviously they have to win as a loss would eliminate them. Vancouver lost and are now tied with Spokane for a playoff spot although Vancouver hold the tie-break.

After a slow start to professional baseball, Rowdy Tellez continued to mash late in the GCL season.  Aaron Sanchez and Tom Robson had fantastic starts for Dunedin and Vancouver. 

The farm teams were 2-6 tonight, with a bunch of extra-inning losses.  Dalton Pompey continues to be on fire in August, having another excellent game, while Austin-Bibens-Dirkx, and Chase DeJong had excellent starts for their teams.