Another Great Night on the Mound for Several Jays Prospects

    Dustin McGowan may have been tipping his pitches and his teammates were having trouble laying off Masahiro Tanaka's splitter as the big club had their home opener, but for the second straight night, several Blue Jays pitching prospects shone for their minor league clubs.
   AAA Buffalo was rained out, and will make up their game with Rochester as part of a doubleheader on June 21st.
   At AA, Deck McGuire, who is three-peating for New Hampshire, led the Fisher Cats to their second win in a row at Trenton.  McGuire, who now holds the Fisher Cats record for most starts, has been viewed mostly as a disappointment since being selected in the 1st round of the 2010 draft, showed signs of putting things together last summer, and was added to the club's 40 man roster last fall.  He was likely sent back to AA because of the depth of starters at Buffalo, but that, of course, can change quickly and drastically over the course of a season.
   McGuire allowed three hits and an unearned run before leaving the game with one out in the sixth inning.  He walked one and struck out three.  A.J. Jimenez paced New Hampshire's attack with a 3-4 night, doubling twice and driving in a pair.  The well-traveled Yusuf Carter, nephew of of Blue Jays World Series hero Joe, who the Jays signed in the off season, went 2 for 5.
   At High A, Taylor Cole gave up one run over 6 innings, allowing only one hit and two walks, striking out 7, as the D-Jays dropped an extra innings decision to Clearwater.
   And in Low A, the much-anticipated full season debut of Jairo Labourt and Alberto Tirado took place, as Labout and Tirado joined Brady Dragmire in a piggyback start on a windy and rainy Ohio night as the Lansing Lugnuts topped Lake County.  Labourt started the game, and overcame a bit of wildness to pitch into the fourth inning, surrendering one run on two hits, walking and striking out four.  Dragmire relieved Labourt and picked up the victory with 1 2/3 innings of scoreless relief.  Tirado, who has been called "a beast in the making," by Baseball Prospectus' Jason Parks, finished the game with four innings of five-hit ball, giving up one run while walking one and striking out seven. It must have been a fun introduction to a midwestern spring for the pair of young Dominicans.
   While things weren't looking all that great with the parent club last night, there's lots of promise on the farm.