Zen Dayley: Doin' the affiliation shuffle, off to Buffalo

This has come up before, but Sports Business Journal (subscriber content only, but you can get a two-week trial) has a look at the looming affiliation shuffle in the minors, which very much applies to the Jays:

The last reaffiliation cycle, in 2006, involved five Class AAA teams and 26 clubs overall. The new cycle likely will bring a similar amount of switching. At the minors’ upper-most level, the most-talked-about scenario involves the Cleveland Indians parting ways with longtime partner Buffalo to align with Columbus, with a new downtown ballpark set for completion in 2009 for the Clippers.

That move, should it happen, would set off a chain reaction that could see Buffalo link with Toronto, and the Blue Jays’ current Class AAA partner in Syracuse, N.Y., sign with the New York Mets.

It's not news by any means, but DJF and The Tao haven't got to it yet, so it's worth noting. 

(Pete Toms gets credit for the link.)

Damn, the Jays

• Triple-A catcher Robinzon Diaz being sent to the Pirates to complete the deal for José Bautista is palatable. He's 25, he had a lousy on-base percentage and modest power in the minors — backup catcher material, at best. 
  
  The Jays have a logjam of catching prospects, regardless of whether you count Curtis Thigpen as a catcher. Thigpen is really a gwapper, as "gamer without a position."
• ESPN's Page 2 (slogan: "We can't believe we were ever hip, either") grasping at straws picking the worst three players in each franchise's history rates a mention. The Jays get off relatively unscathed, considering they had to reach back to the franchise's expansion years to pick their worst three players, one of whom wasn't even a full-time ballplayer, but went on to no small amount of success in the NBA (Danny Ainge).
  
  Cito Gaston's rookie season with the 1969 Padres turns up on the National League list (A player on a first-year expansion team shouldn't count, since usually they're there due to the conditions the league had for stocking a new franchise. They're only there because the organization was kept from signing someone good. It kind of works the same with the Washington Nationals).