AA Montgomery Biscuits (33-35)

Morlan Activated-Biscuits RHP Eduardo Morlan has been activated off of the Disabled List; he was expected to arrive in Montgomery last night and could see game action as soon as today in Mobile. Morlan, placed on the DL April 25th with a sore right (pitching) shoulder, was rehabbing at the Naimoli complex in St. Petersburg. Acquired in the off-season as part of the Delmon Young trade from the Minnesota Twins, Morlan had struggled in six appearances for the Biscuits prior to going on the shelf, giving up six earned runs in 6.2 innings of work. Regarded as the organization's finest relief pitching prospect, Morlan will presumptively return to the closer's role that he had occupied prior to the injury.

BISCUITS 1, Mobile 0 (13)-The Biscuits and visiting BayBears exchanged zeros for 12 innings at Riverwalk Stadium on Friday night before two errors doomed Mobile in the bottom of the 13th. CF Rashad Eldridge came in to score when Mobile C John Hester dropped the incoming throw from 3B Cesar Nicolas that, executed properly, would have started a 5-2-3 double play to get Mobile out of the inning. Instead, 3B Chris Nowak reached base safely on the play, and his league-leading double play count stood pat at 15. RHP Wade Davis pitched seven shutout innings for the Biscuits to rebound from his poor start last Saturday.

BISCUITS 1, Mobile 0 (13)
1B Gabby Martinez	1-5, 1 IBB
3B Chris Nowak	1-6, 2B (14), GIDP
C John Jaso	2-4, BB
RF Sergio Pedroza	1-3, 2 BB (1 IBB)
DH Matt Spring	2-5
SP Wade Davis	7.0 IP, 4 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 4 SO, 1 HB

BISCUITS Up Next-at Mobile, 8:05 EST (LH James Houser)

Details on the other Rays minor league affiliates after the jump

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AAA Durham Bulls (33-29)

BULLS 10, Richmond 2-The Bulls lineup broke out for ten runs on nine hits, while RHP Mitch Talbot and RHP Dale Thayer did not give up an earned run as Durham won their second straight to earn a four game series split with the Richmond Braves.

BULLS 10, Richmond 2
CF Fernando Perez	0-3, 2 BB
DH Dan Johnson	2-3, 3 RS, HR (9), 2 RBI (32), BB, SF
3B Joel Guzmán	1-3, RS, GIDP
SS Reid Brignac	0-2, RS, 2 BB
2B Elliot Johnson	3-5, RS, 2 2B (11), 3 RBI (21), E (6, fielding)
SP Mitch Talbot	7.0 IP, 2 H, 1 R (0 ER), 0 BB, 7 SO, 2 HB, 95 Pitches
RP Dale Thayer	2.0 IP, 3 H, 1 R (0 ER), 0 BB, 2 SO, 28 Pitches

BULLS Up Next-vs Charlotte, 7:05 EST (RH Jeremy Cummings)

AA Montgomery Biscuits (30-32)

BISCUITS 6, Birmingham 3-LHP Jake McGee gave up a run in each of the first three innings, but settled down while Montgomery scored four in the top of the fourth inning to key a 6-3 win over the Barons. 

BISCUITS 6, Birmingham 3
C John Jaso	0-3, 2 BB
3B Chris Nowak	0-2, RBI (29), 3 BB, GIDP
1B Gaby Martinez	1-5, RS, 2B (8), GIDP
RF Erold Andrus	2-5, 3 RS, 2B (16)
DH Sergio Pedroza	0-3, 2 BB, SB (5)
SP Jake McGee	6.0 IP, 4 H, 3 R, 3 BB, 2 SO, 1 HR
RP Ryan Reid	2.0 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 3 SO

BISCUITS Up Next-at Birmingham, 8:05 EST (RH Wade Davis)

A+ Vero Beach Devil Rays (30-31)

Sarasota 12, V-RAYS 3-LHP Ryan Morse was bad, RHP Wilton Noel was worse, and not even CF Desmond Jennings' 3 for 3 day could save Vero Beach from going down in defeat 12-3 to the Sarasota Reds. 

Sarasota 12, V-RAYS 3
CF Desmond Jennings	3-3, 2B (1), RBI (2), BB
3B Cesar Suarez	0-4, RBI (27), SF
SS Jairo De La Rosa	3-4, 2 RS, 3B (2), HR (3), RBI (11), 2B short of cycle
SP Ryan Morse	4.0 IP, 6 H, 5 R (4 ER), 3 BB, 3 SO, 2 HR
RP Matt Walker	3.0 IP, 3 H, 2 R (0 ER), 1 BB, 4 SO, WP
RP Chuck Tiffany	1.0 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 1 SO

V-RAYS Up Next-vs Sarasota, 6:00 EST (LH David Price)

A- Columbus Catfish (22-39)

CATFISH 11, Rome 1-Columbus won for the second time in three days following a 12 game losing streak, walloping the Rome Braves 11-1 behind seven strong innings from LHP Brian Flores and a 14 hit day from the lineup.

CATFISH 11, Rome 1
2B Chase Fontaine	2-3, 3 RS, 2B (1), 2 BB, CS (1)
3B Greg Sexton	2-4, 2 RS, 2B (20)
1B Henry Wrigley	4-5, RS, 2B (6), 2 RBI (29), SB (3)
C Mike McCormick	0-1, 2 RBI (21), BB, 2 SF
SP Brian Flores	7.0 IP, 3 H, 1 R, 0 BB, 3 SO

CATFISH Up Next-at Rome, 7:00 EST (RH Alex Cobb)

We're done with roughly a month of the minor league season, and by now most people know what Jeremy Hellickson did(which is: dominated). We know that a couple top guys struggled(Chris Mason, Ryan Royster, etc)... but what about the less-heralded guys? Just because a player doesn't make a top 30 prospect list doesn't mean he won't contribute someday, especially in an organization as deep as ours. So after the jump I take a look at some things that happened in the first month that may have slipped through the cracks.

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AAA Durham Bulls (7-10)

BULLS 2, Norfolk 0-The Bulls scored two in the early innings and the lead held as they beat the Norfolk Tides for their second straight win following a four game losing streak.

BULLS 2, Norfolk 0
CF Fernando Perez	2-4, RS, 2 SB (7)
SS Reid Brignac	1-4, RBI (7)
3B Joel Guzman	0-4
RP Nick DeBarr	1.0 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 1 SO, 3 TBF, 11 Pitches
RP Dale Thayer	SV (3), 1.0 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 2 SO, 4 TBF, 19 Pitches

BULLS Up Next-at Norfolk, 1:15 ET (RH Jae Kuk Ryu)

AA Montgomery Biscuits (7-9)

News-Stacy Long of the Montgomery Advertiser reports that Biscuits LHP Jake McGee was scratched from his scheduled start on Saturday against the Jacksonville Suns due to a sore forearm. After the game, McGee said that he could have started, but that the Biscuits held him out for precautionary reasons. He said that he had begun feeling discomfort after starting on Monday against the Tennessee Smokies in cool weather conditions. He will make his next start as scheduled on Thursday against the Binghamton Mets.

Jacksonville 11, BISCUITS 7-With RHP Jeff Kamrath making a spot start in place of the sidelined McGee, Montgomery dropped a slugfest to the visiting Jacksonville Suns.

Jacksonville 11, BISCUITS 7
C John Jaso	3-5, RS, HR (2), 4 RBI (8), E (3, throw)
3B Chris Nowak	1-4, RS, RBI (8)
DH Sergio Pedroza	1-5
1B Gaby Martinez	2-5, 2B (3), RBI (7)
SP Jeff Kamrath	L (1-2), 2.1 IP, 7 H, 6 R, 4 BB, 2 SO, 18 TBF
RP Wade Townsend	2.0 IP, 1 H, 1 R, 0 BB, 0 SO, 1 HR, 7 TBF

BISCUITS Up Next-vs Jacksonville, 3:05 ET (RH Wade Davis)

A+ Vero Beach Devil Rays (8-8)

V-RAYS 10, St. Lucie 5-RHP Heath Rollins had a poor start for visiting Vero Beach, but the offense came through for ten runs on 12 hits and the bullpen held the lead as the Devil Rays bested the St. Lucie Mets for their third straight win and fifth in their past six.

V-RAYS 10, St.  Lucie 5
CF John Matulia	3-5, 2 RS, 3B (2),
DH Dioner Navarro	1-1, 3 RS, 2B (1), RBI (1), 4 BB
3B Cesar Suarez	1-4, RS, HR (2), 3 RBI (14)
LF J.T. Hall	1-3, 2 RS, HR (1), RBI (7), BB, E (1, fielding)
RF Ryan Royster	2-5, RS, 2 RBI (12), CS (2)
1B Matt Fields	2-3, RS, 2B (3), HR (3), 3 RBI (9), BB
SP Heath Rollins	4.0+ IP, 6 H, 5 R, 3 BB, 3 SO, 21 TBF
RP Ryan Reid	1.0 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 0 SO, 4 TBF

V-RAYS Up Next-vs Brevard County, 1:00 ET (RH Matt Garza)

A- Columbus Catfish (8-8)

Charleston 6, CATFISH 0-In a battle of Rays affiliates past and present, the latter could manage just three hits in a 6-0 shutout win for the Charleston RiverDogs.

Charleston 6, CATFISH 0
CF Emeel Salem	1-3, BB, 2 SB (15), CS (3)
DH Reid Fronk	0-4
SP Jeremy Hall	L (0-1), 4.0 IP, 3 H, 1 R, 3 BB, 3 SO, 17 TBF
RP Jesse Darcy	2.0 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 2 SO, 7 TBF

CATFISH Up Next-vs Charleston, 2:00 ET (RH Alex Cobb)

Over the off-season I professed how I had a distaste for our bullpen, particularly the middle and back parts consisting of Gary Glover and Scott Dohmann. Every Monday I'll look at the usage over the past week, that obviously begins today.

Generally speaking the bullpen did an excellent job this week even with one loss credited to Al Reyes, and only one save to Troy Percival. The unit saw 13.6 innings worth of work, allowing six runs -- four by Reyes and the other two by Miller -- for an ERA of 3.97, quite an improvement over the 6.16 ERA last season, even at such a small sample size.

Beginning at the top, Percival was only called upon once and was efficient in preserving his first Rays save and the 325th of his career. Showing great poise Percival worked through an iffy non-strike call against Bobby Abreu and located his next pitch, striking the veteran out to end the game. Although his role thus far has been near minimal Percival's clubhouse demeanor and role have been unmatched, look for the new bullpen area configuration this week at the request of Percival.

Despite a bloodbath at the hands of the Baltimore Orioles Reyes has been solid in two of his three appearances, including cleaning up a mess left by Miller on Saturday. In the past I was skeptical about giving Reyes even more innings, but thus far it appears Joe Maddon is leaning towards using Miller and Reyes in union for the 8th inning, at least until their performance or address dictates otherwise.

Speaking of Miller he's hardly impressed, yet this is nothing unexpected. Over his career Miller has thrown more than 200 innings during the first half of the season and has an ERA of 5.18, as opposed to his 3.65 ERA in the second half. Another thing to watch during the unfortunately named "Miller Time" will be his pre-pitch tendencies, namely if he continues to go to the bill of his hat prior to each pitch.

We now reach a piece that the Rays have chosen as a core of the relief staff through 2010 at the earliest, yes the newest extension receiver, Dan Wheeler. Not only did Wheeler find himself with the most work this week but he also found himself as the most effective, not allowing a baserunner thus far while striking out two batters. As I've pointed out numerous times it wasn't hard to see that Wheeler was a candidate for performance regression, or in this case progression, based on his peripherals. His contract extension isn't just reasonable, it's a downright steal for an organization that since its inception has been hard-pressed to find consistently successful relievers and keep them in Rays uniforms.

From awful starter to potentially useful reliever, thus is the career path of one James Phillip Howell. As he showed Sunday Howell is able to go multiple innings without ill results, even against the most vaunted of lineups. To his credit, Howell also showed the ability to retire batters of either hand equally well, and even went on a streak of seven straight outs. For one day at least, Howell appears to have reached the point of his career where the talk of potentially becoming useful is turning into results and is certainly someone to watch for as this season ages.

Finally we reach Scott Dohmann and Gary Glover and while neither did anything to grant my ire, yet, I'm encouraged that Glover was used the least of all relief arms. To their credit both have been effective, but I sincerely question if the level of success achieved last year can be replicated by either. I'm skeptical, but hopeful, if the duo can at least be around league average the Rays pen could become amongst the deepest in the league.

Since the bullpen won't consist of these seven all season, or at least it's highly inconceivable that such a rarity would occur, I would also like to highlight some of the relievers at Durham during this space. Grant Balfour, the 8th reliever if you will, cleared waivers and accepted an outright assignment to Durham. Steve Andrade remains on the disabled list to start the season meanwhile Chad Orvella has seemingly yet to recover from his injury, but the good news -- I guess -- is that Kurt Birkins has began throwing again and could join Durham soon. Dale Thayer, Calvin Medlock, Nick DeBarr and Scott Munter have been solid thus far with Ben Hendrickson  being anything but, allowing six runs in two and two-thirds innings of work.

AAA Durham Bulls (0-3)

Toledo 6, BULLS 1-3B Evan Longoria totaled up another hitless day for Durham as the Rays' AAA affiliate dropped their third straight to open the season. Longoria, who has not yet drawn a walk or garnered a hit through the Bulls' first three games, joined a parade of Durham hitters that were unable to muster much of an offensive effort off of Mud Hens pitching. Also going hitless on the day for Durham was CF Fernando Perez, who finished 0 for 4. RF Justin Ruggiano had an RBI single and LF Joel Guzman had the only extra base hit of the game, a double, for Durham.

On the hill, RHP Jae Kuk Ryu got the start for the Bulls and took the loss, surrendering three Toledo runs on four hits in four innings of work while walking one and striking out three. Two of the runs that he surrendered came on a two-run homer in the first, and his outing concluded with him having thrown just 73 pitches. Ryu was followed up by RHPs Dale Thayer and Scott Munter, who each threw 1.1 scoreless innings. LHP Brian Henderson made his first appearance in Triple A after multiple years at Double A Montgomery, and things didn't go so well for him. After getting one out in the seventh, he came back on to start the eighth only to be greeted by an onslaught from the Toledo lineup. He ended up up surrendering three runs on four hits in the eighth, including a two-run homer, and allowed Toledo to grab some extra insurance runs to seal away the ballgame. RHP Calvin Medlock relieved him and pitched a perfect eighth inning following his departure to prevent any further damage.

BULLS Up Next-at Toledo, 2:00 ET (RH Chris Mason)

AA Montgomery Biscuits (1-1)

BISCUITS 8, Chattanooga 5-Montgomery rebounded from a washed-out day off on Friday and evened up their record at 1-1 as Wade Davis threw a shaky five innings of work for the Biscuits. The Rays' highly touted pitching prospect gave up four runs on seven hits and two walks in five innings of work, striking out just one in the process. Nonetheless, Davis picked up his first win of the season in his debut start of 2008. The Biscuits' bullpen was able to hold the lead following his departure up until the ninth, when RHP Eduardo Morlan threw a perfect inning to pick up his first save of the year.

Offensively, the Biscuits lineup produced a fairly solid collective line, even if their individual marks in the box score weren't quite as pretty. C John Jaso and DH Gaby Martinez each had RBI singles for Montgomery, while RF Sergio Pedroza drew two walks to reach base a total of three times on the evening. Pedroza was also caught stealing, however, and Jaso committed his first miscue of the year on a throwing error. 3B Chris Nowak and 1B Rhyne Hughes were each held hitless for Montgomery, though Nowak did drive in a run via a sacrifice fly and Hughes drew a walk.

BISCUITS Up Next-Double-header vs Chattanooga, 3:05 ET (LH J. Houser, RH R. De Los Santos)

A+ Vero Beach Devil Rays (3-0)

V-RAYS 4, Daytona 3-Vero Beach rallied for three in the bottom of the ninth inning to beat the Daytona Cubs on Saturday night, thus preserving their standing as the only undefeated team in the Rays organization. CF John Matulia had two hits for the Devil Rays, one of which was a double, and stole two bases while LF Garrett Groce went 1 for 4. RF Ryan Royster went two for four with a solo home run; he also drove in the tying run and scored the winning run on a phenomenal night for him. C Nevin Ashley added a hit for V-Rays.

On the hill, RH Josh Butler made his season debut for the Vero Beac and tossed a good ballgame. The second round pick of the Rays in the 2006 draft gave up just three runs (two earned) on six hits while walking one and striking out four. He recorded a 9:4 groundball to flyball ratio. RH Wilton Noel tossed the final three shutout innings for Vero Beach to earn the win.

V-RAYS Up Next-vs Daytona, 1:00 ET (LH Ryan Morse)

A- Columbus Catfish (0-2)

Savannah at CATFISH, PPD-Saturday night's game between the host Columbus Catfish and the visiting Savannah Sand Gnats at Golden Park was postponed due to inclement weather. The game will be made up as part of a double-header this afternoon in Columbus, with the first game starting at 1pm EDT. The second game will begin approximately thirty minutes following the conclusion of the first. Both games will last seven innings.

CATFISH Up Next-Double-header vs Savannah, 1:00 ET (RH Josh Johnson, RH Jesse Darcy)