On opening day at Triple-A Buffalo, the Bisons rotation was made up of Marcus Stroman, lefty Sean Nolin, Kyle Drabek, veteran southpaw Ricky Romero and journeyman right hander Liam Hendriks. Of those five today, only Nolin is still with the "Herd" and he missed a chunk of the season with an injury. Stroman is up with the Blue Jays as a key member of the starting rotation. Drabek was just called up this past weekend to be part of the Jays bullpen after the organization decided he was better suited to relief pitching. Romero is done for the season with a knee injury and Hendriks was part of the trade with the Kansas City Royals that brought Danny Valencia to the Blue Jays. So the Bisons rotation for the final two weeks of International Leage season looks distinctly different and appears to offer the Blue Jays a lot more upside. Nolin is still pitching well. Lefty Daniel Norris has been brilliant in his first two Triple-A starts, striking out a total of 23 batters. Raul Valdes is a 36-year-old southpaw, adding a bit of veteran stability. Then, you have a pair of young right handers whove been more than holding their own in Scott Copeland and Kendall Graveman. Graveman is the one who really caught my eye. On Sunday against the Philadelphia Phillies-affiliate Lehigh Valley Pigs, he got a no-decision while pitching seven shutout innings. He struck out four and walked none. The 23-year-old right-hander out of Alexander City, Alabama has had a meteoric rise through the Blue Jays organization, especially considering he was just an eighth-round draft pick in 2013. Graveman, or maybe we should start calling him "the Undertaker," has made four different stops throughout the Blue Jays system this season. He started at Low-A Lansing, then moved up to Dunedin in the High-A Florida State League, where he spent the bulk of this season. Then, it was on to Double-A New Hampshire and finally Buffalo. Youvre got to be pretty impressive to move up that fast. In total, Graveman has pitched 155 innings this season. He has built a 12-6 record with a sparkling 1.68 ERA. Opponents have only managed to hit .223 off of him and he has surrendered only two home runs in total. The Blue Jays playoff hopes are looking iffy at best right now with just 37 games to play, but the pitching future looks encouraging, especially with the likes of Stroman, Sanchez, Hutchison, Norris, Nolin and now maybe Graveman. This may be the best group of young arms, this side of the New York Mets. --- All this talk of pitching brings me to a great bit of research by Woody Paige of the Denver Post. Going back over the archives, Paige discovered that the Rockies had drafted 569 pitchers (414 right-handers) over their 22-year history. Of those numbers, the only arms that had made any significant impact with Colorado were Canadian lefty Jeff Francis, Aaron Cook, Jason Jennings and Jamey Wright. Is it any wonder then, that Colorado has the worst record in the National League and second-worst in the Majors, just a game ahead of Texas? --- The Detroit Tigers have been stumbling around since June 1, compiling a meagre record of 35-34. They are sitting a half-game back of Seattle for that second Wild Card slot in the American. But one reason not to count Detroit out is that hey have 11 of their remaining games left against the Central cellar-dwellers, the Minnesota twins, and they close out the season at home against with seven-straight games against the Chicago White Sox (three) and the Twins (four). The Mariners, on the other hand, play 13 of their final 27 against the two teams ahead of them in the West in the Los Angeles Angels and the Oakland As. Stitched Pirates Jerseys .com) - American Madison Keys grabbed a first- round victory on Sunday in a rainy start to the Apia International Sydney tournament. Pittsburgh Pirates Shirts . Old times for a defence that has looked just plain old recently? "No," safety Ryan Clark said. "We used to be much better than that. https://www.cheappiratesjerseys.us/ . He made that dream a reality Wednesday night. Olt, who grew up in Branford, Connecticut, attended UConn and made a nearly 2 1-2 hour trek to Boston a handful of times to watch the Red Sox, belted a two-run homer, one of four hit by Cubs in a 16-9 rout that completed a three-game interleague series sweep. Cheap Pirates Jerseys . The Raptors general manager has his list of possible draft selections whittled down to a handful ahead of Thursday nights NBA draft in Brooklyn, New York. The Raptors, who have auditioned dozens of players over the past couple of weeks, have the 20th overall pick in the first round, as well as the 37th and 58th picks in the second. Pittsburgh Pirates Store . The $145.7-million Tim Hortons Field was slated to open this month, a year before it was to host all 32 mens and womens soccer competitions. The delay has forced the Hamilton Tiger-Cats football team to use a smaller facility for the first two home games of the season.HALIFAX - Jonathan Drouin scored goals 65 seconds apart in the third period and got the Halifax Mooseheads back on the winning path with a 4-1 victory over the Victoriaville Tigres in Quebec Major Junior Hockey League action on Thursday. The Mooseheads were coming off a loss to Moncton following a 10-game winning streak. Drouin, the CHLs 2012-13 player of the year and third-overall pick by the Tampa Bay Lightning in this years NHL entry draft, assisted on Nikolaj Ehlers power-play goal that made it 1-0 Halifax (22-10-0) at 18:45 of the opening period. After a scoreless second period, Carl-Antoine Delisle tied the game for Victoriaville (12-14-4) only 20 seconds into the third period. Drouin got the winner at 11:36, and he made it 3-1 with a short-handed goal at 12:41. Timo Meirer added to the lead less than a minute later. Zachary Fucale made 16 saves for Halifax, while Brandon Whitney tried to keep it close for Victoriaville, turning back 42 shots. --- DRAKKAR 4 SAGUENEENS 3 CHICOUTIMI, Que. -- Jeremy Gregoire scored the winning goal at 14:23 of the third period as Baie-Commeau rallied from a 3-0 deficit to defeat Chicoutimi.dddddddddddd. Charles Hudon had two goals and an assist for the Sagueneens, who led 3-0 in the second period. Jeremy Bouchard also scored for Chicoutimi (15-17-0). Dominic Poulin got Baie-Comeau (20-7-4) on the board, and Valentin Zykov tied the game with a pair of goals before the second period was over. Simon Lemieux made 38 saves for the Drakkar, and Julio Billia stopped 24 shots for the Sagueneens. --- FOREURS 3 OCEANIC 2 VAL-DOR, Que. -- Anthony Beauregard gave Val-dOr the lead for the third and final time in the game, scoring in the third period in the Foreurs victory over Rimouski. Louick Marcotte opened the scoring for Val-DOr (21-11-0) in the first period, and he made it 2-1 in the second. Patrik Zdrahal and Nicolas Hebert replied for Rimouski (16-10-5). QMJHL scoring leader Anthony Mantha had a pair of assists for Val-dOr. Mantha leads the league with 32 goals and 36 assists. Francois Tremblay made 32 saves for the Foreurs, while Philippe Desrosiers handled 20 for the Oceananic. ' ' '