Story #78, 79, 80, 81, 82 -- Believe it.

If you want a real understanding of what has been going on in the Minor Leagues for the past week, and even what's to come this week-- I've got five stories for you. The amount of information collectively in these notebooks is pretty staggering when you think about. And I'll let you do that, I have to get back to more work. Busy, busy, busy so I can pick up Mary on Wednesday. Until then, it's not fun for Mark though.

Click here to take a 'Peek at the Week.' This story involves me making picks so you, the reader, knows what matchups to follow this week in the Minors. Since it's coming down to the wire in some leagues for the pennant, there's some excitement. It's the leagues that are already all but decided that are really, really, really boring to research and write about.

Click here for the Pioneer League Notebook. I don't know what it is about the PIO League, but I love it so. I always do it first. I always do it better (in my opinion). Maybe there's a correlation there, but I think there's just some charm about the league I can't quite fathom.

Click here for the Northwest League Notebook. The Yakima Bears are in last in their division right now, but the good news is it's the tightest division in (possibly) all the Minor Leagues. Writing about Vancouver each week makes me want to go there more and more. Not for MiLB mind you, I want to just get to Canada and explore a bit.

Click here to hear about MiLB's Offensive Players of the Week. There are some pretty sick players in MiLB you'll be hearing about real soon. My pick out of the bunch for this week has to be Springfield Cardinals catcher Colby Rasmus. What he did in four games is amazing.

Click here for a roundup of MiLB's Pitchers of the Week. For some reason the pitchers story is much more tedious to write than the hitters story. I think it's because all of the pitchers get chosen for winning a pair of games while keeping their ERAs low. I actually revel in the few that either lose, or do something spectacular like a complete game, shutout or otherwise. I guess it's like defense in hockey, you either appreciate it, or you don't. I appreciate pitching, I just think offense is more fun to write about.

Wow. That's the most ridiculous 48 hours of notebooking in my young career. Let's hope it doesn't come to this again, or at least any time soon. OK, I need to be back to work. Heading to "exotic" Dayton on Wednesday, I'll make sure to take pictures! Until then, peace out!