AND DOWN THE STRETCH THEY COME (This entry is being typed with a malfunctioning "b" key, you have been warned) With about 2.5 weeks left in the minor league regular seasons for Yankee affiliates it is time to get caught up on what transpired this past weekend. But before that, it is time to talk about something else. Columbus, Tampa, and Battle Creek are the three Yankee affiliates in serious postseason contention. Often, when minor league teams are in playoff contention, something that will happen is that players will be promoted or demoted to help with the playoff push, so if any type of completely unanticipated transactions with the aforementioned clubs occurs in the next few days, you know why. Now, on to the action. On Friday, Brad Halsey was outstanding against the Mets' AAA farm team; the 23-year-old left-hander went 7-5-0-0-1-8-0 and lowered his ERA to 3.02. After struggling following his demotion from the major league club, it seems that Halsey has gotten back into the pre-promotion groove he was in with 15 straight scoreless innings. I will be shocked if Halsey is not back in NY come September as, at the very least, he deserves to have the job of one of CtJ™, PP™/TTAS™, or _____™ from here on out. Andy Phillips, who I had given up covering due to there seemingly being no hope for him making the majors, went 1 for 4 with a single on Friday and was promptly promoted. He leaves after hitting .357/.383/.738/.357 (AVG/OBP/SLG/GPA) in 42 AA at bats and .294/.368/.537/.300 in 367 AAA at bats. He also sported a combined UiBB:K ratio of 43:49 and17 doubles, 5 triples, and 26 homers. Phillips is not much of a defender, but has significant experience at all non-SS infield positions and should definitely hit more than Enrique Wilson, which is valuable. I think where Phillips could/should pick up some playing time is at 1B against LHP because Olderud™ and Pumpkin™ have struggled against the portsiders this year. Robinson Cano's hot streak has halted. In his last 3 games, Cano is 0 for 9 with 1 walk and 3 strikeouts. The clearest sign that it is over is the 3 strikeouts as Cano is a tough guy to strikeout despite being a relatively free-swinger and even in his worst days of controlling the strike zone he never struck out much. Dioner Navarro only played in the Saturday game and continues to chug along after an extremely slow start to his AAA career. The 20-year-old C went 1 for 3 with a double and a walk in the lone game he played in. If he manages to get a little hotter, Navarro, currently at .257 in 101 AAA at bats, has a decent shot at a .300 BA in AAA. I hope he gets there, as that is impressive for someone so young. I also hope he plays in tonight's game, which should happen since he didn't play on Sunday as I want to get a close look at what he's doing both at and behind the plate these days. Trenton played on Friday and Saturday before enjoying an off-day Sunday. They lost the first game and won the second. Fittingly enough, the games were started by pitchers moving in opposite directions as Sean Henn went 7-6-4-4-4-4-0 for the Friday loss and Justin Pope went 6-5-1-1-2-4-1 for the Saturday victory. Henn has not had a dominant outing in a while and could really use one, as his year just seems to be looking worse and worse based on preseason expectations. A lack of much, if any, preseason expectations is the greatest reason why Pope's stock is going up. It's all about perspective in the prospect world, and really, this time next year, when Henn is as old as Pope is now, his stock may be going up too. Bronson Sardinha, the team's star hitter, seems on the verge of righting the ship, as far as hit prolonged hitting slump. In the two games, he was 1 for 6 with 3 walks and 3 strikeouts. The strikeouts are a small concern, but I'm looking past that and at the walks as reason for hope that he's regained his strike zone control and will start mashing again. Tampa did not play once during my down time, for obvious reasons. The Made and Andrus show at Battle Creek continued through the weekend. While Andrus has been good, 4 for 10 with 3 singles, a double, and 2 walks, Made, 4 for 9 with 3 singles, a double, 3 singles, and a walk has been slightly better for slightly longer. That their current numbers are so close are a testament to how far Made has come in a short time. That, coupled with his more positive reviews from scouts going into the season make me lean towards him as a better prospect. It would be icing on the cake if he could get to a .300 BA by the end of the season; he is currently at .284. The highlight of Friday's SI game was Jesse Hoover's continued domination of the NYPL. I have been cautious about mentioning Hoover on the site because of my personal bias against "old" prospects, but Hoover's numbers are so dominant that I can't really ignore them anymore. On Friday he went 5-2-0-0-1-9-0. In total, his NYPL numbers are 33.1-20-11-9-17-57!!!-0. The Yankees need to put the 22-year-old on the Matt DeSalvo path and I think they will. If he can perform like DeSalvo has, barring the back injury of course, he will begin garnering even more hype here. On Saturday, SI had a doubleheader and Jeff Marquez did his job in the opening game, but SI could not win. Marquez, who turned 20 on August 10th, has been arguably the most impressive Yankee draftee thus far. On Saturday he went 5-2-0-0-3-4-0 to bring his NYPL numbers to 32-29-13-8-12-22-2 after going 14.1-10-1-1-4-18-0 in the GCL. It'll be interesting to see where the Yankees place Marquez to open '05 because he has performed at the level of a college draftee despite being a very young JUCO pick. The last, and most important to the major league club, bit of pitching news to come out of SI in recent days is the performance of Steve Karsay. Karsay did well on back-to-back days going 1-0-0-0-0-1-0 on Friday and 1-0-0-0-0-1-0 on Saturday. I hope I don't jinx anything, but Karsay could be back as soon as the Yankees return from their road trip. Both young SI OFs, Tim Battle and Estee Harris, struggled over the weekend. Harris was 1 for 7 with 2 strikeouts before being benched for the doubleheader capper and Battle was 1 for 9 with a triple, a walk, and 4 strikeouts as he managed to get into all the games. The GCL Yankees did not play, for obvious reasons. *** Questions, comments, suggestions to minoryankeeblog@hotmail.com   ¶ 1:07 PM