Tuesday's minor league schedule was very light, as the Double-A Texas League was the only full-season circuit in action. The two Triple-A leagues along with the Double-A Eastern and Southern leagues were all on their all-star breaks. The five Class A leagues also had the day off. The Triple-A and EL all-star games are tonight, so who says this is the slowest day on the sporting calendar?

• Corey Brown may have been overmatched against Triple-A pitching, but on the other hand, he's showing the Texas League might not be enough of a challenge for him. The Athletics' 24-year-old outfielder hit just .156/.207/.275 in 109 at-bats for Triple-A Sacramento in April and May as veteran Triple-A pitchers were able to take advantage of his aggressive approach. But he's raked since a demotion to Double-A Midland at the end of May. He hit .316/.420/.484 with four homers in June and is off to a .364/.391/.523 start in July. His latest effort was one of his best, as Brown went 3-for-5 and hit a game-tying home run in the ninth inning of Midland's game at Springfield.

• Coming off his best start of the season—seven shutout innings against San Antonio last Thursday—Double-A Northwest Arkansas righthander Aaron Crow put up a season-high nine strikeouts over six innings against Corpus Christi. The night was still something of a mixed bag for the Royals' 23-year-old though, as he gave up four runs (three earned) on six hits over his six frames. He didn't figure in the decision, leaving his record standing at 6-6, 5.61. But the strikeouts are an encouraging sign for Crow, who's been one of the minors' most prolific groundball pitchers (3.31 groundout/fly out ratio) but hasn't had much else go right. Before Tuesday, he hadn't fanned more than seven in any of his first 18 starts.

• The Brewers pulled righthander Eric Arnett, their first-round pick in last year's draft, out of the low Class A Midwest League after he'd gone 0-7, 6.87 in 56 innings for Wisconsin. The 22-year-old wasn't fooling MWL hitters, who batted at a .298 clip against him and he gave up 11 homers in 12 starts. Unfortunately, sending Arnett down to the Rookie-level Arizona League hasn't entirely cured him yet either. In his fifth outing in the AZL yesterday, Arnett surrendered six runs on nine hits in three innings of work, though he was coming off three straight quality appearances in which he permitted only one run on five hits over 11 innings. His ERA in the AZL stands at 7.31 in 16 innings, with almost all of the damage against him having been done in two outings—he also gave up six runs in his AZL debut on June 23.

• Red Sox first-round pick Kolbrin Vitek had one of the biggest days of his young pro career, going 3-for-5 with four RBIs for short-season Lowell. Vitek also slugged his first professional home run, a grand slam in the fourth inning off Brooklyn's Daniel Carela. The Ball State product, who was Lowell's DH in this game but has also been spending time at third base, is off to a .277/.398/.398 start in 83 at-bats with the Spinners.

• The Pirates have received bad news as 2009 first-round pick Tony Sanchez will be shut down for the rest of the season as he recovers from a broken jaw. Sanchez was beaned by Jeurys Familia in late June. The pitch fractured his jaw, requiring surgery to wire his jaw shut so it can heal. Sanchez has been unable to eat solid food since then, but he had held out hope that he would be ready to return to baseball before the season ended. That hope has ended, as doctors have told him there is no way he'll be recovered in time.