The winter meetings are underway in San Diego. The off-season has been relatively quiet so far. It is uncertain whether there will be deals at the winter meetings or just a lot of discussion.

We just saw Gaylord Perry pass away, one of many guys who thrived in the era of no pitch limits. When guys could throw 300 IP in 5 of 6 years (Perry did it ages 30-36 with 'just' 280 one year) and had 6 more 200 IP seasons left in his arm after that (!!). I could go antidotal on it but I prefer raw data.

There was much more to him than the spitball.

Over the years the Jays have had a few GM's and each did drafts and signed undrafted free agents. So how did each do?

My favourite birthday team belongs to those born on November 26.  There were no slam-dunk Hall of Famers born today, just a large number of very good players.  I have commented on this team before, maybe 5-10 years ago, but there have been some recent significant additions to round out the club.  First, here's the pool of players to choose from.  You can sort them by WAR to get a general flavour of what we are talking about. 

And here's the new Hall of Fame ballot...

I made a Data Table. I intend to share.

Well, things going nuts in the one thread so we need a clean one, especially for big news like this.

And these are the dates one needs to know.

With the World Series over it is now time to turn back the focus onto the Blue Jays. One of the biggest questions this off season is what to do with the catching situation. Let's debate the possibilities.

The Houston Astros are the 2022 champions, and they won in 2017 as you may recall. Dusty Baker has his second World Series ring, and this one has most certainly punched his ticket to Cooperstown.

Is this not the matchup some of us anticipated, and some of us dreamed of, when the post-season began? On the one hand, a powerhouse that comfortably cruised to the the best record in the league, facing off with a squad whose season didn't take off until they replaced their manager halfway through?

And then there were four. Astros and Yankees, Phillies and Padres.