Yeah, if you trade all three and pay their salaries as well.

That would be great, but I doubt it. The Marlins figure to be a serious playoff contender this year. They have a potent batting lineup. Their weakness is probably pitching. I doubt they'd move Burnett unless they get a similar pitcher in return (Lilly).

it sounds interesting...

I'd probably stick with Lilly because he's got a year left on his contract. Unless Burnett were the agree to a three year deal with the Jays as part of it. Then I'd consider it.

All highly unlikely however. Mere speculation at this point. Just saying that I doubt the Marlins would move a solid starting pitcher unless they got another in return. They're more likely to move a bat for a pitcher.

Bladdergroin

Classic, Kevin. That's Ian Bladergroen, the Mets' hotshot prospect who was sent to the Sox in the Mientkiewicz deal last season.

Thanks, again, for the wonderful updates.

Unless the Jays have some funny ideas, McGowan will not pitch for Syracuse in April. The Jays optioned McGowan to AAA like this in 2004, and he went to New Hampshire to start the year.

Why did they option McGowan to Syracuse (this year and last year) when they have no intention of playing him there? Couldn't they option him to New Hampshire or Dunedin?

I was hoping that Koch would rediscover his fastball, but as the 92 MPH reading on the YES bug on Thursday night revealed, Billy the Kid has no bullets left in his gun.

For what it's worth, I believe League was also hitting around 92.

That's good to hear, but after the insistence on keeping Berg on the club last year seeing is believing for me.

Sorry to nit pick, but are we forgetting the great Alfredo Griffin, first base coach for the Anaheim Angels?

The Jays have virtually no hope of making the playoffs in any division, except maybe the AL Central.

The Jays problem is simply that they're not a very good ballclub. Until last year the Red Sox had always been a slightly above average team who had a good record because they got to play 53 games a year against below-average Oriole, Devil Ray, and Blue Jays team. Most years there were at least 3 teams in the AL West who as good if not better than the Red Sox.

While baseball still has a Yankees problem, it's a pretty balanced sport right now. There are at least 15 teams at the start of the year that have a legitimate shot at winning it all, which isn't really any different than any other sport.

According to Rogers Communications' quarterly financial statements, it seems that revenue sharing payments are received throughout the year. For each of the last two quarters (the first two in which the Blue Jays were treated on a consolidated basis with RCI), you see a statement like this:

During the three months ended December 31, 2004, the Blue Jays generated revenue of $19.8 million primarily related to baseball revenue, which comprises home game and concession revenue, and revenue generated from Major League Baseball’s revenue sharing agreement whereby funds are distributed to and from clubs based on the clubs’ respective revenues.

So clearly they're receiving payments throughout the year. What we don't know, is how the revenue sharing payments track - but according to the CBA, teams actually make estimates throughout the year, and quarterly payments are made on that basis (and there's penalties for misrepresenting your estimates). They do a square-up for the year's results on December 1, and then the following year, in March, everyone's audited financials are due and they make a final adjustment. So what we do know is that no one will have their 2004 financials ready to do final 2004 revenue sharing calculations for a little while yet (probably). Last year, the full-year revenue sharing numbers were leaked in May - we'll hope for the same this year, and hope that the Toronto numbers get leaked this time too!

Just to make everything clear, teams share a pool of 34% of each team's local revenue, which is then split evenly among all the teams. There are accountants in place to make sure that each team doesn't hide revenue, but it doesn't appear to work very well, and some insiders come straight out and admit that that's the case. In some cases, the amount of "hidden" revenue is small, and in others it appears to be quite sizable, though I don't know of any cases where it seems to be getting worse.

This is distinct from the luxury tax, which doesn't get distributed to teams, but gets spent by MLB on other purposes.

There's also a currency equalization payment the Jays once got, but I don't know if they'll even get that this/last year. If I remember correctly, this was paid out of the Commissioner's Discretionary Fund, which is a kitty, or slush fund, of $10 million a year of revenue sharing money. It's put under Bud Selig's control that he can spend on basically whoever he thinks needs a cash infusion (teams have to make a request).