His arrival creates a logjam at first base, with Eric Hinske and Shea Hillenbrand still on the scene after having split time at the position last season.

"We'll deal with that tomorrow," Ricciardi said with a weak grin following another long, productive day that stretched to the witching hour.

Ooh!

Huh. It actually makes sense on the surface -- the Orioles signed Hernandez and now have two expensive catchers on the roster. They need pitching, and might be willing to take on Hisnke's salary if the Jays assumed Lopez's cash. And the Jays could certainly use a catcher. But Lopez has over 1,400 games behind the plate and will be 35 next season. I'd rather have Gerald Laird myself.

On a side note, I knew that I had mentioned Laird before.

Baseball America comment on Majewski, in their California league review....

Bear in mind that the blown saves stat isn't just talking about leads blown in the 9th inning. A middle reliever, whom the manager has no intention of even leaving around long enough to earn a save, can get tagged with a blown save in the 6th inning if, say, he allows a run in a 3-2 game.

This is why middle relievers often have stats like "0 saves, 6 blown saves", and why, when teams convert middle relievers to closers, some in the media trot out their meaningless saves vs. blown saves record as if this somehow indicates a lack of aptness for the job.

That would put the Koskie-to-LA thoughts to rest.

Blair's Globe column and blog indicate that while Ricciardi hasn't given up on Wilkerson, it's tough to get a deal done with the Rangers' novice GM. At this point, I don't see any other trade possibilities on the radar -- JP scotched the Javy Lopez talk, and there's been no indication of discussions with Tampa or Cincinati. Hillenbrand to Minnesota remains a possibility, but one they'd probably pursue as a last resort. In terms of free agents, it seems that Garciaparra and Sanders remain reasonable possibilities, while Piazza and Thomas are not.

Accordingly, the Jays' must-do list really has only three entries at the moment: shave several million off the payroll, add an outfield bat, and clear out the corner-infield backlog. Some or all of those moves could be interconnected.

As mentioned elsewhere, two of Hillenbrand, Hinske and Batista must go. Since Hillenbrand is the best bet to DH at the moment (in the absence of a FA signing), the latter two seem the likeliest to leave. They could be packaged together, but it's more likely that Batista, who still has perceived value, would be part of a Wilkerson or similar trade for an outfielder, which could itself involve some combination of Rios, Hudson, a reliever or one of the farm-system pitchers. Hinske may simply end up as a salary dump.

The middle infield situation won't be resolved until it's determined who (if anyone) gets dealt in a Wilkersonesque trade, but the Jays aren't under the gun there: Hill can always start the year at Syracuse, and it wouldn't be the worst thing for him if he did: he faded down the stretch last season.

Otherwise, the team is actually pretty close to set. The rotation will very likely be Halladay-Burnett-Chacin-Towers-Lilly, and that's pretty damn good. The bullpen is Ryan-Speier-Frasor-Schoeneweis-Downs-and-choose-your-extra-arm, and that's also very solid. That's the best pitching staff in the divison, and rivals the best in the AL overall. The position players are in flux, but even at that, Zaun will at least split time at catcher, Koskie and Overbay are your corner infielders, and Wells and Johnanotto occupy 2/3 of the outfield spots. The key to resolving the rest of it lies in whether JP can combine the acquisition of a right fielder with the jettisoning of surplus players. That might take us into January.

Hmm. How many blown will occur? Lets see who did the 21 last year.

Via TSN and ESPN with stats shown as Saves-Holds-Blown Saves in order of total blown saves.
Batista-> 31-0-8
Speier->0-11-4
Schoeneweis->1-21-3
Walker->2-4-3
Frasor->1-15-2
Chulk->0-13-1
Holds also gained by McGowan and League but neither got a save or blew one.

All but Batista and maybe Walker will be in the pen in 2006. BJ Ryan had 5 blown saves. So total savings, if everyone acts like they did last year? 6. But that assumes that the Jays #6/7 relievers (Downs & whoever) blow none. Odds are they won't be more effective than Walker, thus the saved blown saves is down to 3.

Is this the right way to view things? Maybe, maybe not, but it does show that this pen could easily blow 21 saves next year.

Note: LaTroy Hawkins and Chris Reitsma are the only guys to blow 9 (ie: more than Batista) last year.

Incidentally your number 3 above is interesting. Last year the Red Sox had 3 more Saves and 3 less Blown Saves than the Jays did (38/18 vs 35/21). Meaningless stat I think, but interesting how that works out. For interest's sake, the Yankees had 46 Saves and 19 Blown Saves.

Ken Huckaby was something of a fan favourite in these parts, though I could take or leave his whole Enzo Hernandez schtick. Still, he may have a job being a knuckleball catching specialist. Not sure what experience he has in this area or why he's been specifically targeted, but power to him if he can earn a major league salary catching once every 5 days.

Other low-level news sees Jack Cust moving to the last team you (or he) would ever imagine: San Diego. Ending up in a pitcher's park in the non-DH league surely means it's time to sound the death knell for his career.

Finally, both Raul Mondesi and Benito Santiago want it known that they are looking for jobs in 2006. Don't everyone rush at once. Single file please. The queue starts here. I hear there are openings in Miami starting (and ending) at $300K. Loria and Mondesi deserve each other.