I repeat.  Chavez does not have to be added until nex year.

I repeat.  Chavez does not have to be added until nex year.

Your right, Bastain must have made a mistake.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MimrNpffewM  speaking of Chavez this is a video of him ripping a double in the Venezualan winter league. I found it when i was trying to find what year he was signed in. He definatly has a powerful swing.

Tell that to Jordan Bastian.  I'm just relaying what he said already.  Anyways, here are the regulations for the Rule 5 draft according to Wikipedia.....

Players are eligible for selection in the Rule 5 draft who are not on their major league organization's forty man roster and:

- were signed at age 19 or older and have been in the organization for four years; or

- were signed at age 18 or younger and have been in the organization for five years.

The exemption periods were extended by one year in October 2006 as part of a new Collective Bargaining Agreement. The change took effect immediately, exempting many players from the 2006 Rule 5 draft even though they had been signed in some cases more than four years before the new agreement came into effect. Prior to the rule change, players were exempt from the first two or three Rule 5 drafts held after their signing (regardless of the year they were drafted), rather than from the first three or four Rule 5 drafts after their signing.

Chavez, who turns 21 in January, signed with the club in 2005 and played his first season in Pulaski in 2006 at the age of 17.  That means he's played four seasons and shouldn't be eligible.  However, Chavez's deal was in 2005 before the new CBA rules took effect and that may be why he's eligible for this year's Rule 5.  Right now, I'll go with Jordan Bastian on this one until I hear differently.

This titbit from recent prospectus chat :

EL Angelo (New York, NY) : what team has the worst "best" prospect?

Kevin Goldstein: I think it's going to be TORONTO.

AA is really inheriting a very tough situation. One of the worst farm systems (if not the worst),

the worst contract in baseball (Wells), failure to trade Halladay last July - I think he will likely

receive much less this offseason (the Santana deal equivalent), the draft fiasco, 

The toughest division in baseball.

If the Jays manage to become competitive before 2015 ( in a pennant race ), then AA will

be a miracle worker.

Through Bastian, from Chicago, via mlblogs.

The Cubs are one of the teams the Blue Jays have contacted regarding pitcher Roy Halladay. However, before Cubs fans start salivating at the prospect of the former Cy Young winner in the rotation with Ted Lilly, Carlos Zambrano, and Ryan Dempster, there's a catch. He's owed $15.75 million in 2010, and the Blue Jays want some of the Cubs' top prospects. No. 1, the team can't take on Halladay's salary. The Blue Jays apparently have a wish list and Milton Bradley is not on it. A player like highly regarded shortstop Starlin Castro most likely is, and the Cubs don't want to part with him, especially since they might only have Halladay for one year. The right-hander was 17-10 with a 2.79 ERA this season, and is a free agent after 2010. One thing the Blue Jays did make clear to the Cubs is they want to move Halladay this offseason.

Almost missed this but AA was on the Fan590 in Toronto yesterday.

He talked mainly about amateur scouting.  AA said he analyzed the source of all the players drafted in the amateur draft and then looked at how many scouts they had compared to the number of drafted players.  He used this method to add scouts so that the scouts can spend more time scouting the players and have a better understanding of how good the player is.  He also discusses trying to cut down on travel time for scouts.  The Jays will take more risks in the draft although he wasn't asked about HS pitchers.

Trade talk is somewhat slow at the moment as GM's see what holes can be filled through free agency and non-tenders.

He has spoken to the agents for all three free-agents and what they are looking for is too high right now.  I assume this means that if they get more realistic then the Jays might be interested.

To the above post, I agree you should make sure you have your basis covered in the player hotbeds. But the places that are less scouted you have a far greater chance of finding hidden talent. Everyone and their brother scouts southeren cali, but if you can have more scouts in places that other teams dont that is where you will get your advantage.

That vimeo link has a lot of footage of Jimenez catching.  One of the videos (#189) also shows David Cooper.  During Cooper's third AB, Jimenez throws out a basestealer (Starlin Castro?).

Some of the prospects tossed about in Doc rumours are featured in those videos - Starlin Castro, Josh Vitters, Casey Kelley, Justin Smoak.

If Beeston's quote is accurate, it's looking more likely than ever that Halladay is on his way out the door.  I just don't understand why Beeston would state publicly that Halladay won't re-sign with the Jays.

http://www.nypost.com/p/sports/yankees/patience_with_doc_IbKPLlXOteVUJojfHb13aI

Beeston is reported to have said that Roy "is not inclined: to re-sign.  That is in the "probable" group not the never never group.

Over the last week we have heard leaks coming from the Cubs, the Dodgers, the Phillies, the Yankees and the Red Sox.  There can be no doubt that the word is out there that Roy is likely to be traded and if a team is interested they should get involved now.

This is off topic but I have been searching the web trying to find out what people are saying in regard to a potential return for Roy Halladay.  I have read some stuff from the LA Times where the Dodgers fan were adamant that a deal including Billingsley or Kershaw would not make sense but I haven't found a lot of other speculation so i thought i'd turn to the experts.  What do people think would be a reasonable return for Halladay and who are the likely bidders (NYY, Red Sox, LAA, LAD...anyone else?)?

Jeff Blair and Keith Law were on the Fan last night debating free agency in general and the topic turned to Halladay.  They both thought that LA were the favourite to acquire Roy.  Blair said that he heard the Jays were not that high on Billingsley and Law said LA would be crazy to deal Kershaw.  Law said he didn't see Philly making the trade, they already have Lee.  Law also thought that the Yankees and the Cubs didn't have enough prospects to make a trade.  Blair said don't forget about the Red Sox.

Blair also said that the Jays have been contacted by more teams than they expected.  Audio is at the fan website.

There are a lot of interesting pitching prospects on that Angels' list.