It's a boring time of year for baseball. Joey Bats is back with the Jays, Mark Trumbo is back with the Orioles. Not a whole lot else going on.

The Toronto Blue Jays have rounded out its minor league managing and coaching staffs for the 2017 season. The most notable move sees Blue Jays legend Devon White (or Whyte) becoming the new hitting coach of the Buffalo Bisons.


Devon White will be in charge of the Blue Jays Triple-A hitters in 2017.

It appears that Jose Bautista is coming back on a one, or two, or one plus an option year deal. Details are yet to be confirmed but it seems as though both sides want the deal to happen. The first year salary will be for more than $17.2M.

It's very quiet out there. Hello there in the RC, is anybody home?

So it seems like baseball has settled into a big game of chicken. The front offices are holding out for falling demands and the players and agents are hoping for 2016 money. Meanwhile we debate the 25th spot on the roster while the silence engulfs us, deeper and deeper. Maybe this is all a plot by Martin Scorcese to publicize his new Silence movie.

A few things of note in the Blue Jays minor league system. The Bluefield Blue Jays will continue to play ball at Bowen Field in 2017 and 2018 after the club agreed to a two-year extension of its Player Development Contract with Toronto. Bluefield joins Buffalo, New Hampshire, Lansing and Vancouver in having their stays extended for the next two seasons.


The Bluefield Blue Jays have been affiliated with Toronto since the 2011 campaign.

Yup, he's gone. 3 years $55 mil with a $25 mil option ($5 mil buyout). If year 4 isn't taken then he gets a total of $60 mil. If all 4 years happen he makes $80 mil just like the Jays offered.

Its almost here. Will Santa have any gifts for his favourite baseball team? Did Shapkins ask for an outfielder or a reliever, or both?

The winter meetings are over and the Blue Jays still have holes to fill. With two weeks until Christmas will the Jays act before the holidays?

The winter meetings are being held this week in Washington. Steve Pearce is a Blue Jay. Mitch Moreland is not, yet.

The final reveal! We have a top 10 list that looks a lot like last year's edition. Eight players return along with two new draftees. Max Pentecost and D.J. Davis hightail it out of the top 10.

We hope you enjoyed this year's list. A big thank you goes out to #2JBrumfield, sam and Thomas for helping select the top 30 and preparing the player stats and descriptions.

Day two of prospecting takes us to the numbers 11 through 20 prospects.

The new administration is very protective of prospects and draft picks. One piece of evidence supporting this assertion is that all thirty of last year's Batter's Box top 30 prospects are still with the organization. Those 30 prospects have been bolstered with the 2016 draft class plus two prospects who came over in the Liriano trade.

The expectation of the top 30 prospects for any team is that one third will improve, one third will regress and one third will stay as they were. Thirteen of last year's top 30 prospects did not make it onto this year's list. Some of them have indeed regressed but the addition of this year's draftees, and the traded players, has raised the level of the top 30. A player who might have made the list last year, and who has maintained his performance level, might not make the list this year. In other words, this is a deeper system than 2015's. Baseball America has suggested that the Blue Jays now have a top 10 system, as compared to a bottom 10 system last year. On some top 30 lists the players in the 21 -30 range are barely prospects. This year's Blue Jay bottom third prospects includes some very good players. A strong top 30 needs star power at the top and depth at the bottom and this year's list has both.

Sigh. Old thread becomes unmanageable so time to start a new one. Come one, come all. Rule 5, 40 man roster, free agents, HOF voting begins, potential lock out, etc. Also Jerry Howarth is doing well.

The last thread is a bit big now so we need to start a fresh one.

Where is that sweet spot for wins and crowds? What should Rogers be shooting for?