On Friday afternoon, we were discussing major league transaction rules and puzzling over exactly what was meant by "option years."

To make a long story short... Paul D was right, I was wrong.

Mea culpa, mea maxima culpa

The Jays have a full 25 man roster, a payroll of about $70 million and a budget of about $75 million.

The Jays and Twins have had some trade talks regarding Corey Koskie, but it doesn't look like anything is going to happen soon.

While we wait for the Troy Glaus trade press conference, here's a new place for our baseball musings.

Boxing Day in Toronto gave us nothing but sadness, thanks to a senseless shooting on Yonge Street and this news of Jeff Reardon. Today cannot help but be better.

JP's checking his offseason list (2 arms, 2 bats)
He's checking it twice (3 down, 1 to go)
We're gonna find out who's naughty (Hudson?) or nice (Hill?)
Troy Glaus is coming to town??

As expected the Jays tendered contracts to all arbitration eligible players yesterday. But more interestingly Mike Rutsey reports that the Jays have an interest in free agent catcher Bengie Molina.

That's right, Nomar to the Dodgers, where he will apparently play first base.

Say, another pretty fair Cubbie shortstop moved over to 1B and turned it into a Hall of Fame plaque. Maybe Nomar will, too?

Which brings us to today's Question of the Day ....

According to CBS Sportsline.com Jarrod Washburn is close to signing with the Mariners for four years and between $36 and $38 million.

To get you started on making your own roundup of what's happening out there in Jays-land, here's a Geoff Baker piece that contains one hell of a promise from Shea Hillenbrand:

"I'm very confident that it's now going to allow me to become a player who can hit 30 home runs and drive in 100,'' Hillenbrand, the subject of widespread trade rumours, said yesterday in a telephone interview from his home in Arizona. "I've been in this game a certain number of years and I felt it was time to take things to the next level. You can quote me on that: I think I'm going to hit 30."

Yes, the weekend, which brought plenty of conversation and speculation here on Da Box, has passed into the netherworld of history.

And so ... Matt Morris to the Giants? Roger Clemens to the Red Sox??? Ricardo Rincon to the Cardinals, J.C. Romero to the Angels ... and Sidney Ponson to court in Baltimore.

What else is new? Should be new? And what d'ya think, anyway?

I haven't heard anything new about... well, anything, but people are clamoring for a new general hot-stove thread.

And that's what this is.

Everybody's favorite Toronto reporter, Jeff Blair, says that a Wilkerson deal is dead but Overbay is still a possibility in his latest blog entry.

What’s new since November 28th? B.J. Ryan is confirmed, at a total of $8M in 2006 ($6M signing bonus + $2M salary). Reed Johnson was reportedly re-signed for $1.425M – but even though it was the ever-reliable Jeff Blair that conveyed this, it’s odd that it has not been confirmed anywhere else. A.J. Burnett is on board, and it looks like his contract will call for $7M in 2006 and $12M each of the 4 seasons thereafter. And my initial estimate of $1M for Orlando Hudson in his first year of arbitration eligibility looks absolutely laughable.

As the AJ signing thread is getting long here is a place to focus discussion for non-AJ moves, whether they are Jays-related rumours or trades and transactions involving other teams.

Today JP wakes up with Burnett off his mind and finding a bat is likely his only focus. It may be too much to expect any move today, but JP is prone to striking quickly.

We're over 200 comments in Friday's thread as AJ Fever has body temperatures over 40 degrees C. It's time for a new start.

The big news of the day out of Dallas today concerns next year's World Baseball Championship. Many of the game's great players, Bonds, Pujols, A-Rod, Delgado, have indicated that they will go. The games will be played at interesting venues, such as Hiram Bithorn in Puerto Rico and Cracker Jack stadium at Disney World. Why do I keep thinking about the Anaheim Mighty Ducks? What do you think, Bauxites?