Yesterday's main thread erupted into a spontaneously comustible discussion regarding expanding the playoffs. This deserves its own discussion, people. So, first go read that thread to get caught up ,then come back here for the related ...

Question(s) of the Day: How should the MLB playoffs be structured? Open it up to eight teams per league? Add two teams and seed them 1-32, NCAA tournament style? A BCS-style playoff? Go back to two divisions per league, no Wild Card? Go back just to two leagues, no divisions, no Wild Card? What would work?

And ... try, try to answer this question objectively, not as a doom-saying Jay fan trying to figure out any possible way to get in the playoffs with NYY and BOS in the division.

It's time to cast Blue Jays '05: The Movie. Think about your favorite ballclub -- think about both what the individuals look like and how large of a role you believe they will play. And don't limit yourself to players -- who gets the coveted John Gibbons role? Who plays Tom Cheek? Spencer Fordin? Richard Griffin? Opposing players? And think about the athletic ability of the actors you want to cast -- can you really see Emilio Estevez as Frank Catalanotto, and is Will Smith affordable as Alexis Rios? Are those even good fits? That's right, it's today's ...

Queestion of the Day: Who gets what role in the medium-budget thriller Blue Jays '05 (working title only), sure to be a huge hit at the Toronto International Film Festival come 2006? What's the real title of the film going to end up being? Who writes the script? Got a director in mind? And most importantly -- fill out that cast!

The ESPN.com fantasy baseball "Experts" (Karabell, Cockcroft and Engel) have checked in with their pre-season 2005 Top 100 Rankings. The Blue Jays did ... not well.

Toronto's' best player, Vernon Wells, did not crack the top 100 (he was rated #81, #98 and unranked by the three experts), so his average score of 93.3 falls just barely outside the elite list, behind Mike Piazza's #100 ranking with a score of 93. Oh, wait, Hudson was ranked #30 overall ... no, wait, that's Tim Hudson, with O-Dawg nowhere to be found. Neither is Corey Koskie, for that matter. One Jay did crack the Top 100, but a guy I would personally never spend a high pick on bouncing back from injury -- Roy Halladay slides into the #81 slot (with scores of 71, 73 and 94 for an average of 79.3, tied with Jose Guillen, but eight points (and 10 places) behind Canadian boy wonder Justin Morneau. So here's today's ...

Question of the Day: Assuming that this very page will become THE fantasy baseball one-stop shop for pre-season Toronto Blue Jay advice, tell the gathering masses of fantasy players outside the Box door the answer to "Which Jays will surprise this season, from a fantasy baseball perspective?" You have Koskie hitting 45 homers or Wells stealing 93 bases? Let the world know what you think you know -- but be sure to present it in terms of fantasy ball, not "the real game" (and keep in mind that you don't want to give away your BBFL draft strategy!) ...

DEEEEE-FENCE ... DEEEEE-FENCE ... DEEEEE-FENCE!
-- Pitsburgh Steeler fans tomorrow as Tom Brady picks apart their DEEEEE-FENCE.

On a similar note, and thanks to erstwhile Rosterite Mike Green for the suggestion, here is today's ...

Question of the Weekend: What is the Toronto all-time defnsive team? On a related note, what is the all-time all-MLB defensive team? And how would this team do in real competition, given a league-average pitching staff?

There was a brief discussion in yesterday's QOTD thread about the inimiatable Steve Goldman of the YES Network taking a shot at Alex Rios ("the next Sil Campusano"), leading Box GM Jordan Furlong to formulate today's ...

Question of the Day: Who was the most overhyped Jays rookie ever? And building on that, who were the most overhyped rookies, regardless of team, of all time? (Rule clarification: Reds and Tigers hyped by Sparky Anderson are not eligible for consideration. Sorry, Chris Pittaro.)

Today, self-described "avid Bauxite reader/poster" Marc provides us with a short essay and QOTD on a topic nobody in the entire city of Toronto has any opinions about at all. Nope, none. That's right, it's a fond editorial and question directed at the topic of "Rocket" Roger Clemens. Read on and post your thoughts, gentle Bauxites. Admit it -- Marc's headline alone makes you want to comment, right?

After yesterday's extended debate in which Bauxites were charged to pick the one pitcher to throw the one must-win game to save their pitiful little lives (the verdict: Pedro Martinez and Sandy Koufax, for the most part), you'd think you all would know better. But NOOoooo ... now you've gone and gotten yourselves into another situation where one baseball player needs to save your pitiful little life. Only this time, it's not one game ... it's one at-bat. Here's the situation in today's ...

Question of the Day: Your life depends on this game (again?) and you trail by one with two down in the bottom of the ninth. You have runners -- Rickey Henderson and Lou Brock, actually -- on second and third and you can pick one hitter, from any team, any era, to stride to the plate to take his whacks against a masterful Dennis Eckersley. A walk does you no good, as the only other hitter available to you is Bob Buhl. Who do you tell to grab a bat?

And, if you feel like it, add in what "striding to the plate music" you'd have blaring from the loudspeakers to inspire your one-hope-for-life pinch-hitter as he moved into the Polo Grounds batter's box. And finally, of course, please feel free to Make Your Own Roundup with links and other online paraphernalia.

This announcement comes, unrelated, but on the heels of yesterday's discussion about baseball video games:

Major League Baseball and the Major League Baseball Players Association awarded exclusive rights to the league's fantasy games to Major League Baseball Advanced Media, the league-owned arm that controls MLB.com, for the next five years. Read the full story.

Also of note from the story: "Fantasy baseball is celebrating its 25th anniversary this month. The concept was born in January 1980 when a group of media members convened at a restaurant in Manhattan called La Rotisserie Francaise. It was for this reason that the fantasy game was originally called 'rotisserie.'"

Any reaction(s) to the ruling or to the anniversary? What about to my HSO (Hot Sports Opinion) that sabermetrics could not exist as it does today (influentially rather than as an aberration) without fantasy baseball?

"

Okay, enough of this soft-tossing, rose-coloured glasses stuff about autographs when you were a kid and favourite Saturday Night Live characters. On to the hardcore stuff in today's ...

Question of the Day: Your life is on the line, and one baseball game will decide if you live or die. The team behind you is the 1992 Blue Jays; they're facing off with one of the great teams of all time, the Mantle-Maris-Berra-Howard-Skowron- Boyer-Kubek-Richardson 1961 Yankees, who send Whitey (25-4) Ford to the Exhibition Stadium mound. You, on the other hand, can choose any pitcher, at any age, from any team in any era to start the game of your life (literally) -- except Ford, of course. So you point to the bullpen, the gate opens, and who comes trotting out to take the ball for the first inning? Note: give more than just the name; give a reason you selected this one hurler for this one absolutely must-win game.

Oh, and if you hear any MYOR stuff, feel free to get your link on.

All the heroes and legends I knew as a child
Have fallen to idols of clay ...
- Styx, "Show Me the Way," © 1997

The recent Weekend Update thread included a couple of reminiscinces, including one from Bauxite GeoffAtMac, who met Jimmy Key in 1992, back when, as he put it, he "was a young lad of 10 years of age." (Yo, Geoff, that makes you what, 22? You're still a young lad. Hmph.); another was from from GregH, whose sons met Mr. Blue Jay, Ernie Whitt, quite recently. Which brings us to today's ...

Question of the Day: Did you ever meet a big league ballplayer when you were a young lad (or lass) of 10 or so? Who was it? What do you remember about the experience? (Ed. Note: this QOTD is not to be confused with the popular Batter's Box Personal Stories Of Brushes With Third-Rate Celebrity Contest from a few hundred threads ago. But third, fourth- and even tenth-rate ballplayers are just fine.)

And in the Make Your Own Roundup vein, we can start with reports that Carlos Delgado has an offer from the Marlins, Eric Munson may get Corey Koskie's old job in the Twin Cities, while former Jay and Expo leading men Raul Mondesi and Tony Armas found new homes -- or, in Armas' case, re-signed the lease on his old one. (Source for all these: ESPN.com, BBRRS = Dan Patrick's hair.) What else is going on out there?

Texas Ranger relief pitcher "Generalissimo" Frankie Francisco is still suspended.

As you offer discussion points and "Make Your Own Roundup" links throughout this Saturday and Sunday, please make an effort to "cast" a current big leaguer in a Saturday Night Live role as appropriate. This can be due to his name, the way he looks ... whatever. And would someone please explain the headline and the first sentence of this post to our younger Bauxites?

I had a friend was a big baseball player -- back in high school
He could throw that speedball by you, make you look like a fool boy
Saw him the other night at this roadside bar; I was walking in, he was walking out
We went back inside sat down had a few drinks
but all he kept talking about was
Glory days well they'll pass you by
Glory days in the wink of a young girl's eye
Glory days, glory days

Question of the Day: What are your specific major league baseball (and other professional sports) memories of the year you graduated from high school? (If you did not attend or graduate from high school or live in a country where "high school" is not a relevant term, go with "the year you turned 18.")

All this fussin' and feudin' over Shea Hillenbrand, Eric Hinske and the wide variety of third basemen the Jays have or have flirted with, let's settle on a pretty basic, set-the-bar ...

Question of the Day: Who are the greatest (single season, Blue Jay career and overall career) 1B, 3B and DH the Jays have ever employed?

And of course, since we are consistently cracking 150 and even reaching 300 occasionally in the daily threads, please link safely as you continue to ... Make Your Own Roundup.

Baseball '05 seem painfully far off 'bout now? Well, did you realize that exactly six months from tomorrow, the All-Star squads from each league will gather in Detroit's CoPa cabana to determine whether the World Series home field will be in southern Ohio or in northeast Ohio (just kidding -- I think)? So, who will be representing Toronto in this festive gala? (Remember, your predictions will be here to link back to come July!) What about other team reps? Who will be the surprises? The annual returnees? That's right, it's today's mid-January ...

Question of the Day: Who will be playing in the 2005 All-Star Game, representing what teams? And keep in mind the annual difference between who should go and who actually goes!

And of course, please continue to ...
Make Your Own Roundup ....

Oscar Wilde would be proud. No, wait, that was art for art's sake. Close enough.

OK, so this is the new-and-improved QOTD/MYOR. Let the comment above be the LAST non-baseball comment on this thread.

New QOTD: Who leads the Jays in saves this year? I posed this last year, and I don't know if anyone guessed Jason Frasor, so let's see if we can do better.