Welcome to the creme de la creme, the number one through ten prospects.  In case you missed it number 11 through 20 are here, and number 21 to 30 are here.

We hope you enjoyed this top 30 and the hope it brings to the future of the Blue Jays organization.   Check back tomorrow for a few who missed the top 30.

Today we look at the prospects rated 20 though 11. For prospects 30-21, click here.

The Giants swept the Tigers and major league baseball on the field is over for 2012.  But the off the field action is just getting going, free agents are filing, options are being picked up and declined and target lists are being finalized.  Free agents can sign as of Saturday so get ready for the Jays to .... not do much.

And don't forget the team needs a manager.

Welcome to the Batters Box top 30 Blue Jay prospects for 2012. Six of your trusted minor league correspondents pooled their votes to come up with the list. The same trusty six shared the task of writing the prospect descriptions you see below.

The system has seen a lot of movement since 2011.  Anthony Gose, Drew Hutchison, David Cooper, Luis Perez and Moises Sierra are no longer rookies.  Nestor Molina, Carlos Perez, Asher Wojciechowski, Kevin Comer and  Joe Musgrove were traded.  That is ten prospects who are off the list before players who dropped because of poor performance.

In total, forty-five prospects received at least one vote.  Nineteen of the top thirty were named on all six ballots.  There can be plenty of debate as to who should have made it, particularly here, in the bottom 10.  We hope the wisdom of our crowd has delivered a great top thirty.

As usual we have split the top 30 into three installments, running Monday through Wednesday. On Thursday we will look at some prospects that did not make the list but are favourites of one of our writers.

We hope you enjoy the list and the discussion.

The Jays are starting their second manager search in two years.  Media stories suggest the Jays are not out front of this yet.  Reportedly Sandy Alomar or Brad Ausmus had not been contacted by the Jays as of yesterday.  I would have thought that the Jays had seen the writing on the John Farrell wall at least a week ago and would have a list of interview candidates ready to go yesterday.  There are not a lot of manager openings at this time so the Jays can still have a lot of guys to pick from, even if they take their time.  However AA told all the coaches that they were free to seek work elsewhere.  While some might be OK with seeing Boston pick up John Farrell, they might be less happy if he picks over the best of the Blue Jay coaches.

Th Detroit Tigers will get on a plane today and head for San Francisco to begin the 2012 world series.  This match-up seemed improbable last Thursday when St Louis took a 3-1 lead in the NLCS.  But St Louis went from looking like world series champions to looking like the playoff version of the 2012 Yankees.   You have to think that the start by Barry Zito was the key turning point for the Giants.

It's good that Marco Scutaro gets to play in a world series.  Scutaro came into his own here in Toronto and has played very well since.

Where there is smoke there is fire. There are now numerous tweets and reports saying that the Jays and Red Sox are in serious talks over compensation for John Farrell. The latest from Kevin Kennedy says:

#RedSox look like they will land John Farrell as manager from #BlueJays. Compensation talks getting serious, players will be headed to TOR.

Nick Cafardo tweeted something similar earlier.

Well, that was a tough year. A big question now is who was worth the money and who wasn't.

The ALCS starts Saturday with Doug Fister versus Andy Pettitte. The story of the division series was the non-hitting of A-Rod, Cano, Swisher, Miggy Cabrera, etc. Things change fast in baseball and often the MVP of one series becomes the 100 hitter of the next. On the other hand some of these laggards will be big producers in the ALCS.

The last three World Series champions are in the playoffs. The fourth team is Detroit who last won in 1984. Detroit beat the Yankees last season in the division series in the maximum five games.

The NLCS starts Sunday with Lance Lynn facing Madison Bumgarner.

There are certain rituals I conduct once every season is in the books...

With two wild card games in the book it's now division series time. There are two games on Saturday, four on Sunday and two on Monday to accompany your turkey eating.

The first wild card game was wild, in particular the Braves players after the game.

"Bleepety-bleep," screamed one Brave, as Torre was explaining why he'd denied the Braves' protest. "Ohhhhh bleep, Joe," grumbled another, after listening to Torre say that it sure looked like an infield fly to him. "I'm outta here. That's weak," muttered another Brave, after Holbrook said he'd seen the replay and concluded it was "absolutely" the right call.

It's time for the 2012 Jays to receive their grades.

This won't be pretty.

Is it too soon to proclaim the Athletics as the present day 1969 Mets? After several years of struggle, Oakland has suddenly and unexpectedly produced a high quality baseball team. As I write, they are on the verge of sweeping the Rangers and winning the division over the team that has led the AL West almost from wire to wire.

Ben Francisco hardly got into a game during his half-season in Toronto. Nevertheless, he’s starting in right field for the Tampa Bay Rays as they squaring off against the White Sox in Chicago, facing elimination. The Rays have handed the ball to David Price, while the White Sox, currently two games behind the Tigers in the AL Central, are starting Jose Quintana. The Tigers are in Minnesota with Anibal Sanchez and Liam Hendriks on the mound.

The Jays have 69 wins with six games left, three more against the Yankees and three with the Twins. But this team is not going quietly into the night, Omar Vizquel created a brouhaha today with some comments.

Chad Jenkins starts today in a big test for him. Jenkins is likely to start in the last game of the season against the Twins. He could do well in that game, the Twins will be hacking to get out of town ASAP and Jenkins sinker could be hit into the ground again and again.