To all of you drafting 2012 Blue Jay projected lineups with Carlos Beltran hitting cleanup,  wrong color bird. So today's lesson is simple:

World Series rings are a great recruiting tool.

According to various national reports (and at least one Nationals report), the Great Gio Gonzalez Sweepstakes has come to a close, with the A's lefty now residing in Washington, D.C.

The Athletics will receive a packakage headlined by RHP Brad Peacock and also including C Derek Norris, LHP Tommy Milone and RHP A.J. Cole. The deal is pending physicals.

So was this too much to give up for Gio, who in 2011 for the A's went 16-12 with a 3.12 ERA, with 197 strikeouts and 91 walks? And since we all seem to like playing this game, what would a comparable package from Toronto have looked like?

P.S. sorry no image with this story. I really would prefer a Nationals Gio Graphic!  :-) 

It's time, surely, to change the subject?

Well, unless you've been living under a rock, or couldn't access the site because tears of sadness crashed it, you now know that the Blue Jays didn't win the posting auction for Yu Darvish, as the Rangers bid $51.7 million, to beat the Jays by somewhere between $1 and $51.7 million dollars. Which, let's face it, kind of sucks. We can blame the team, although really it's not their fault. They bid a number they were comfortable with, and though it will probably never be known, it's likely that it was the second place bid. Others in the media blew things way out of proportion, based on who knows what, and as a result there have been some 600 posts about this in the last four days on Battersbox. Not much we can do about it now, although if there is one positive to take away I think its that Jays fans are waiting, after all these years, to be excited. Why don't we take this time to commiserate about our favourite moments of the Yuletide extravaganza. For me it was that I wrote an 800 word article about how awesome it was that the Jays signed Darvish to publish when the news became official. Now, not so much. Hey, we can always trade 3 good prospects away for Gio Gonzalez... Go 2014 Blue Jays!

Yu need to forget the other distractions today and Yu need to consider Baseball America's top ten, released today. The top ten isn't very surprising, except for Asher Wojciechowski who sneaks in at number ten.

Yeah, my bad puns are no better than anyone else's. The newest info - an announcement tonight at roughly 8/9 PM EST from Japan. Hopefully they will not just say 'we accepted the deal' but actually say who won it.

Okay, Bauxites!  Time to reveal the answers and announce the winners of last week's episode of "Name That Future Major Leaguer".

Japan's newest bachelor, Yu Darvish, is about to get busy.  The bachelor has a number of suitors and Darvish will get to see which one likes him the best, monetarily speaking.  The bidding deadline for Darvish is 5pm today, Wednesday.

Great idea from Bauxite bpoz:

Just for a laugh...does anyone want to comment on The Book of AA? For example: "We don't comment on any specific player, mainly free agents." ...  And, "If it makes sense then we will do it."  I know these are weak examples.  So hopefully more creative Bauxites will have a go at it.

So. then, let's have that "go at it" ... what other rules and commandments would go in The Book of AA? Keep each one to a line or two. Stay serious! And feel free to disagree with each other, in a friendly-like way. Ready? Go! ...

1. Who is the second-greatest Canadian in MLB history? (Or, if you can make the argument, who surpasses Fergie as #1?)
2. Who is the greatest active Canadian in the major leagues?

Ready? Set? Go, eh?

See how many future major leaguers you can spot in these photos from my minor league archives.  These are not the greatest quality of photos but the winner who figures out who is who will get a highly coveted, limited edition photo of Pedro Florimon Jr.  Runner-up prizes are a photo of Eric Fryer and one of my cats because it's Christmas! 

The Jays have announced that they acquired outfielder Ben Francisco from the Phillies for minor league LOOGY Frank Gailey.  This trade has quite a few questions surrounding it.

Ben Francisco on JaysVision prior to the Canada Day game between the Phillies and Blue Jays at the Dome.

Today's POTD pays tribute to Roberto Alomar and to the first retired number in Blue Jays history - #12.

Another POTD goes to the birds.