Breaking news just now, via Twitter, is that the Jays have declined their options on Kevin Gregg thereby making him a free agent.

Also via Twitter from Ken Rosenthal comes news that the Jays are trying to lure Don Wakamatsu here to be the bench coach.  The Orioles are also vying for him.

Also burning up the Twitter-verse is the news that the Jays have acquired Miguel Olivo for a player to be named or cash. 

I grew up rooting for the Detroit Tigers and the Cincinnati Reds, who produced three of the greatest teams of my lifetime -- the 1975-76 Reds and the 1984 Tigers. What did those three teams share in common? A manager of course, in George  Lee "Sparky" Anderson.

The Main Spark, as he was known in his Big Red Machine days, passed on to  the next plane today.

The owner of 2,194 lifetime regular season wins (sixth all time) and those three tiitles (in five Fall Classic appearances, was the first man to pilot teams to titles in both the AL and NL. He was 76.

RIP, Sparky. A part of my childhood goes with you.

This will be quick and painful, I promise.

Congratulations to the San Francisco Giants, the 2010 World Series champions, and their World Series MVP, Edgar Renteria. Also, congratulations are in order for JP Ricciardi, who has found employment with the New York Mets, and Ron Roenicke, who has been appointed as the manager of the Milwaukee Brewers.

Major League Baseball’s best individual blogger, Jamey Newberg (yes, he’s a registered Bauxite), the widely-acknowleged #1 fan of the Texas Rangers, took a day off from his daily Newberg Report e-mail updates this week, a breather after what was an admittedly crushing World Series dominance by the San Francisco Giants. There’s already a lot on the off-season table for the Rangers – who catches if Molina retires? Does Guerrero come back? Can Josh Hamilton stay healthy? And, oh by the way, how far north of $150 million is the new Greenberg/Ryan ownership group willing to go to hang on to ohmigod-we-have-an-ace-for-the-first-time-since-Fergie free agent lefty Cliff Lee?

But – wait on all that for a second. The Texas Rangers played in the World Series???

What follows is Jamey’s final screed on the 2010 season – warning, it’s 2,800 words long of passion-meets-brutal-logic, exactly what you’d expect from a brilliant corporate attorney like Newberg. It covers the Series, Lee and much more. If you want to see other Newberg Report archives or even subscribe to that e-newsletter (I do), information on how to do that is at the bottom of this post

Read on, Macduff. It’s worth your time!

Jonny German lays it all out for us. I love looking at stuff like this.

This is meant to be a debate, a beer-driven barroom discussion, a starting point for conversation; it’s an old argument, “who are the greatest players in MLB history?” – but  here, it’s divided into three sub-arguments:

·         Who are the greatest players ever at each position?

·         Who are the greatest players of my (your) lifetime at each position?

·         Who are the greatest active players at each position?

Note, “my lifetime” began in 1966, so for instance, I could technically slot Sandy Koufax into the LHSP position, but I am roughly defining that column (see table, next page) as “guys I remember." Define that differently for yourself if you like, but post your parameters so we know what they are.)

Now, onward to the projected lineup cards; although this is a matter of opinion, so you can’t technically tell me I’m “wrong” about any of these selections, please do let me know who you think I missed or overrated, or whatever …

Time for a new thread, hey? Let's mix it up a little with a Question of the Day spun from a comment posted in the original "at 3" thread by long-time and valued Bauxite 92-93:

" ... the Jays would look mighty impressive if they could pull off a way to acquire [Zack Greinke] without giving up Snider, Drabek, Marcum, Cecil, Romero, or Morrow.

That list of six names includes no less than (the magic number of) five starting pitchers. So think this through and answer as if we're heading into the 2014 season:

Drabek, Marcum, Cecil, Romero, Morrow

• Is this your '14 Jay rotation?
• If so, in what order are they slotted into, 1-5?
• If not, who's not in the rotational plans any more, and who has stepped up to fill (or take) that spot?
  

It's been a bit over a week since we last looked at what's been going on with the Peoria Javelinas, the Jays' shared AFL team.

The Blue Jays have scheduled a press conference for today at 3pm, presumably to introduce their new manager, John Farrell.  Even though the Jays have said nothing about the hire, the news flow out of Boston has been enough to take away the surprise from today's announcement.

We have our league champions. Rooting interests?

Ladies and Gentlemen of Batter's Box .... fans of the improbably unlikely ....

The Texas Rangers ... the Texas Rangers ...

{{choke}} (hang on, give me a sec ...)

The long-suffering, never-won-a-postseason-series-before-this-year Texas Rangers ...

... are going to the World Series. There are no further words.

 

John Farrell. DeMarlo Hale. Brian Buttefield. Sandy Alomar Jr. It is clear that the next manager will be one of these four men, but it is still not clear who. Farrell seems like the favourite, but this can be traced primarily to a Peter Gammons tweet which he has recently admitted was not as definitive as it originally appeared.

Though he was probably never a serious candidate for the Jay job, cross the name Eric Wedge off the lsit of potential new skippers in TO. The 101-loss Mariners tabbed the ex-Indian chief (Har!) for their club's managerial post today, one former backup backstop (Wedge) to replace another (Don Wakamatsu). Good hire?

UPDATE: The Cubs have retained Mike Quade as manager, dropping the "interim" tag from his title after he took over a 51-74 team and took them to a 24-13 finish in 2010.

Quade was never a candidate in the Jay search. But ... Ryne Sandberg, anyone?

Been wondering how the Jays' AFL players have been doing?