Hey Batter's Box! To all you devotees of "Baseball from a Canadian Perspective," there's an interesting post today from valued fellow Bauxite Tangotiger on his The Book blog called Lowering the standards to retire numbers so that we can have an excuse for celebration.

More to the point for our site's interests, though, Tom also dips his toe into the question(s) raised by the fact that "the Nationals have retired the Expos numbers." First, can you name the four Expos whose numbers have been retired***? And what do you think of Tom's list of four (especially one) who should be, but who aren't on that list?

Well that wasn't exactly how you want to kick off a season. One affiliate couldn't get their field in order while the other three should have followed suit. Let's try it again tomorrow, shall we?

The minor league season gets under way tonight with four Blue Jay affiliates in action.  With the parent club en route to the west coast tonight the minors can get our full attention.

Zach Stewart starts in AA tonight and Gregor Chisholm got the story on why Stewart is in AA:

"We talked about that at length," Anthopoulos said. "We figured with a guy like Zach it won't be the worst thing in the world to continue to work on certain things, because we know it's a tough environment in Las Vegas."

 

Another win for the good guys yesterday but it wasn't a totally good news day.  Jesse Litsch and Marc Rzepczynski were good and very good respectively while Travis Snider had the one big hit the Jays needed.

On the not so good side Yunel Escobar is being examined to see if he has a concussion after a collision at third base.

Elsewhere there must be panic in the streets of Boston as the Sawx drop to 0-5.  On the streets of Tampa, whose team is in the same predicament, there might be a slight note of concern.

 

Just a strange, compelling game.

The Oaklanders visit town for games 4, 5 and 6. The team made some low-profile upgrades over the winter and have a solid club. Here's an abbreviated series preview as we just figured out who's writing on which day and I'm trying to do this from work.

That was the question Bob McCown posed to Stephen Brunt during the 4:00 hour on Monday's edition of Prime Time Sports.  Brunt answered he was okay with them and that they are better than the 70's version.  McCown then said, "if you like the current jersey, you better go get one because this time next year, they won't be available."  McCown said he did not know what the proposed new uniforms will look like but guessed it would be closer to the original version or a combination of the new and old one.  There appears to be further proof that McCown is on to something because the Jays have joined forces with a marketing firm for re-branding purposes.

     The 1994-1996 alternate uniforms (best in team history!)                                           The current day uniforms.

Images provided by Sportslogos.net.

One weekend down .... 155+ games to go. What's caught your eye?

The Orioles, Royals and Dodgers, respectively, are each alone in first place.

Those Royals took a series from the Angels. The Rangers swept the Red Sox. Those same Rangers are "on pace" to hit no less than 594  home runs this season. Like the Red Sox, the Rays and Brewers -- all popular pre-season picks to make the post-season -- are winless. (So are the Astros, but nobody was picking them, right?)

Howie Kendrick is tied for the MLB lead in home runs, along with Rangers Ian Kinsler and Nelson Cruz and ex-Ranger Mark Teixeira. All are "on pace" to slam 162 bombs in 2011.

So what else has caught YOUR attention?

I have some additional video to share as well as pictures featuring some of the Lansing roster.  Video shows Moises Sierra hitting a home run and Carlos Perez doubling to the wall off Deck McGuire.

The party is over. If you'll all just grab your stuff and leave, there won't be any hassle. The party's been closed, it's – the party is over with. Grab your stuff and go, and nobody goes to jail.

I have the minor league rosters and I will post them shortly (I need to see some of todays game first).

There are some highlights:

Back in the spring of 2006, I prevailed upon Liam, my bright and handsome son and heir, to contribute a Season Preview. His initial subject was the 2006 Detroit Tigers, who had gone 71-91 the year before. They promptly improved by 25 games and went to the World Series. Where they lost.

One year later, Liam examined the Colorado Rockies, who had gone 76-86 in 2006, finishing fourth. They improved by 14 games, and went to the World Series. Where they lost.

In 2008, Liam fixed his pre-season scrutiny on a good team, the Philadelphia Phillies. In 2007, the Phillies had won 89 games and lost the first round of the playoffs. They improved by just three games in 2008, but not only did they go the World Series - they won the damn thing.

As you can imagine, I've been trying to get Liam to do a Blue Jays preview ever since. And at last, at long last... he's bringing the mojo home.

Take it away, Liam. Make us proud...

The Minnesota Twins are the first club to visit the Dome in 2011.  According to the Jays press notes, this is the fourth time these clubs have met on Opening Day.  The Jays hold a 2-1 edge and the home team has won each time.  The Jays also opened their home schedule in 2002 against Minnesota and emerged victorious.   Toronto has won 28 out of 40 against Minnesota since 2006.

Jose Molina finishes crossing the plate after hitting his first home run as a Blue Jay against the Twins July 8.

Twitter - it's a thing. In fact, a big thing. Let's check in on the state of Toronto baseball on Twitter

Every site has a predict-the-division-winners-and-playoffs challenge (including this one).

Here's our annual step off the beaten path to get your predicitions regarding 2011 individual award winners.

Bedazzle your friends! Shock the world! Accumulate points and win an as-yet-unnamed prize! (A cuttlefish? A Batter's Box No-Prize? A song written in your honor? What could it be?)

Just cut and paste my predictions, below, into your reply, change the names to reflect your predictions (warning: mine will be way wrong, they always are) and impress us all with your wisdom, daring, cunning and knowledge! (Entries accepted through April 15.)