The Toronto Blue Jays have signed four players to minor league deals.  Jordan Bastian from bluejays.com says the team has inked left-handed pitcher Willie Collazo, infielder Jesus Merchan and outfielders Jorge Padilla and Chris "The Big" Lubanski.  Two of the four have played in the major leagues.

The biblical scripture known as Baseball America arrived in my mailbox yesterday and it's the issue I look forward to the most every year - the  Top 10 Prospects for the American League East! 

Featuring the Orioles Brian Matusz on the cover, it contains a revision of the Jays Top 10 list that BA posted on its website last month.  The changes reflect the three prospects added in the Roy Halladay deal and each of them ranked highly on the revamped list.

I hit .300 and led the majors in home runs. My team went to the World Series, and there I was in the Game 1 lineup.

Batting ninth.

Why?

The 500th player to don the Blue Jays jersey in franchise history gets the spotlight in today's POTD.

The Cincinnati Reds have come from out of nowhere to win the Aroldis Chapman sweepstakes.  They have reportedly signed the hard-throwing Cuban lefty to a deal that could be worth as much as worth $30-million dollars - besting the Blue Jays reported offer of $23-million.

About four years ago, I produced a series in five parts (it was supposed to be six!) under the general  heading of "Chasing The Big Numbers." It examined how a number of active players were faring in pursuit of six fairly Famous Career Milestones.

Lefty Zach Jackson is back in the Blue Jays fold thanks to a trade with Cleveland.  The Indians will be receiving a player to be named later in the deal.

One of them last played at the Rogers Centre in 2008 and the other made his major league debut there in 2009.  This veteran slugger and rookie pitcher are the focus of this eclectic and electric extravaganza known as the Batter's Box POTD!

The Toronto Blue Jays have claimed shortstop Brian Bocock on waivers from San Francisco and they signed outfielder and 2003 first round pick Chris Lubanksi from Kansas City to a minor league deal.  If Lubanski makes it to Toronto, start printing up the "Little Lubanski Urban Achievers" t-shirts.

Gosh, it's been a while since we brewed up a Baseball's Hall of Names squad, but recent debate in our newest '10 Picture of the Day stirs up an idea centered around Jay uber-prospect Brett Cecil -- and it has nothing to do with Prince Fielder's daddy or old BoSox 1B Cecil Cooper or early All-Star shortstop Cecil Travis. (Or any of them guys!)

In fact, we're going the other direction, away from the young hurler's family name to his given name, Brett; so let's set some ground rules.

Who comes up with these titles!?!   A belated Happy New Year, Bauxites!   The first Batter's Box POTD of 2010 features a pitcher who showed promise at times in 2009.

In what seems to be a pretty big shocker, the BBWAA decided that only Andre Dawson was worthy of their approval for 2010.

In honor of the great, great Randy Johnson, who announced his retirement today after 22 seasons, 303 wins and an astounding, only-Nolan-can-relate 4,875 strikeouts (including nine league strikeout titles) and five Cy Young Awards (including one unanimously) ... well, let's ask this question: is he the greatest left-handed starting pitcher in the history of the great game?

From a career perspective, there are only a few other serious candidates ... Left Grove, of course. Warren Spahn. Maybe Steve Carlton and Sandy Koufax. Carl Hubbell and Eddie Plank are one tiny notch down the ladder. A distant shout-out to Whitey Ford. Does anyone else even merit consideration?

Personally ...

 

As Ski mentioned, Tom Cheek is the winner of the online 'Facebook limited' vote for the Ford Frick Award (HOF for broadcasters basically).  This ensures his presence on the ballot for every season that the ballot has been made public.

These last decade retrospective things are all over the place at the moment, and since I never saw a bandwagon I wasn't tempted to jump on, here's my picks for a Jays' team of the last ten years.