First pitch is in a few hours. You know the players and all that's involved. So take a shot here -- who wins? Who stars? Who wears goat horns? What happens?

Wildest and most outlandish prediction (that doesn't involve a cuttlefish) wins a home edition of the coveted Batter's Box No-Prize!

Me? Well ...

If the Los Angeles Dodgers are going to go to the World Series for the first time since 1988, they need this man to be the man and he is featured in our latest installment of POTD.

According to Friend of Batter's Box (FOBB) Jamey Newberg, the Texas Rangers "have announced that hitting coach Rudy Jaramillo has declined a contract offer and will not return to the coaching staff next year. The remainder of the big league coaching staff has been invited to return for the 2010 season."

Rumor has it that the Cubs are looking to seriously overpay Rudy to come fix Alf Soriano and Milton Bradley (both Texas exes he had some success with previously), among others. Here in North Texas, we saw how much effect a single new coach can have when Mike Maddux showed up to turn the Rangers into a model pitching-centric organization, And Rudy is generally seen (around these parts anyway) as one of, if not THE best hitting coaches in the game.

So ... does this matter at all to the makeup of the AL West and possibly the NL Central?

Should the Jays be more like the Twins?

I think they're already way too much like them. In 2009, anyway.

If you've been reading Da Box over the past four or five years, you know one of the sidelight features in Baseball's Hall of Names deals with players who share(d) certain initials. We've assembled teams for every possible double-initial, as well as many other obvious ones like MD, PR, BS and others.

Recently I got to thinking about baseball initials ... you know, the kind you scratch on your scorecard during a game, abbreviations like HR, RBI and HBP. Forget building a roster of these guys -- it'll be hard enough to find representatives for all the obvious baseball abbreviations we can think of. So go ahead, play along ... what initials are missing? And who would be better to fill a role in the existing All-Baseball-Initials roll-call that follows? ...

The man who helped Matt Holliday wear the goat horns for the St. Louis Cardinals appears in today's episode of POTD!

Alex Anthopoulos is moving quickly to put his stamp on the organization.  Today the Jays announced a  number of changes which included relieving Dick Scott and Jon Lalonde of their present duties.  Scott leaves the organization while Lalonde takes on new responsibilities.

To complete the minor league week here on Batters Box let's look at the movement in the top 30 lists from 2008 to 2009.  Five players graduated to the major leagues, replaced by five players who are new to the organization since last season.  Thirteen players dropped off the list from 2008 and thirteen players made it on to the lists despite being overlooked last year.

It's Alison Gordon time again! Seems like it comes earlier every year.

It's 2006 again for our subject in today's POTD.

To complement our top 30 prospects list Dick Scott answered questions for Batters Box, as he does each year at this time.  Here is a link to last year's interview.

Now that the regular season is finally in the books... there was some wild stuff going on. It is my custom, as ever, to subject that stuff to an Intense Scrute. Thereby resulting in... intense scrutiny, what else?

I wouldn't want to be the Detroit Tigers today.  The hero of the American League Central Division one game playoff captures the highly coveted Batter's Box POTD honours..

Here is the final installment of the top thirty prospects.  Unfortunately it is not an inspiring lot but prospect evaluation, and player development, is an uncertain process.  With some luck the Jays top ten listed below will all develop well and be productive.  That is what makes prospect following so enjoyable, you cannot predict the course of human histroy.

Number 30 through 21 are here.  Numbers 20 through 11 are here.

Check back tomorrow for some words from Dick Scott, the Blue Jays farm director. 

The post-season is now upon us, and I have to figure out who I'm going to cheer for....

I suppose there are reasons to cheer for or against everybody, no? I wonder if I can think of them...