Welcome to the annual installment of Batter's Box's Top 30 Blue Jay prospects.

2009 was a mixed year for the farm system.  The system as a whole had a losing record and was one of the worst farm systems in baseball in terms of wins.  The winning was not helped by the Jays being unable to sign any of their top six picks in time for the Auburn season.  The Jays did send a lot of pitchers to the Blue Jays this season and there are some more pitchers in the queue behind Cecil, Romero and Rzepczynski.  The Jays did not have as much success with their hitters.  Most of the high school hitters from the 2007 and 2008 drafts had poor seasons.  College players such as JP Arencibia and Brian Jeroloman did not progress as hoped. 

The Jays farm system is short on top level prospects, any of the top five prospects could be considered number one, not because there are five number ones but because there are five number fives.  This system will likely be ranked in the mid-20's by Baseball America.

None of that stops us ranking the top 30 prospects so here we go, comments are welcome.

A group of fans summed up the feelings of a frustrated Jays Nation during last Friday's game against Seattle at the Dome.

ROGERS today announced that J.P. RICCIARDI will be leaving his position as Senior Vice President, Baseball Operations & General Manager of the Toronto Blue Jays effective immediately. Mr. Ricciardi joined the Blue Jays in 2001.

"This was a tough decision and a difficult one for me personally as I have enjoyed J.P.'s friendship and his perspective on the game," said Paul Beeston, acting President, and CEO. "J.P. has put an incredible amount of effort into improving the team and he has brought along a number of great young players. However, I feel that it is time for a change and accordingly we have decided to move on."

Alexander Anthopoulos, Vice President, Baseball Operations & Assistant General Manager will fill the role commencing today.

Veteran and stalwart Bauxite Mike D. writes,

OK, now things have reached rock bottom.  I think the organization has finally exhausted all conceivable ways to spark embarrassing headlines.  I can't think of any other on- or off-field aspect of the franchise which has been left unscathed by controversy or disappointment.

Ooh, I love a challenge! So let's have a little fun with that. What's the next embarrassing headline to "scathe" the Jays' it's-nearly-offseason?

Jays Mascot caught in Love Nest with San Diego Chicken
or maybe ....
Cito demands clubhouse beer not be Canadian "swill"

What avenue can we go down next? It's a creative writing workshop. Bauxites ... whatchagot?

 

Ken Rosenthal's latest missive states that the Jays players are close to mutiny over their treatment and the managing of Cito Gaston.  The Star has also jumped in with a similar story citing the Canadian Press.  Jeff Blair also talked about this a few weeks ago.  This adds to the turmoil surrounding the Blue Jays with the lack of a permanent president, rumours that the GM will be fired and now whether the manager should stay.  It's a modern War and Peace.

It's about baseball records and such.

Okay, who had Eric Wedge in the "first manager to be fired in the off-season" pool? Sure, it's not technically the off-season yet -- though it has been in Cleveland for a while! -- but soon-to-be-former Indians skipper Eric Wedge will complete the season, then look elsewhere for employment.

Former Indian hurler John Farrell, now the Red Sox pitching coach, is rumored to be a replacement candidate, though he may not be allowed to take the job per a contractual clause in Boston. So who will/should manage the Indians? And who's next on the MLB skipper chopping block?

The Boston Red Sox had a chance to clinch the AL Wild Card slot Tuesday night. Adam Lind had other thoughts.

The Jays slammed six homers in an 8-7 win, Lind clocked three of those longballs by hissownself -- the first Jay to hit three in a single contest since Frank Thomas a while back -- while Ricky Ro picked up his lucky 13th win and Jason Frasor saved his 11th game.

Lind is the second Blue Jay to reach the 35-homer mark in 2009, joining Aaron Hill, who hit his own 36th bomb against Da Sawx.

See now, it's not all bad news!

A while ago Richard Griffin did his list of best baseball books. This was on it.

Joe Posnanski writes about JP Ricciardi, again, and points out some of the contradictions in the Blue Jays GM.

“You would really like J.P. if you got to spend some time with him,” one friend in baseball told me. “He’s really a good guy and a good baseball guy.”

“You would really hate J.P.,” another friend in baseball told me. And so it goes.

The great Dave Till took care of this for us, year after year. I don't have Dave's fine sense of the classroom (it's been a while since I was actually in one, you know) but I'll do what I can.

Something to do while I wait hopefully for Jim Balsillie to give up on his NHL dream (they don't want you, Jim, can't you see?) and turn his attention to baseball.

The Blue Jays recently announced the Webster Award winners who will be presented with their awards this weekend at the Rogers Centre.  Baseball America is starting their league top 20's today with the GCL and Carlos Perez makes the list.

Nice little discussion starter the other day, in the form of a pinch-hit by Bauxite Brian W., in his look at the A.L. Cy Young race. 

The verdict: Um, we really don't know. Maybe Greinke deserves it. Maybe King Felix out in the Pacific Northwest. C.C. in the Bronx? Maybe somebody will explode in the last two weeks and win 20, effectively blinding the voters? We dunno!

Fortunately, there are a number of other awards that will be given for us to start fighting about ... er, discussing, debating ... ya know.  Are ANY of the major awards a slam dunk right now? (Okay, one is.)

So fill out your projections ... anyone who goes 10-for-10 -- gets every prediction right -- well, what are you doing here? Get to Vegas!

As the 2009 season winds down to its depressing conclusion the only possible cure is to focus on 2010 and look for positive signs.  It goes without saying that the Jays need to do what we, the knowledgable fans, think they should do.  So let's try and see if Batters Box can use the wisdom of our crowd to come up with a prioritized to-do list for the 2010 team.

So it's been four days since a new feature appeared here on Da Box ... that can mean only one thing -- it must be time for ... um ... that is, it's certainly good to welcome back ... er ...

Yeah, I got nothin'. The Jays, long ago mathematically eliminated, are entrenched in fourth place, actually closer to fifth than third; only the AL Central looks like it might have a mildly interesting finish in store, and even then, probably not.

So ... Open Forum! What's on your mind? How can the Jays be playing meaningful baseball a year from today? Or are you already locked in on the Leafs' power play situation or the Argonauts', um, whatever it is they do? Are you "following" any of the remaining teams, with a rooting interest either way?

And really, it's been a while ... how are you?