A recent essay by Batter's Box's own #2JBrumfield examined arbitration-eligibility news in the world of Major Leage Baseball. That called to mind recent efforts to build teams for our ongoing Baseball's Hall of Names based on player initials ... we've done dozens of such rosters of all types, ranging from G.M. to M.D. and P.R. to B.S. (that latter pairing, some wags would argue, is repetitive). But we've never done one for "R.B."

To do so, as always, we first need to set some ground rules ...

William Houston blogs that Rogers are nowhere near bringing a dedicated TV channel to Canadian TV, after acquiring a CRTC license for such a channel 18 months ago.

"By email, Jan Innes, vice-president of communications for Rogers, stated, “There is nothing to report at this time. Our discussions are still ongoing.”
The “discussions” would be tied to Rogers partnering with MLB Network to produce MLB Canada, or purchasing content from MLB Network for Baseball TV."

The Blue Jays have acquired pitcher Merkin Valdez in a deal with the San Francisco Giants for cash considerations.  Jordan Bastian of bluejays.com says Valdez will join the crowded competition for a spot in the Jays bullpen.

On Monday we looked at the Blue Jays 2004 prospects.  Today we will look at the 2004 prospects for the rest of the major leagues to see where, on the top 30 lists, major leaguers come from.

The Toronto Blue Jays continue to build depth in the minor leagues by signing outfielder Jeremy Reed and right-handed pitcher Steven Register to minor league deals according to bluejays.com.

I recently came upon my old prospect guides and I thought it might be interesting to look back six years to see where  the Blue Jay prospects were rated.  Given the current uninspiring reviews of our farm system it might give us some hope that a lower rated prospect can make the jump to become a major league regular.

Jordan Bastian of bluejays.com says a half-dozen pitchers want to super-size their value meals by filing for arbitration.  The "arbitration six" are right-handers Jeremy Accardo, Shawn Camp, Jason Frasor, Casey Janssen and Shaun Marcum as well as lefty Brian Tallet.  Jays GM Alex Anthopoulos is imposing a Tuesday deadline for contract negotiations.

Baseball America and Baseball Prospectus are in agreement about who the top two prospects are in the Blue Jays system.  BP has released its list of the Top 11 Jays up and comers and if that's not enough, they take things four steps further.  A tip of the 1999 Jays Batting Practice cap to Bauxite jdog for the heads-up.

A birthday boy is the focus of today's POTD.

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.