Eight years, $180 million to become the third-highest-paid player on his own team. ESPN.com has the details.

And be sure to read the incredibly amusing announcement on this news from the greatness that is Jamey Newberg, pasted within ...

You may not remember him, but today is Geoff Zahn's birthday. Zahn, a fine LHSP in the '70s and '80s, won 18 games once and was one of the first big two-time winners in early free agency, signing with both the Twins in '77 and the Angels in '81.

But this isn't about Zahn, the pitcher. It's about his name -- Geoff. There have been only five Geoffs in big league history, so though we were able to build a fine All-Jeff team back in '06, an All-Geoff team simply ain't happening.

Similar "sorry, ain't happening" notes to guys names Jon (rather than John), Kris (rather than Chris) and Marc (instead of Mark) among many others. Which leads us to this question ...

At the end of the 2008 season, agrand total of 171 players entered the free agent market. As of this writing, just a hair less than 90 percent of those are still available, as just 18 have signed with a new team (Renteria, Rhodes, etc.), re-signed with their old team (Blake, Moyer, etc.), accepted arbitration (Weathers) or retired (Maddux, Mussina).

That means there are still more than 150 free agents out there on the market. So here's a thought experiment ...

So the hot stove league chatter of the winter meetings has dwindled to mere embers in the December fireplace, and what are you hearing now? (Or hey, what would you like to be hearing, anyway?)

The big news today, if you can call it that, is that the inimitable Chan Ho Park, who has 117 career wins, and last season got his ERA down below 4.81 for the first time since 2001 -- has signed a one-year, $2.5 million contract with the defending champion Phillies. Apparently the Jays were also in contention to sign The Ho ... speaking as a North Texas resident, let me tell you -- be glad that didn't happen.

What else?

Peavy to Cubs is dead.

Huge deal - huge in terms of volume, not necessarily star talent - between the Mariners, Indians and Mets. J.J. Putz is the centerpiece of the deal. Franklin Gutierrez and Aaron Heilman are other big names changing teams. Summary of player movement:

Mariners -> Mets: Putz, RHP Sean Green, OF Jeremy Reed
Indians -> Mariners: Gutierrez
Mets -> Mariners: OF Endy Chavez, RHP Aaron Heilman, 1B Mike Carp, RHP Maikel Cleto, LHP Jason Vargas, OF Ezekiel Carrera
Mets -> Indians: RHP Joe Smith
Mariners -> Indians: IF Luis Valbuena

In the AAA phase of the Rule V Draft, the Jays lost Anthony Hatch and Ryan Klosterman, and selected Cody Haerther from St. Louis. There was no Jay-related activity in the Major League phase. The AA phase hasn't been updated yet.

And finally, a Blue Jay transaction! The Jays signed Matt Clement to a minor league deal. Quick analysis after the break.

Update (Friday): Raul Ibanez signs with the Phillies for 30/3. Still on the slugger market: Mark Teixeira, Adam Dunn, Pat Burrell, Manny. And Teixeira is the only one who seems to be drawing much interest.

Tony Kubek won the Ford Frick Award.

Joe Gordon was elected to the Hall of Fame by the Veteran's Committee.

The big news from today is that C.C. Sabathia is close to a deal with the Yankees worth about 160 million over 7 years.

Yesterday, Francisco Rodriguez set the bar low in the closer market, signing with the Mets for 3 years and 37 million, with a vesting option for a 4th year. Jose Valverde is feeling great about himself.

Also, Casey Blake signed a 3 year deal with the Dodgers, and Kerry Wood is reportedly close to signing with the Indians. Jake Peavy talks don't seem to be progressing.

Update: Keith Law, Rob Neyer, Will Carroll and Christina Kahrl have been admitted to the BBWAA. This became a big issue last off-season when Neyer and Law were denied entry, and resulted in Neyer and Tracy Ringolsby butting heads on Baseball Think Factory. It's great to see those two get in after the disappointment of last off-season, and it's also a good sign to see the BBWAA extend membership to Baseball Prospectus writers Kahrl and Carroll.

The winter meetings start tomorrow in Las Vegas.  Most attendees are already in Vegas or are arriving today.  The meetings end with the rule 5 draft on Thursday.  Often the meetings are anti-climactic as teams discuss trades but don't pull the trigger until weeks later.  the Jays are expected to be quiet.

Proving that he's willing to trump news even from his own clients, Scott Boras today leaked the fact that Monday, Greg Maddux will announce his retirement from major league baseball.

A decent argument can be put forth that Maddux has been the greatest starting pitcher in major league baseball history. Where would you rank him?

John Sickels has a Blue Jays Prospect Discussion Thread up, and will post the Jays Top 20 in the next week.

milb.com has been doing their Top 50 this week, and the top 10 is set to come out tomorrow. By process of elimination, it should look something like (this is my guess of what it will look like, not what my top 10 would look like, not that I know enough about prospect evaluation to come up with a legitimate list)...

Jays owner Ted Rogers died at his home last night.  He was 75.

From The Globe: "He was this country's version of Steve Jobs, a technology entrepreneur who was down but never out, who unabashedly loved gadgetry, who had a huge, resilient ego, who made life hell for his executives but could evoke great loyalty–and who triumphed over naysayers to become the second wealthiest Canadian with a personal net worth estimated at more than $7-billion."

The Star also has a photo tribute.

R.I.P.

Figured this hasn't received a thread, so why not? What better thing to get debates going than the good ol' HOF.

November's not over yet! Quite!

So we spent some time this week discussing who should be each team's "Mr. Franchise" (the full discussion is in this thread) and given the results, tried to fill out a full standard-Hall-of-Names 25-man roster.

The lineup and bench were no problem -- four legitimate Hall of Famers didn't even make the roster... but the pitching staff runs short. We have only seven arms available, five more Hall of Famers, one who certainly will be in six years or so, and another -- well, as you'll see, a projection, at best.

So how can we make this team better? Note that four of the six listed as not making the team all played primarily the same position, OF, with three primarily in RF alone..

Can we fill out the pitching staff somehow? Your thoughts ...?

News updates - the Toronto chapter of the baseball writers handed out their awards yesterday.  At the ceremony Paul Beeston addressed the media with bad news about the 2009 payroll.  The baseball winter meetings start in just over a week.

We all know that when you hear a reference to "Mr. Cub," that's the one and only Ernie Banks. So he's this team's starting shortstop. Or maybe first baseman, we'll see. What are we going for here? Well, we have 30 teams in the big leagues, and a standard Hall of Names roster includes 25 players plus a manager, sometimes some coaches, maybe an owner or a mascot -- you get the idea.

What kind of team can we build of players who were their franchise's equivalent of Banks? That requires two steps, and who knows, possibly some heated arguments (which is always fun). First, we have to identify everyone from Mr. Brave to Mr. Mariner, all the way from Atlanta to Seattle. Then, we have to see if our list can make up a legitimate roster. To that point, a few rules ...