Many moves to note around the majors, some involving familiar big names, if not players of impact (any more) ...

• At the top of the list, old friend Orlando Hudson is now a Dodger.
• Joe Crede switches AL Central addresses, moving from Chicago to Minneapolis to take on the Twins hot corner.
• Recovering frontline starter -- and Anna Benson boytoy -- Kris Benson moves to the Pitchers' Purgatory in Arlington, Texas as an NRI with the Rangers.
• Nomar to the A's?

Any thoughts on these or other moves? What else is going on?

TGIF.  Friday is the end of the working week and it must be time for us to look at the cornerstones, the third basemen.

The venerable Sporting News, which has become a better magazine recently with its move to a more feature-oriented bi-weekly publication schedule, has in its latest issue its annual MLB preview, including "Offseason Grades" for each big league club. Just four major league teams received a "D" -- the Twins, Astros, Padres and Pirates -- for their offseason work. There were all sorts of Bs, a few C's, some A's -- even an A+ for the Yankees.

Oh wait,. There was one "F" ... ladies and gentlemen, your Toronto Blue Jays!

Here's the entire Jays preview, brief but pointed ...

In today's news, as most of you have probably already heard, Ken Griffey Jr. has elected to re-sign with his original club, the Seattle Mariners.

No links here to the many (many, many) news stories, or the love-fest published by the Seatlle Post-Intelligencer. Just a question for today -- a Question of the Day, if you will -- how's this gonna work out? For Da Kid? For the M's?

Feel free to link to any of those many, many stories yourself, of course, with your considered (or snide and funny) commentary attached, of course.

If today is Thursday then it is middle-infield day in our organizational look-ahead to the 2009 season.

We continue on our tour around the bases though the spring training lens.  Today the first basemen take centre stage.

Yesterday we looked at the 200 players coming to Florida for spring training and we promised a position by position look at the rosters.  Today we start with the catchers.

Spring training is here at last and finally we can try to forget about steroids and perjury and the impact of the economy on team budgets.  2009 is the year of Obama and the Jays battle cry should be "yes we can".  If Obama can deliver the improbable then why not the Jays?  On a more practical note this spring training sees about 200 Jays players arrive in Florida ready to battle for about 150 roster spots on six teams from the big leaguers to the extended spring training team.  Over the next week and a half we will look at each position and assess the depth of the Jays system.

Now that we got this Valentine's Day crap out of the way, let's get on with something that'll warm our hearts - Jays pitchers and catchers have reported to Dunedin!  Boo-yah!!  

Welcome to Year Seven of the Batter's Box Fantasy League.

Update:  Existing owners last chance. If you want to play this year let me know by the end of the weekend (Sun 22nd) or I'll be giving your slot to a new owner.

Number 9, number 9, number 9, number 9, number 9, number 9
Industrial output ... Financial imbalance
Thrusting it between his shoulder blades

• from Revolution Number Nine by the Beatles

Ted Williams. Reggie Jackson. Minnie Minoso. Enos Slaughter. Bill Mazeroski. Roger Maris. What do these men all have in common? (No, this isn't a trivia thread, sorry.) Simply -- they are the only men in baseball history to have had the uniform #9 retired by a big league ballclub.

Now, "9" is a magic number in baseball. Nine innings in a game. Nine players on the field defensively -- and nine in the lineup, pre-DH. You get the idea. So in a reverse twist on Dan McIlroy's excellent "Lobby of Numbers" series, let's see what kind of roster we can build strictly of players who wore the uniform #9. (I'm going to need some help here!) ...

Got to thinking - what should we expect in the Jays rotation and bullpen in 2009?  We have been assuming Cito will go with a 7 man bullpen but will he push for a 6 man?

Almost three and a half years ago, when Baseball's Hall of Names was just starting to grow, we examined teams for the most common family names in North America; sitting at #9 on that list was A Pretty Good Squad, Moore or Less. (Alas, there never has been a player named Les Moore, so there is no all-contradictary names team on the horizon.)

But what about that other sense of Mo(o)re and Les(s)? Can we build a squad of players bearing names like More, Most and Very? Staying away from nicknames, this might be more than we can handle, at the very most!

But let's see ...

According to a Sports Illustrated report, Alex Rodriguez tested positive for steroids in 2003.

Update (Monday): In an interview with Peter Gammons, A-Rod admitted to using steroids from 2001-2003.

The Jays have avoided arbitration with right-handed reliever Shawn Camp.  The 33 year-old will be paid three-quarters of a million bucks for 2009.