Glaus for Rolen is official. The formal announcment will be today.

A recent article in the Syracuse Post-Standard says a U.S. Senator has spoken to the Mets about setting up shop in Syracuse in 2009 and according to him, the Metropolitans are interested. 

So the Glaus-for-Rolen deal has dominated the pages and polls of Da Box for a day or more now, and it has been, correctly, labeled a true "challenge" trade.

Challenge trades are straight-up, one-for-one deals, usually involving two guys who play the same position. The first such trade I can remember is the legendary My-Bobby-For-Yours deal of 1974 when the Giants sent Bonds to the Bronx for Murcer. The most legendary such deal is one that actually never happened, when (legend has it) the owners of the Red Sox and Yankees got their drink on and agreed to deal Joe DiMaggio for Ted Williams before both backed out the next, more sober day.

So here are your questions for the day ...

Count me among those that don't like a Rolen for Glaus swap.

According to Fox Sports' Ken Rosenthal, "major-league sources" say the Jays are working on a trade that would send Troy Glaus to the Cardinals for Scott Rolen. Rosenthal reports that both players have agreed to waive their no-trade clauses.

In the annals of North American popular culture, two of the greatest heroes of the 20th century -- one fictional, one who played fictional characters -- bore the last/family name "Wayne." (We refer here, of course, to Bruce "The Batman" Wayne and to John "The Duke"Wayne.)

There have also been two major league players with that family appellation,neither particularly "heroic," LHRP Gary Wayne (14 wins and four saves mostly with MIN in the early 1990s) and RHRP Justin Wayne (eight starts and 18 relief appearances for FLA in the early part of the current decade). Fortunately, there are more than a hundred other ballplayers with "Wayne" as a first or middle name, so we shouldn't have too much trouble building a legitimate team for, no, not "The Batmen" (though that'd be a nice basebally name), but rather ...

Rich Gossage is now a Hall of Famer, the only member of the class of '08 at this point. Jim Rice just missed, Andre Dawson and Bert Blyleven were in shouting distance, and nobody else was close.

Your thoughts?

It's the season for minor league top ten lists.  Batters Box published our own list shortly after the season ended, but the more general minor league books are now becoming available.  Batters Box recently featured Deric McKamey's list from the Minor League Baseball Analyst.  The Baseball America list is out in the magazine and will be released on their web site on Friday.  John Sickels has just finished his book and his list is now available on his web site, and to complete the party Baseball Prospectus published their top ten list today.

Baseball Prospectus has their Jay top 11 prospects today.

Yeah, it's so slow these days that each prospect list gets its own thread

John Sickels weighs in on the Jays top 20 prospects. Having just 3 players in the Bs is really low.

If anyone could lay claim to the title of "World's Biggest Jays Fan", it was her.

After weeks of hot stove action it is time to begin Batters Box 2008 coverage of the minor leagues.  On Friday of this week Baseball America will release, on their web site, their Blue Jay top ten list but we are starting the week with another Blue Jay top ten, this one from Deric McKamey who is about to publish the third edition of his Minor League Baseball Analyst.

We've "honored" a number of legendary television series here on Da Box with cast-and-character Hall of Names teams for, among others, Star Trek, M*A*S*H, Happy Days, Gilligan's Island, The Simpsons, Stargate and even Sesame Street. So let's launch the first Hall of Names volley of 2008 with an homage to the greatest prime-time cartoon ever developed, South Park.

Oakland, after trading ace Dan Haren to Arizona just two weeks ago, has acquired LHP Gio Gonzalez, RHP Fautino De Los Santos and OF Ryan Sweeney from the White Sox in exchange for switch-hitting OF Nick Swisher, who hit 22 homers in his age-27 season last year. Thoughts?

The Jays avoid arbitration with Reed Johnson, signing him to a 1 year, $3.275 million contract.

The article linked above also mentions that the Jays have signed minor league contracts with pitchers Lance Carter, John Parrish, and Ryan Kethner.