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The BBFL has spoken and it said 'No'
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Jays dropped their Grapefruit League opener yesterday.  The season is doomed!
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It's long past time for my first Data Table of 2008, no?
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This an exercise we went through last spring. This is last year's Predictions Thread! Not this Year's

Anyway, how did we do?
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Saw this linked at BTF and thought Bauxites might be interested, if they haven't heard this story already on Travis Snider.  Jordan Bastian at MLB.com had a similar article a couple weeks ago.
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We have some rule proposals to vote on and lots of owner movement.
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The Jays signed Shannon Stewart to a minor league contract.
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At the bottom of this Jeff Blair column there's a blurb that Dustin McGowan put on some muscle this offseason and now has a routine down to deal with diabetes.

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The National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum announced today that Dave Niehaus, the voice of the Seattle Mariners for all 31 seasons of the team's existence, has been named the 2008 recipient of the Ford C. Frick Award, presented annually for major contributions to baseball broadcasting. Niehaus will be honored with the award during Hall of Fame Induction Ceremonies on Sunday, July 27, in Cooperstown, N.Y. The news came to Niehaus on his 73rd birthday.

Read the full press release here.

Happy Wednesday, everyone. Anything going on?

QOTD: What other ballplayers can you name, Blue Jays or otherwise (past or oresent) who can be given a TV character moniker? (Yes, yes, the creepy little girl Wednesday's name was "Addams" with two d's ... what, you want extra "D" from Russ?)

And what else is happening?

The world's politest fantasy league returns.

Update - Feb 21st:
Existing Owners, please reply to me ASAP if you haven't let me know if you'll be returning. I want to get this years ownership list finalised this weekend, and I really don't want to drop anyone without hearing from them. Even if you're not coming back just drop me a line to let me know, thanks to all owners who have responded, there are five I'm still waiting to hear from.

Update2 :
I forgot that Opening Day is officially March 25th. Therefore I don't think yahoo is going to let us draft on March 27th. Let's schedule March 20th at 9pm as our preferred draft time. We'll have to shorten the trading window a little. I'll post an updated timetable at the weekend.
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It's family day in Ontario and Presidents day in the US, meanwhile almost all players should be in camp for the Blue Jays.  Spring training games will start in less than two weeks with intra-squad games coming up next Monday.
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Gregg Zaun gives his explanation, by way of the National Post, on how his name wound up in the Mitchell Report. 
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The Jays will have one less stop at the "Trop" in 2008.  MLB.com reports they will play the newly-named Tampa Bay Rays for the first time in Orlando this April. 
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We don't often devote a whole thread here on Batter's Box to a single article published on another site, but if you have not yet read Tom Friend's From San Diego's favorite son ... to spoilsport for ESPN: The Magazine (and available free on ESPN.com), please do so.

It's long -- more than 4,500 words -- but truly a masterpiece, compellingly telling the story of one at-bat that took 15 years to set up. So read it, then come back here and tell us what you think.