You can make a pretty good argument that current Tiger ace Justin Verlander is the greatest player in major league history with the initials "J.V." -- you might get some protests from Joe Vosmik, Johnny VanderMeer, Jose Vidro, and in a few years, maybe Joey Votto. But for now, it appears that the not-yet-25-year-old RHSP either holds or will soon hold that title all to hissownself.

Which begs the question -- while everyone is focused on the varsity winning titles, what kind of "All-JV" team can we build from the annals of MLB history? Let's find out as we meet ...

Free agency is now open to all 30 teams.  It's a good time to be a free agent.

The Jays bullpen looks like it will be a strength for the team next year and at the very least it won't be a weakness.. It has a strong back end of the bullpen with Jeremy Accardo, Scott Downs and Casey Janssen. Although not household names the three of them did an admirable job this year and even if they don’t repeat their performance in 2008, none of them look to be a flash in the pan. After those three will come some combination of Jason Frasor, Brian Tallet, Brian Wolfe, Brandon League, Joe Kennedy, Mike Gosling, Davis Romero, Josh Banks and any other free agent signings. Even with the inherent variance found in the performance of many relievers year-to-year I am reasonably confident the Jays will be able to find seven serviceable arms out of that group. Oh yeah, and BJ Ryan will be back, and presumably as good as new, by the middle of the year.

So why do I want the team to team to spend millions on a 33-year-old reliever who has never pitched in the majors before?

Jon Heyman at CNNSI.com predicts the contracts of the top free agents this offseason.

When you search for "Gene" at the greatness of BaseballReference.com, you receive no less than 121 returns on that search. And though I've never been into genetic modeling or even gene therapy, that seems a likely good pool of talent to build our latest entry in Baseball's Hall of Names.

So step back and put your hands together for ...

The GM meetings have started up and Ricciardi says that the Jays are open to listening to offers on AJ Burnett.

Update:  Ricciardi takes it back.

Time's ripe for a discussion based on Blue Jay history (props to Matthew E. for his great start down that road) and Hot Stove memories ... the question on the table is this: What is the dumbest move (transaction or game/season management -- both are open topics) in Toronto Blue Jays history?

Michael Young for Esteban Loaiza? David Wells for Mike Sirotka? Letting Cecil Fielder escape to Japan? The Sil Campusano Project? Name the players -- and give your reasons.

To be fair ...

Here's what everyone remembers about the 1988 Blue Jays.

They remember that the Jays lost the last seven games of the 1987 season, allowing the Tigers to win the division. They remember that the team tried to shift McGriff and Fielder to first, George Bell to DH and Moseby to left field, so that Silvestre Campusano could take over in centerfield. They remember that Bell didn't like it, that it caused dissension on the team, and that this would contribute to Jimy Williams's firing a year later. They might remember that Bell hit three home runs against the Royals on opening day. They certainly remember that the Jays didn't win the division that year, but were somewhere vaguely near the top of the standings, and they certainly remember that Dave Stieb pitched two one-hitters in his last two starts of the season, with both hits coming with two outs in the ninth.

And if that's all they remember, they don't remember the best part.

It was reported earlier this afternoon that Matt Stairs signed a 2-year, $3.5 million contract with the Blue Jays. Time to deal with some of the questions arising from this news.

It's that time of year again ... time to select candidates for the 2008 recipient of the Ford C. Frick Award, presented annually to a baseball broadcaster for major contributions to the game.

As the online ballot explains, "Three of the 10 names on the final Frick Award ballot will be chosen by fans throughout the month of November. Select up to three (3) candidates from the ballot ... You may vote once each day during the month of November. The final 10-name ballot, featuring the three fan selections, will be announced on December 5, 2007. Click a name to see a brief biography of [each] broadcaster."

Yes, Jerry Howarth is on the ballot. So are some other names you'll recgonize. You can cast up to 30 votes, people ... don't waste this opportunity! Vote now!

Which way you going, Slappy?

Yeah, yeah, the Red Sox are world champs (yawwwwwwn) ... but it's the Yankees continuing to dominate the headlines, first with the whole A-Rod thing and now, apparently, ex-Bomber backstop Joe Girardi has been offered the manager's (hot)seat. Apparently runner-up Don Mattingly will not be offered, nor would he accept, a position on Joe G's coaching staff.

Forget the whole A-Rod deal for a moment -- is Girardi a good choice for pinstriped nation?

Painful as this is to write, it looks like the Red Sox are likely to be World Series champs -- maybe as early as tonight -- for the second in four years. So much for the idea of a "curse" ... though to be fair, if any team knows the frailty of a 3-0 post-season series lead, it's the Sox (and Yankees, of course).

Still, with all due respect to Josh Beckett and even Daisuke Matsuzaka, the guy the Sox have ridden this far (emotionally anyway) is the old war horse himself, Curt Schilling. A likely future Hall of Famer, Schill is also probably the greatest "Curt" (or even "Kurt") to play in the major leagues ... or is he? Let's find out in this latest installment of Baseball's Hall of Names ...

The Jays picked up a couple players off of waivers from the Reds according to a press release on TSN. In a related move the Jays outright DeJong, Gronkiewicz, and Vermiliyea to Syracuse.

Thanks to Brian W for the heads up.

Baseball America has published several Jays related articles recently.