Spring Training nears and roster-filling moves start to come around the majors; just in the last day ...

• The Marlins signed LF Luis Gonzalez and 3B Dallas McPherson;
• The Mariners signed OF-1B Brad Wilkerson.

And in the "minor league contract, with an invitation to spring training" category ...

• The Yankees signed 3B Morgan Ensberg;
• The Indians signed P Jorge Julio.

A few thoughts ...

Keith Law and Kevin Goldstein rank their top 100 prospects.  Both have Travis Snider at #7.  Law had Brett Cecil at 63.  And that's it for the Jays on these lists.

Law went a little against the grain with Evan Longoria as the top prospect.

Okay, it's not really "Breaking News," given the rumours of the past three months, but at long last, Johan Santana has changed professional addresses, moving on to the Big Apple. However, he's also, in a bit of an upset, changed leagues, as baseball's best starting pitcher -- sorry, Doc! -- is now a member of the New York Mets.

In return for Santana, the Twins will receive center fielder Carlos Gomez and pitchers Phil Humber, Kevin Mulvey and Deolis Guerra -- a package which, according to ESPN.com, "some talent evaluators believe could be the fourth-best offer that Minnesota received during this process."

Thoughts, anyone?

Entering the 2008 season, there are 96* active players I believe could someday end up enshrined in the Hall of Fame. In fact, probably only a very small percentage of them -- maybe 15-20 -- will actually do so. (*On original publication, this list had 89 names; several have been added after readers pointed out oversights.)

This is simply a prompt for discussion, not a projection. Who's going to get in? Who shouldn't even be on this list? Who's missing?

From the Other End of the Spectrum
So we recently introduced our All-Age-39 team, following earlier looks at All-Age-40 and All-Age-41 squads. Let's look now to the opposite end of the age spectrum at a roster made up of players less than half the age of the geriatrics who made up the 39ers.

Stop for a moment and realize that in 2007, the only player in the major leagues under the age of 20 was Justin Upton, and he turned 20 in August. That should give you some perspective on how hard it is to earn a spot on this roster. So who does?

You've already thought of Doc Gooden, right? And maybe Robin Yount? But who else can fill out the ranks of a not-even-legally-allowed-to-drink (in the U.S. anyway) team like this one? Let's see ...

This is kind of a cool idea:  You can buy a piece of a ball player for a percentage of his future major league earnings.

Are we sure he has signed? The Jays have signed Rod Barajas to share the catching duties with Gregg Zaun. Barajas signed with the Jays last off-season before changing his mind the next day. This signing is a lot cheaper, $1.2 million for one year versus $6 million for two years in the previous attempt at a contract.

The Jays and the NH Fishercats have reached an agreement to extend their affiliation through 2012.

Not many members of the MLB fraternity play into their fourth decade; in fact, generally speaking, only the elite play as long as the Jack Benny Milestone age of 39.

Here on Da Box, we have previously constructed an All-Age-40 team and later an All-Age-41 team ... yes, there was a fair amount of overlap from one to the other, but less than you might think.

As we meet an All-Age-39 team, there are a lot of familiar names; in fact, we can assemble a pretty decent squad just using the "Top 10 Leader" lists for the Age 39 Players on BasaballReference.com ... okay, not "pretty fair," make that "geriatrically unstoppable" ...

Let's meet them; they're called ...

What kinds of starting pitchers do the Jays have? And how does it affect their handling of the left field and shortstop positions?

Today is Arlie Pond's birthday. Er, well, rather, it would have been his (record-smashing) 135th birthday, but he passed on back in 1930. You don't remember Pond, in fact, have never heard of him? Well ...

As usual, most of the spots are spoken for.

The Blue Jays agreed to terms with four players on Thursday night, leaving Marco Scutaro and Alex Rios as the only Jays scheduled to head to arbitration. Reportedly the team is close to agreeing to a contract with Scutaro, which would leave only Rios and I'd be surprised if the Jays didn't come to an agreement with him, as well.

The folks over at The Sporting News have noticed the nice little starting rotation the Jays have assembled. The current issue of TSN magazine boasts a two-page spread entitled "Focus on A.L.Rotations" that, among other things, ranks the league from 1-14. Let's take a look at some of the highlights of that story, which has the Jay quintet ranked fourth (you guessed that from the headline, right?), nestled between the #3 Angels and the #5 Tigers ...

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