I think we're the team to beat.
- Jimmy Rollins

Spring training means worn-out cliches, sun-burned Caucasians, and friendly players if you happen to go to a game in Arizona or Florida. It also means BB's annual season previews. We hope you enjoy them this year. We begin with the Mets.

You might think that the Mets would be a prohibitive favourite in the NL East after a 97 win season, with contributions from a core of young players that rank among the best in the majors. They shouldn't be.

The BBFL has only one proposed rule change. It and additional league information are below the fold…

UPDATED at 11pm EST Feb 28...

When spring training games start this week most eyes will be on the pitching battles.  There are at least two starting pitcher jobs up for grabs and the bullpen has three vacancies.  If we expand our view to the Syracuse Chiefs the picture gets even more cloudy, by my count there are thirty-five pitchers battling for twenty-four jobs between the Blue Jays and the Chiefs.  Most readers are familiar with the major league battles but might not be aware of the AAA ones.

Some time back, we finished a series of Hall of Names teams for each of the 25 Most Common North American Male First Names; this is the 25th "other" male first name team to grace Batter's Box pages since early in 2003 ...

It won't feature celebrity softballers like Affleck or Stiller, or require a quarterback like Roethlisberger, but as you have surely guessed from the headline, we'll be gauging the Ben-efits of this team's quality as we meet ...

Sammy Sosa is in Rangers camp now ... In bigger Lone Star baseball news, Roger Clemens is in Astros camp (sort of) ... Another former Yankee hurler, El Duque Hernandez, has a real pain in the neck ... Meanwhile, still another veteran pitcher, Curt Schilling, says he definitely will file for free agency ...

In other news, the Cardinals are planning on using Braden Looper in the rotation, while the Dodgers plan to hit Rafael Furcal and Juan Pierre (!) 1-2 in the lineup this season ...

What else?

Three divisions.
Twenty teams per division.
Twenty-Five players per team.
Twelve statistical categories.
Promotion and relegation.

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

Jeff Blair reports that the Jays and John Gibbons have agreed to an extension through the 2008 season. The deal will reportedly pay Gibbons $650,000 in 2008.

Young Blue Jay OF (and future AL MVP) Alex Rios is 26 today, Feb. 18. He is one of no less than 49 big league ballplayers born on this day.

Not a single one of those four-dozen-plus-one is enshrined in Baseball's Hall of Fame (though there is at least one MVP already and a number of other All-Stars), but it is indeed possible that this is one of the most prolific Hall of Names birthdays in the entire calendar year.

What follows is a roster made up entirely of players born on Feb. 18. Let's see if this team would be any good as we we greet ...

The Jays are starting to roll into Dunedin and there seems to be two stories right now:

1. Doc says he's perfectly fine.
2. Gibbons is in the last year of his contract. Bob Elliot is concerned about this. JP and Gibbons? Not so much.

Goose Gossage edged over the 70% mark in the most recent Hall of Fame vote. His election in the next year or two now seems likely. Would he be a good choice?

The Jays signed Pete Walker to a minor league deal.  Walker is coming off of rotator cuff surgery and is a long shot to fill a spot in the Jays bullpen.

Not too long ago, Batter's Box ran a poll regarding the "best science fiction television series/franchise." There were nine candidates listed (all received votes), and the varied tastes of Bauxites everywhere led to no less than eighteen additional shows receiving what amounted to "write-in" votes.

In one of the least surprising poll results of all time, the Star Trek franchise ran away with the poll, picking up more than 40 percent of the total votes, nearly three times the total accumulated by the second-place finisher, Battlestar Galactica.

As mentioned in the poll, this is all in the interest of an ongoing Hall of Names series ... and as such, each of the leading vote-getters will get a turn. Heck, Star Trek has already had its own Hall of Names day in the sun (or under the stars), one of just a few television shows -- along with stalwarts like Happy Days and M*A*S*H, as well as less conventional favorites like The Simpsons and Sesame Street -- to be so honored.

But for all that, since I am doing the series, I get to decide who goes next, and with all due respect to BSG and other vote-getters, the greatest syndicated science fiction series/franchise in the history of English-language television is ...

Baseball Prospectus had their top 10 Blue Jay prospects listed today - and as a bonus it's a free article so everyone can read the entire profile. Snider ranked ahead of Lind, which I can't say I'm shocked at. Goldstein seems to value ceiling above most other things.

In other cool news, somewhat minor league related, over at the Hardball Times they announced that the good people that brought us minorleaguesplits.com will also be bringing us collegesplits.com. I imagine this will be quite helpful when looking at college prospects around draft time.

Bodog has published their February listing of odds for each club to win the 2007 World Series?  The Yankees, Tigers and Mets are most favoured, in that order. I like the A's at 20-1, and the Indians at 28-1.  Among the longshot choices,  the Snakes at 50-1 and the Rays at 200-1 would have some interest.  I am mystified that the Royals are only at 70-1.  Do Kansas City fans bet more than Phoenix fans?

Who would be the choice of Bauxites?  None of us bet, right?