Here's a new thread for discussing all the moves that are unfolding at the Winter Meetings.

The results are in.  Blue Jay fans considered John McDonald and Vernon Wells as the best defenders on the club.  Aaron Hill did very well on my ballot, but I probably sneaked in some consideration of his superior pivot on the double play into the "instincts" and "release" departments.  Surprises?

I think you'd be hard-pressed to find a bigger Frank Catalanotto fan than me.  You see the ball that's behind the Batter's Box logo at the top of this page?  That ball was autographed by the Cat.  Not only that -- he threw the ball to me during a game, and my wife got him to autograph it for me later.

This was back in 2003, when I made a giant banner that read VOTE CATALANOTTO in the same font and style as the VOTE DELGADO and VOTE WELLS banners on the outfield walls at the then-SkyDome, and brought it with me during All-Star voting.  One game a security fellow asked to see my rolled-up sign and got so excited by it that he directed me to sit in the left field corner and unveil the sign whenever possible.  I did, and that's when the Cat tossed me that ball.

Enjoy Texas, Frank.  I'll miss you, and I don't think I'm the only one.  And whenever someone loads up a page of Batter's Box, that ball you autographed for me will appear.

Here's Frank Catalanotto, one last time for your desktops:

We now take the final step through the process of building a Hall of Names roster for each of the 25 most-common male names in North America -- though one additional step in this process will be taken later.

For now, though, let's look at name #22, one of those rare names that has done significant triple duty as a given first name and middle name as well as a family/last name in the big leagues ... Anthony.

Sure, it's true that ...

On my blog, I'm holding up the Jays' McDonald, and the Expos Angel Salazar as possibly the best fielders around who couldn't hit MLB pitching.  When discussing McDonald, I said:

It must be a virtual certainty that he’s a great fielder, since he’s never had 300 PA, has come into the league at almost age 25, is now 32, has 1146 career PA, his career OPS+ is 56, with a career high of 75.  His career high in salary is 500,000$. He’s also had SIX different managers on three teams.

And, here is the criteria:

1 - has been in the league for at least 5 seasons
2 - has played in at least 300 games
3 - has averaged less than 4 PA per game (preferably under 3)
4 - has a career OPS+ of under 60
5 - is a 2B,SS,3B,CF (i.e., not a catcher, and I’d be shocked if you could find anyone at another position)
6 - better than league average fielding percentage

Peter Bergeron of the Expos is another that qualifies.  So, are we in the midst of seeing McDonald be the best at this?

The Blue Jays signed catcher Jason Phillips to a 1 year, $500,000 contract.

Two years ago, we looked at Robin Ventura, Chipper Jones, and Scott Rolen. We're moving Alex Rodriguez from the shortstops to the third basemen this time around. This time, I thought that I'd take a closer look at the offensive contributions of the very good and great third basemen in major league baseball since 1900 at age 30, 32 and 34, and see where Ventura, Jones, Rolen and Rodriguez slide in at each age offensively, before we get to defence.

Our own Leigh Sprague got the ball rolling with his fictional take on the Barajas/Zaun affair. Now, Protrade's Ryan Wilkins weighs in with haiku concerning the Manny Ramirez to LA trade rumours. We take poetry very seriously here at da Box, and the possibilities this off-season are endless. A player. A team. A general manager (I'm still searching for rhymes for Hendry). So, let's have them, Bauxites.

Ken Rosenthal reports that the Blue Jays have signed Royce Clayton to a 1 year, $1.5 million deal. The deal is pending a physical (and Clayton not switching agents at the last minute).

*We here at Batter's Box are not generally prone to writing fiction. However, the events of the last two days have inspired me to present the following short story.

...............................

Oh sure, they said it would be fun, but I was skeptical. As comforted as I was by the prospect of an evening of draught beer, sports-related conversation and latently homoerotic male bonding, I just felt like staying home. I told them that I was planning to watch Monday Night Football alone, to see a geriatric Brett Favre, to chuckle quietly while Tony Kornheiser juxtaposes football and pop culture to the befuddlement of an ignorant Joe Theissman, and, most importantly, to selfishly root for a backdoor cover of the eleven point spread.

Jeff Blair says it's a done deal with the Jays and Zaun. Two years, $7.25 million, with an option for a third year based on games played. (thanks to China fan for the heads up)

JP Ricciardi confirmed the Zaun signing today.

Updated: With the informal results of a Batter's Box straw poll ... and no less than four unanimous choices!

It's that time of year again -- post-U.S. Thanksgiving, pre-Christmas, meaning that of course, the gift in all our stockings is a Hall of Fame ballot ... or at least the ability to niff and whine about who should be elected.

Here's the complete list of this year's candidates ...

There's a new catcher in town.

UPDATE: Or maybe not....... TR Sullivan at MLB.com wrote that the Barajas deal fell apart, Barajas changed agents and canceled his trip to Toronto.

Jeff Blair reports that the Jays are in negotiations again with Zaun and that the Barajas signing isn't the done deal that was published as done this morning, pending a phyiscal, and confirmed by Barajas' agent.

"One of these guys is going to be the Blue Jays catcher," a source close to negotiations said late Monday night.

Buster Olney wrote that the Jays were "on the verge" of re-signing Gregg Zaun and "it was not immediately clear if the Barajas deal fell apart".

UPDATE 2 (11:45pm): General manager J.P. Ricciardi said late Monday the team was negotiating with Zaun, and the deal with Barajas was not going ahead. Ricciardi declined to comment about why the contract with Barajas wasn't completed.

"We don't have an agreement with anybody at this point,'' Ricciardi said.

Asked if he still had interest in Barajas, Ricciardi said he couldn't comment right now. Asked if he hoped to sign Zaun this week, Ricciardi said: "Yeah. I hope to have something done with somebody this week.''

It looks like we've seen the end of Gregg Zaun's time in a Jays uniform, which is a shame. His career turnaround has been one of those great baseball stories that will stick with me.

I'll say it again: all the guy has to do is make it to the playoffs to give The Gregg Zaun Story the rousing finale it needs to make it a successful Disney movie in a decade or two.

Here he is, for what is hopefully not the very last time:

We're almost done working our way through the process of building a Hall of Names roster for each of the 25 most-common male names in North America; in fact, just two remain -- #22 Anthony and #23 Kevin. In honor of the man who's made more baseball-themed movies than anyone not working as a big league advance scout, let's go with the latter for now -- though for the record, no, no Costner character (Billy Chapel, Crash Davis, even Ray Kinsella) will be considered eligible.

There are, however ...