Apologies to the home of the Athletics, and Oakland has produced a number of fine diamond men, but today faithful Bauxite Anders Whist brings us this Hall of Names team composed entirely of San Francisco natives.

How good is this team? Here's a hint: Joe DiMaggio didn't make the roster. Let's see what that's all about as we meet a team that, even without Jim or Sam Rice, could only be called ...

The 2006 Hall of Fame ballot has been announced. We will take a look at three of the starting pitching candidates- Tommy John, Bert Blyleven and Jack Morris.

If you ask a casual baseball fan under the age of 25 about Tommy John, you're likely to get a 2 word answer: "elbow surgery". If you ask someone over the age of 25 about him, you will probably hear about his eminently hittable stuff and his unimposing stature. How many will say "always good and sometimes great"?

At last, at long last, the Lobby of Numbers is back. We're changing leagues, we're changing coasts. Yes, it's time for the NL West. That means we have a couple of quick, light appetizers to get us back up to speed.

The Jays have a full 25 man roster, a payroll of about $70 million and a budget of about $75 million.

So following a year when the World Championship finally came to the Windy City, though much to Cub fans' dismay, across the city for the team Bill Veeck once dressed in shorts, it's a Hall of Names Second City display based primarily on work submitted by Bauxite Chuck Barkman, That's right, it's time to meet ...

The Blue Jays have ended weeks of speculation by trading Corey Koskie to the Milwaukee Brewers for a minor league pitcher.

136 wins, 116 losses. 1,230 runs scored, 1,056 runs allowed, representing a 144-108 pythagorean record. A win in the All Star Game. A four game sweep in the World Series. That is how the American League dominated the National League in 2005. What about 2006?

The Jays and Twins have had some trade talks regarding Corey Koskie, but it doesn't look like anything is going to happen soon.

In a continuing effort to assemble the perfect All-City baseball team (after Bauxites were challenged to try all-state, all-province or all-country ... the showoff!), longtime Batter's Box contributor Craig Burley realized his recent Mobile Homeboys, even with five Hall of Famers, might struggle in the Mean Streets of Flatbush.

You may recall, we recently started up a new chapter in the Hall of Names team-building business, as In All Thy Sons Command delineated a team made up entirely of native Canadians. That was followed by a bit of a challenge:

Now, here's the test ... Visit the BaseballReference.com page that breaks down major league player birth by U.S. state and/or nationality and build yourself your own Hall of Names team, one that's better'n this here Canadian one. Then send it [in] and we'll publish it here at Batter's Box.

Much to absolutely nobody's surprise, longtime Batter's Box contributor Craig Burley was the first to answer the challenge (okay, he was actually first through third, but the other two teams will wait until later this week) ... so it's time to see what sort of Hall of Names squad he was able to, uh, "Mobile-ize" ...

TSN reports that the Jays have signed catcher-first baseman Jason Phillips to a minor league contract.

Over the next couple months, we'll be using the polling station here at the Box to generate collective projections for the 2006 Blue Jays. For hitters, we'll be projecting number of at-bats, on-base percentage, and slugging percentage. For pitchers we'll estimate innings pitched and earned run averge. These stats can be used to generate rough estimates of runs created and and runs allowed, respectively. Add these up for an entire team and you come up with the total runs for and against; from this you can calculate a Pythagorean winning percentage; and from this you know precisely how many games the team will win. Okay, maybe not quite precisely. But hopefully it's an entertaining exercise.

For each poll set, the relevant statisical history of the player in question will be included as the first comment in the "AB" or "IP" poll. When in doubt, users are encouraged to refer to these stats before responding. As always, discussion related to the polls is encouraged. Let's begin! What do we think Mr. Roy Halladay will do in 2006?

One of the most common given/first names in the English-speaking world is, of course, Robert. (Our own Dudek's and Pettapiece's ears -- er, eyes -- have certainly perked up at this point.) It's also one of the most common given/first names to not yet have its own Hall of Names roster published here on Batter's Box ... and it's time to take care of THAT little oversight.

Yes, this is (in part, anyway) a team made up entirely of players who appeared in the major leagues with "Robert" (not "Roberto" -- sorry Mr. Alomar, Mr. Bonilla and especially Mr. Clemente) as their first/given name (sorry, Jeffrey Robert Bagwell and Bret Robert Boone, among many others) and who actually went by (Sayonara, Robert Kevin Appier and Robert Britt Burns) some form of that name ...

There are so many little things that pitchers do: fielding the position, holding on runners, throwing the ball where the catcher can catch it with runners on, getting the ground ball with a runner on first. How many runs can these things add up to in a career?

Oh, I'm still on hiatus from Photo of the Week. Am I ever on hiatus. In fact, I don't think I'll be starting work on the new banner until February, so Orlando Hudson will be at the top of the site for another month at least.

But that doesn't mean that we can't talk about who's going up there next...