"Hey, who's up for a Trivia Challenge?," reads the first line of an ancient (in the online world, May 17 of this year is "ancient") thread that has been getting some action here on Batter's Box recently.

So before we go much further and take a trivia thread over the span of a new year, it's time for (what I think is) Batters' Box Trivia Challenge #7!

It's too soon for another look at the current payroll projection ($78.7M, if you're dying to know), so let's instead turn our attention to how the current Toronto squad would line up against righties and lefties.

Over 300 posts in the Overbay trade thread and I don't even think anyone even brought up Overbay's splits once. How are we supposed to be 'stat geeks' if we don't go any further than OPS? I'll get the ball rolling.

What kind of nonsense is this? Not nonsense, but actually perfect sense, especially on a site dedicated to a team called the "Jays."

According to our good friends over at the incomparable baseballreference.com, there have been four major leaguers who went by "A.J." and four more by "B.J." -- and now, of course, one of each of those (Burnett and Ryan) are teammates for the 2006 TO Jays. Alas, C.J. Nitkowski was not acquired to complete the A.-B.-C. J. trifecta, but Nitkowski is more than welcome to join ...

The Red Sox have acquired top prospect Andy Marte for Edgar Renteria. With the previous acquisition of Mark Loretta, both the Sox infield and their offence has undergone a substantial renovation. Further changes may be in store, but it's a good time to take stock. Thanks to Cristian and Chuck for alerting us to the trade.

Bauxite gv27 reports that the Jays have completed a trade with the Milwaukee Brewers for Lyle Overbay and a PTBNL in exchange for David Bush, Gabe Gross and Zach Jackson.

The team will be holding a press conference any minute now.

Everybody's favorite Toronto reporter, Jeff Blair, says that a Wilkerson deal is dead but Overbay is still a possibility in his latest blog entry.

The Rule 5 draft will be held on Thursday, December 8th.

Nope, no A.J. Burnett and no B.J. Ryan. And no potential trades and no potential signings. And no budgetary postulations and no second-guessing.

Instead, this thread contains a photograph of Shea Hillenbrand holding on a runner at first base:

What’s new since November 28th? B.J. Ryan is confirmed, at a total of $8M in 2006 ($6M signing bonus + $2M salary). Reed Johnson was reportedly re-signed for $1.425M – but even though it was the ever-reliable Jeff Blair that conveyed this, it’s odd that it has not been confirmed anywhere else. A.J. Burnett is on board, and it looks like his contract will call for $7M in 2006 and $12M each of the 4 seasons thereafter. And my initial estimate of $1M for Orlando Hudson in his first year of arbitration eligibility looks absolutely laughable.

As the AJ signing thread is getting long here is a place to focus discussion for non-AJ moves, whether they are Jays-related rumours or trades and transactions involving other teams.

Today JP wakes up with Burnett off his mind and finding a bat is likely his only focus. It may be too much to expect any move today, but JP is prone to striking quickly.

The Blue Jays made it official today announcing at the Winter Meetings that JP Ricciardi has signed an extension through 2010.

Jeff Blair reports that the Blue Jays signed A.J. Burnett to a 5 year, $55 million contract.

In case you missed it yesterday in all the Burnett drama the Jays traded Chad Gaudin to the Oakland A's for a player to be named later.

We're over 200 comments in Friday's thread as AJ Fever has body temperatures over 40 degrees C. It's time for a new start.

The big news of the day out of Dallas today concerns next year's World Baseball Championship. Many of the game's great players, Bonds, Pujols, A-Rod, Delgado, have indicated that they will go. The games will be played at interesting venues, such as Hiram Bithorn in Puerto Rico and Cracker Jack stadium at Disney World. Why do I keep thinking about the Anaheim Mighty Ducks? What do you think, Bauxites?