Another off-season, another NFH Challenge!

Here's what Kingsley had to say in the Josh Towers signing thread:

This contract was a nothing more than a loyalty reward for what will undoubtably go down in the books as Towers' career year. His numbers were an abberration... counting on Josh to keep it together over another season, to count on 'it' not vanishing...well, friends, that's too many what-if's for me.
...
Josh will be nothing more than the long righty out of the 'pen come mid-season.

(Read the whole post here.)

Lots of things to challenge in there, aren't there?

The Canadian baseball team had a good and bad Olympic experience in 2004. The bad part was losing in the semi-finals to a strong Cuba team, having led late in the game. The Canadians did not expect to be playing Cuba in the semis but Australia pulled out a round robin win that helped them avoid Canada and place Cuba in the way of the Canadians. On the good side the team did make it to the semi-finals and many players still talk of qualifying for the Olympics, and the bus ride back to the hotel singing Oh Canada, as the highlight of their season. Now the Canadians get to start down the Olympic road again, the road to China in 2008 starts today in Arizona as Canada faces Nicaragua. The top four teams, out of six in this tournament, advance to the Americas Olympic qualifier next August in Havana. Last week in Arizona I talked with three of the Canadian hopefuls about their seasons.

The Globe And Mail and TSN are both reporting that Batter's Box favourite Josh Towers has signed a two-year deal with the Jays.

It's reportedly a $5.2 million contract in total, with $2.3M due in 2006 and $2.9M in 2007. Hopefully the groundball-inducing Josh will have the same fine defence behind him over the next two years that he enjoyed in his breakout 2005, in which he earned just $358,000 for posting a 120 ERA+ in nearly 210 innings.

Congratulations, Josh!

Yeah, so it's been a few weeks since the last Photo of the Week, but I have a doctor's note: a window slammed shut on the middle finger of my right hand, which made typing exceptionally slow and painful, and then a few days later I injured my back picking baby Theo up. So I've been better.

Here's one of our two Golden Guys:

Where do we stand? Apparently, GM Ricciardi has pretty much ruled out the trade rumours involving Bobby Abreu ("too rich for our blood") and Kevin Mench ("they asked for WHAT?").

Well, apparently the Orioles have no intention of bringing back Sammy Sosa or Rafael Palmeiro...

OK, moving right along...

So the 2005 Cy Young Award winners have been announced and Bartolo Colon took home the AL award while Chris Carpenter swept to victory in the NL.

Say, that's exactly what Bauxites predicted would happen back in early September. Well done, all!

The Arizona Fall League regular season ended yesterday and the Peoria Saguaros, home team for the six Blue Jay players, did not make it to the one game playoff. It was a tough season for the Saguaros as their record of 8-23 indicates. I was in Phoenix last weekend and I spoke with the Jays players, their manager ex-Jay Eddy Rodriguez, and several scouts.

The GM meetings are over and free agency begins.

Shortstop John McDonald was re-acquired by the Jays for cash considerations from the Tigers. McDonald is a capable late inning defensive replacement, and will provide depth in the event of a trade. Thanks to Dave, Hoju and Hugh for letting us know.

Here are your Blue Jay notes for today:

Back in early September, Bauxites projected that Cleveland's Eric Wedge and Atlanta's Bobby Cox would win their respective league's "Manager of the Year" awards.

As with the Rookies of the Year announced yesterday, the learned counselors here at BattersBox.ca were exactly half-right -- though this time nailing the NL half of the vote while failing to foresee Cleveland's eventual collapse to doom that shuffled the White Sox off to their first title since Kaiser Wilhelm was in control of Germany and landed manager Ozzie Guillen (a strong second to Wedge in the September balloting) the manager award. Cox's win is his fourth; Guillen's is his first.

What's going on at the winter meetings?

Do they know it's officially not winter for another 40+ days?

...since Phoenix or Tucson. So, how are the Jay farmhands in Arizona doing, you ask? They started off slower than a coyote in the morning, but they're moving now.

Back in early September, the voting public of Batter's Box managed a .500 winning percentage in predicting the eventual winners of the AL and NL Rookie of the Year awards, respectively.

The actual winners, just announced, are of course Oakland RP Huston Street and Phillies 1B Ryan Howard.

The voting back when by participating Bauxites had Street just edging out Gustavo Chacin (who actually finished fifth) for the AL award, while over in the NL the click-votes (more than 63 percent of them) went primarily to Jeff Francouer, while Pirate hurler Zach Duke also finished ahead of Howard, who ended up with just 13 percent of the vote overall ...

The Olympic qualifying tournament begins November 15, and Canada and the US announced their rosters. The usual stalwarts on the Canadian club, Stubby Clapp, Lee Delfino and Ryan Radmanovich, are joined by prospects Adam Loewen, Scott Mathieson, Russ Martin and Joey Votto. Surprisingly, there are no Jay farmhands on the squad. The Americans will field their usual powerhouse with hot prospects Billy Butler and Lastings Milledge in the outfield, catchers Jarrod Saltamacchia and Jeff Mathis, and middle infielders Howie Kendrick and Brandon Wood.