Edward Rogers III has taken over from his father Ted as the controlling owner of the Jays.  A Western grad, Rogers is the President of Rogers Cable division.

No idea what this means for the Jays if anything, but, it's interesting to note that the official ownership remains in the Rogers family.

Disclaimer - the following is an article I wrote for Baseball Prospectus Idol, a contest whose purpose is to find a new writer for BP. The ten finalists have been announced, and, well, I am not among them. But I wanted this piece to see the light of day, so enjoy!

Disclaimer 2 - this piece was written before, um, certain events took place. Fortunately, these events only strengthen the article's main point!

Remember when I asked you to predict how every team in the bigs would perform this year? Let's see how people are doing.

All but five MLB teams have played at least a full one-sixth (27 games) of its schedule. And the casual fan might need a fifth to make sense of what's happening.

Toronto is in first place? Okay, you knew that. But Kansas City and Texas are leading the other two divisions? And Boston is just barely holding off Seattle for the Wild Card lead? Cleveland is in last place? The Yankees, Rays and Angels are all under .500?

The National League is making more sense, with the Phillies, Cardinals, Dodgers and Brewers all holding way-too-early-to-celebrate playoff spots right now. There are no stunning "losers" just yet, though the Mets surely expected to be better than 13-13.

What team has surprised you the most to this point?

Given the economic situation I thought I'd keep an eye on the Jays attendance this year.  We'd all like the payroll to go back up next year, and I figure this years attendance will be a factor in that decision.

Two new Blue Jays made their Toronto debuts in the weekend series against the Chicago White Sox.  Not only do Bryan Bullington and Brian Burres have the same first name (though spelled differently) and the same initials, their surnames have the same first two letters, they're also pitchers and they're both 28 years old.   Their arrivals give Toronto three pitchers named Brian, joining Brian Tallet.  No truth to the rumour he'll change his name from Tallet to Bullet.  Now that would be cool.  Brian Bullet!  Kinda like this guy.

This is just more of the hard-hitting analysis you've come to expect here and we're proud to pass on the savings to you in these challenging economic times.

I was watching the game last night and Campbell or Mulliniks seemed extremely impressed about something. I'm not sure exactly what - I wasn't giving them my undivided attention. But I thought they said something to the effect that Kevin Millwood has an exceptionally good record in games where he throws more than 100 pitches.

UPDATED! Woo-hoo!

The American League leading Toronto Blue Jays head to Minnesota to face the upstart Twins. Let's just hope the Jays aren't stuck for the next two months waiting for a recount. On to the first Advance Scout of the season!

Wednesday is opening day for the minor leagues.  Earlier this week we looked at the rosters, today Marc Hulet and I look at the key questions for each affiliate.

Okay, it's time for the annual edition of Batter's Box's The Contest, whereby you predict various things about the forthcoming 2009 season -- standings, awards, achievements, etc. Your answers -- well, the correct ones anyway -- earn you points on a carefully-considered, awesomely well-thought-out (translation: randomly-assigned) basis.

The Bauxite who compiles the highest number of points will be awarded the title of Unbelieveably Awesome Basebally Predictor-Head of the Internets and win a standard Batter's Box No-Prize, which in the past has included a cuttlefish, multiple cuttlefish and once, if I recall correctly, an entire school of cuttlefish. Note: your deadline for entering The Contest is Monday, April 13 at 5 p.m. -- but enter early, for each day you wait to post your predictions past Wednesday, April 8, 10 points will be deducted from your score. Unless you have a really excellent excuse that we buy, fictional or otherwise. (See, it really is random!)

Anyway, on with The Contest '09 ... your 38 predictions-to-be-made, worth up to 700 points in total, are as follows ...

Cleverly, I waited until the roster had been set before I started to write this. No point in previewing a bunch of guys who won't be on the roster, right?

Is there an economist in the house?

Help me -> help everyone -> help you

http://www.tangotiger.net/survey/

Everyone at Batter's Box is shocked and depressed to learn of the untimely passing of John Brattain.

Season previews have been a popular staple here on Batter's Box for the past several years, and given that it's March 20, some Bauxites are starting to ask, "Hey, where the *&^% are the team-by-team season previews?"

Well, we're doing things a little differently this year, but it all starts on Monday. And we come to you now with an invitation to help. Updated (again) 3/30.