So you're probably waiting for the punchline ... we've certainly taken our fair share of shots at the Archbishop of Boston Baseball here at Batter's Box, occasionally pointing out his, *ahem*, spotty record of prognosticating trades and transactions.

But in case you hadn't heard, Peter Gammons is headed to the Hall of Fame ... sort of, anyway, as the 2004 recipient of the J.G. Taylor Spink Award.

What better way to salute him than with song lyrics?

According to a report on ESPN.com the Jays have sent Kevin Cash to the Devil Rays in exchange for 21 year old pitcher Chad Gaudin.

Your daily dose of the rumor mill:

Some rumors floating around today:

The prevailing wisdom says that the staggeringly irrational $45 million contract forked out by the Diamondbacks to Troy Glaus has ratcheted up the free-agent marketplace (aside: you don't think Jeff Moorad is getting champagne gift baskets from his former player-agent colleagues right now?), and that Carlos Delgado will be one of the biggest beneficiaries. So today's question is:

Q: Where will Carlos Delgado end up, for how many years, and for what total amount?

Well, you play that Tarantella
And the hounds begin to roar
The boys all go to hell
And then the Cubans hit the floor

The Winter Meetings start today, though there's been no shortage of action beforehand. Check out Peter Gammons' latest for a nice summary of the buzz, including the increasingly insane Arizona Diamondbacks preparing to ink Russ Ortiz to a 4-year, $34 million contract. I don't ever want to hear Ortiz or Troy Glaus complain to anyone that they want to "play for a winner" after signing rich long-term deals with a 111-loss club.

And then there's the Jays, and their reliable and open-minded local press coverage.

If you're here and reading this, well, good, and welcome (or welcome back) to Batter's Box. Now, there are several ways currently open to you to contribute to several ongoing Batter's Box projects.

Miguel Negron borrows a chapter out of Jayce Tingler's book in Puerto Rico, sporting a .250/.378/.368 line. Guillermo Quiroz hit his 5th homer for Zulia in the Venezuelan League, and is hitting .250 but with power and reasonable plate discipline.

Jan lays down and wrestles in her sleep
Moonlight spills on comic books
And superstars in magazines
An old friend calls and tells us where to meet
Her plane takes off from Baltimore
And touches down on Bourbon Street

The Blue Jays are in Anaheim this week, but not to play the Angels. The Winter Meetings are getting underway, and at the rate that free agents are being gobbled up, it seems likely that GM JP Ricciardi will try to make his moves as early as possible. Fiscal responsibility in baseball? The broken-down, 111-loss Diamondbacks are about to sign broken-down Troy Glaus to a 4-year, $41 million contract. What fiscal responsibility?

Welcome to the Winter Meetings, folks. First come, first served.

Jeff Kent signed a 2 year $17 million contract with the Dodgers.

Two questions to ponder:

1. will Kent displace Cora at second, or will he be moved to third base to take over from Beltre?
2. how does this affect his Hall of Fame chances?

For reference, here's my recent Hall watch piece on Kent, Alomar and Biggio.

This has come up in a few threads, so why not make it a question of the day.

Suppose you're the Blue Jays and you have roughly $14 million dollars to spend on free agents. I don't know the exact figure, but we'll go with $14 million.

Given the free agents available today, how would you spend that money? The Jays have a big hole at 1B, and like all teams, could always use more pitching. Would you spend all the money on one or two players or would you fill in five or six holes?

Bonus points go for creative but realistic answers. No "I'd sign Beltran for $2 mil a year" answers, please.

Aside from the Carlos Delgado situation (which is still being tracked and discussed in this thread), there was a lot of movement just before midnight on December 7, as teams signed some players, offered arbitration to others, and non-tendered a whole lot more. This thread is for reports and discussions of all three types of transactions and their implications for the teams involved.

Here are a few to get us started:

Evaluating shortstops is toughest of all. Defence is recognized to be very important, and yet our tools for evaluating defence are rudimentary. Fortunately, for most of today's candidates- Derek Jeter, Alex Rodriguez, Nomar Garciaparra, Barry Larkin and Julio Franco, defence is not the major issue. With that in mind, let's look at who is in the Hall and who is not.

I've spent too many years
In a war with myself
The doctor has told me
It's no good for my health
To search for perfection
Is all very well
But to look for heaven
Is to live here in hell

Apparently, yesterday TSN did a segment on "The Greatest Jay Ever." Their list, reports here on Da Box tell us, was 1) Alomar 2) Steib 3) Delgado 4) Carter 5) Bell 6) Henke 7) Fernandez 8) Hentgen 9) Olerud and 10) Clemens. (Half were still active in 2004!) So today's rather obvious ...


Question(s) of the Day: Who bears the mantle of "Greatest Jay"? This could mean oh so many things, so clarify how you're defining it. Who will crack the Top 10 or take the title in the future?