The Baltimore Orioles announced today that they have signed Chris Gomez to a minor-league deal with an invitation to spring training.

It's a sad departure for me, at least, because Gomez proved me wrong in spades, with a fine year as a Blue Jays infielder. I was hoping he'd stick around, but the Jays obviously had other priorities.

Please share your memories of Chris Gomez in this thread. GOMEZ HIT GRAND SLAM NOW.

As a public service, we're pleased to present, free of charge, two alternate versions of tomorrow's standard Canadian newspaper article on the Jays' decision [not] to offer arbitration to Carlos Delgado. Since Delgado's return [departure] will be a major story, this will surely be of assistance to harried columnists. Editors should feel free to adapt the article of their choice to suit the precise circumstances and/or agendas of their publications (e.g., search-and-replace "Godfrey" for "Ricciardi.")

The rumours fly about which one of Oakland's three aces Billy Beane will trade, as if it's inevitable. Barry Zito to Texas? Tim Hudson to the Yankees? Mark Mulder to the Nippon Ham Fighters? What's the best deal possibe, or is the answer "none, stand pat"? And that's today's ...

Question of the Day: Play GM for a day and structure the best deal possible -- for both sides,(e.g. no "Menechino for Zito" deals) -- involving one or more of the A's Big Three. Make sure the money works and that the talent would appeal to both (or all three or four) teams. Best (most realistic/creative) deal wins a prize!

The Jays have until midnight tonight to work out a deal with Carlos Delgado or offer him arbitration. If they cannot, then it is almost certain that Delgado will not be back next season and the Jays will not get any draft picks as compensation when Carlos signs with another club.

Today's question has its genesis in an e-mail exchange between Jordan and I. An abbreviated summary follows:

The Veterans' Committee player's ballot contains some interesting names:

Dick Allen, Bobby Bonds, Ken Boyer, Rocky Colavito, Wes Ferrell, Curt Flood, Joe Gordon, Gil Hodges, Elston Howard, Jim Kaat, Mickey Lolich, Sparky Lyle, Marty Marion, Roger Maris, Carl Mays, Minnie Minoso, Thurman Munson, Don Newcombe, Tony Oliva, Vada Pinson, Ron Santo, Luis Tiant, Joe Torre, Maury Wills, Smoky Joe Wood.

Since we last talked, Ismael Ramirez went to 5-0 for Oriente in the Venezuelan League, after allowing 2 earned runs on 4 hits and 2 walks with 3 strikeouts in 6 innings against Lara. He's now gone 34 innings, allowing 25 hits and 7 walks, while stiking out 27 and surrendering only 2 homers.

Box regular Paul D. has publicly begged in the current Hijack Central for another one of these hoops-oriented threads. He even apologized for hijacking a thread called "Hijack Central," so we'll give him a (fast) break, especially since we don't have weekend QOTD's, and pose his questions here ...

"The Raptors have just imploded and gone insane. Rafer Alston wants to quit, the coach won't start two of his starters, the players hate each other ..."

"What does it say about the Raptors that Butch Carter was the best coach they ever had?"

Since the old Hijack Central has rolled off the page, thus closing out comments (and making it damhard to hijack, natch), here's a new one.

And since Joe has added the new feature of kicking off new HC threads with movie quotes, here is an exceedingly easy one. It's only 2:25 a.m. in Toronto right now, so I'm guessing this won't take more than 10 minutes for someone to answer.

"Don't think, it can only hurt the ballclub."

A couple of interesting points suggested in threads yesterday lead to today's ...

Question of the Day: How has the frankly massive and out-of-nowhere explosion of the popularity of fantasy baseball changed the way fans view the value of individual player accomplishments in the last 20 years?

P.S. Cast your Andujar ballot today! Meet the candidates here. Voting concludes Dec. 23.

Following up on an idea raised by Coach in yesterday's QOTD ... There are lots of "what if?" stories in baseball. There are those that take the self-inflicted Doc Gooden route; there are those that take the simple inexplicable flameout route like Joe Charboneau; some fall prey to injury like Mark Fidrych or other health concerns like J.R. Richard; and of course, there are is the senseless tragedy route unfortunately followed by those like Lyman Bostock. So, as to Thursday's ..

Question of the day:Who are the most memorable players, to you, who had "greatness" stamped all over them, but who fell off the sports radar for one reason or another?

P.S. Cast your Andujar ballot today! Meet the candidates here. Voting concludes Dec. 23.

MLB.com's Spencer Fordin has reported that the Jays have made a couple of moves to solidify next year's infield. They are as follows:

1. "[A] trade that brought John McDonald from Cleveland, netting a utilityman for the price of a player to be named later."
   
   
2. "Frank Menechino agreed to a one-year deal worth $650,000, with an option for 2006, which means the Jays bring him back without going to arbitration."
   

Great idea from erstwhile Box GM Jordan Furlong ... with all this talk of great players and Hall of Fame standards, let's take just a moment for a related, tangential ...

Question of the Day: Who is the most underrated player of your lifetime? Be sure to include your definition of "underrated" and an explanation of why your answer fits.

With pitching coach Brad Arnsberg moving up to the big club from Triple-A and the departure of Rick Adair from Double-A New Hampshire to a position in the Rangers organization, the Jays had two important minor-league vacancies to fill. Once again, J.P. Ricciardi has attracted some talented individuals to his developmental team.

Chuck Kniffin, who takes over in Syracuse, has been working with the likes of Curt Schilling and Randy Johnson in Arizona the last two years. Here's a great 2002 profile of him by Paul Rubin of the Phoenix New Times.

The new Fisher Cats pitching coach is Dave LaRoche. The lefty, a two-time all-star in his 14-year major league career, is the father of Braves 1B Adam and Dodgers prospect Andy. He coached in the big leagues for five years with the Mets and White Sox, and has been at AAA Omaha in the Royals system the last three years. In 1987, Dave coached in Syracuse, so we welcome him back to the Toronto organization.

In other appointments, former D-backs hitting coach Dwayne Murphy, an OBP freak and graceful outfielder in his 12 big-league seasons, will be the new bench coach with the SkyChiefs, and veteran infielder John Valentin begins his coaching career as the new hitting instructor in Double-A. Best of luck to all of the new hires as they begin working with some outstanding prospects.