It's not often we post articles from outside North America, but here is one you may be interested in. The Sydney Morning Herald examines the trials and tribulations of the Syracuse Skychiefs' Australian infielder Glenn Williams.

What if Aaron Gleeman wrote a fine piece on the Splendid Splinter, and I decided to link to it here because I thought it was marvelous?

No need to wonder anymore. Anyway, I love it when people write about their favourite players. I heartily recommend you all (yes, each and every one of you - lurkers, posters, authors, hangers-on) go out and write a little piece on your favourite player, and send it to me. We are happy to post Pinch Hits and this sort of stuff makes great reading. Speaking of Pinch Hits, we have a massive and entertaining research project coming next week, about which I am very excited.

I thought I'd see what various Canadian papers are saying about the Roy Halladay deal. The response in Canada has been across a wide spectrum of emotions; from jubilance to Griffin.

At least according to Jeff Blair of the Globe and Mail.

Great deal, if the details reported in Blair's article are accurate. The Globe article reports that Halladay will earn $6 million in 2004, $10.5 million in 2005, and $12.75 million a year in 2006 and 2007. If Halladay can avoid the scalpel of Dr. Frank Jobe, the Jays will do very well for themselves.

Thanks go out to peteski and JackFoley for pointing out the TSN.ca version of the story.

Should Carlos Delgado be signed to a long-term deal? A number of fans have been asking that here on Da Box recently. A lot of the discussion centers around how much Carlos Delgado will be worth at the end of a three- or four-year deal. Since Carlos's value is 90% dependent on his offensive production, the real question is how much we can expect him to hit at the end of such a contract... say, in 2007. So to help answer that, I did a very simple study.

According to this Toronto Star report, Rogers is going to purchase the 20% share of the Jays it doesn't own from former majority owner Intebrew S.A. Given the share values mentioned in the article, it appears that Rogers' 100% share in the club is worth in the neighbourhood of $200-250 million. That seems like an awful lot to me, given that the team has reportedly lost $90 million U.S. over the past two seasons. Might this mean another reduction in payroll for 2005?

According to the always-insightful ATM Reports from Lee Sinins, the Tigers announced approximately seven thousand non-roster invitees to spring training.

It's an interesting list. Is this the next Dombrowski step in rebuilding? Can the Tigers move into 60-win territory? (That's a real question.) What's next? Anyway, here's the list alphabetically by position:

Spencer Fordin takes a look at Mike Bordick 2.0 - Chris Gomez.

I accidentally created the same entry twice, so why not change one into a new hijack central? I mean, the old Hijack Central was created 5 whole days ago!

My question of the day: What will the Jays have to do to win back the hearts and minds of Torontonians? The Leafs are king, and the Raptors have a sizeable audience, particularly with the under 30 crowd. Is there anything the Jays can do to get a million more butts in the seats?

Roy Halladay, with today's signing of Justin Speier, is now the only player without a contract next year for the Jays. Assuming a $7 million deal for this year for Halladay, the Jays' payroll will be right at $50 million projected budget for 2003

The Jays agreed to one year contract with newly acquired reliever Justin Speier for $1.6 million.

Thanks to Steve Z for pointing this out in the latest hijack central.

Just trying my hand at being a Toronto Star headline writer...

Phil Rogers summarizes each of the 30 Major League teams chances of making the playoffs in 2004. The Jays are classified as "Sleepers", along with the Giants, White Sox, Cardinals, and Rockies.

Although the Angels have turned a lot of heads lately, the AL East has not been lost in the shuffle. ESPN's Sean McAdam takes a look at the off-season moves of the Jays and Orioles:

"They may be two of the most improved teams in the game this winter. They have made trades, spent money and showed a commitment.

But there are no guarantees for the Toronto Blue Jays and Baltimore Orioles."

In Friday's Ask BA, Jim Callis links to a piece he wrote about John Olerud back in 1989. Although I don't have any particular comments to make about it, I thought it was a very good article; besides, it's been a rather slow weekend around the Box, so why not start a thread?

Truth be told, I'm not all that big on these projection systems. For instance, I buy Baseball Prospectus' book every year and read it cover-to-cover, but I rarely even look at more than a couple dozen of their player projections. For some reason it just doesn't do it for me.

I did, however, read BPro's recent article on their PECOTA projection system and how it compared to, among other systems, Baseball Primer's ZiPS. After reading the BPro article, I looked at some of the ZiPS projections for this year and then thought "hey, this could be my first ever entry at the Batter's Box!"

So here it is...