If we think of the Blue Jays’ farm system in 2003 as a family, then maybe we can assign personalities to each of them. Syracuse is the underachieving eldest child, with some strong individual talents but otherwise saddled with a lot of recycled ideas and habits past their prime. New Haven is the dutiful, keener second child, eager to oust the big brother in the parents’ affections with spectacular results (also, he’s moving out at the end of the year). Dunedin is the quiet, studious one, not producing a lot of fireworks and passing on most of what she develops to New Haven. Auburn, the second-youngest, is the prodigy who burst onto the family scene and got the attention of the entire neighbourhood with her pyrotechnics. And Pulaski, the newest arrival, started quietly but really livened up towards the end of the year, making her parents think there’s another Auburn there just about to develop.

And then there’s Charleston. Poor, black-sheep Charleston, least-favourite third son who got stuck with most of the family’s least attractive talents.

John Sickels's new column is about Blue Jays farmhand Alexis Rios. Enjoy!

Florida Marlins (Mark Redman) at Chicago Cubs (Kerry Wood)

The Cubs have had an edge in play during most of the series, and the numbers bear that out. Chicago has outscored the Marlins 36 to 31 (a Base Runs edge of 34.4 to 31.1). They have the edge in extra-base hits (23 to 20) and sacrifice hits (7 to 3). In most other areas, the teams are even. But the Marlins have struck out 15 fewer times, and this ought to go in the "surprising" category.

The reaction of fans at the Stadium should be interesting. I'm expecting a lot of hostility, especially if Burkett throws a few high and inside.

Since I've been so bad at making outcome predictions in the Cubs-Marlins series, I thought I would try my hand at it for this series. Pettitte will have a solid outing, lasting 7 and giving up 2; Burkett will be gone by the 6th. The Yankees will have a 3-run lead after 7 and Torre will bring in Contreras to pitch the 8th. He'll save Mariano for the 9th and the Yankees will progress to the World Series with a 5-2 win.

With any luck, I'll be completely wrong and we will see a great game 7 showdown tomorrow.

The first annual Batter's Box Least Valuable Player Awards (or BBLVPAs, as we like to call them) are now upon us. The voting was conducted among Batter's Box staff over the past two weeks, and the award winners will be announced in a series of articles over the next two weeks.

Florida Marlins (Carl Pavano) at Chicago Cubs (Mark Prior)

I didn't think the Marlins would get to game 6, but Josh Beckett pitched perhaps the best game of the post-season so far and the offence uncharactically plated their runs via the long ball. Tonight, I'm predicting a Cubs victory, but in a hard-fought contest.

After how terrible Brad Penny looked in his game 2 start, I commend McKeon for starting a well-rested Carl Pavano. He'll pitch well tonight and may even shut down the Cubs completely. Prior is going to be asked to go deep into the game again - a 120+ pitch count seems like a lock. I'll go out on the limb and say that Prior shows signs of tiring in the 6th or 7th. The final score will be "Cubs 4, Marlins 3" with the winning run scoring in the bottom of the 8th or 9th.

Get ready for party-time in Wrigleyville.

The 2003 Auburn Doubledays finished the short-season New York-Penn League schedule with a 56-18 record. To put that in perspective, a similar winning percentage (.756) for the Toronto Blue Jays would give them a 122-40 record. In other words, yeah, Auburn was pretty good this year.

The record-setting performance of the Jays’ NYP club is due largely to the efforts of the 2003 draft class, many of whom were senior collegians whom the club considered its better prospects (lower-regarded youngsters often start in Pulaski). Not all the Doubledays finished the season in the NY-Penn: first-round draft pick Aaron Hill and ninth-round pitcher Jamie Vermilyea got the call to Dunedin when it became clear they were simply too much for the competition. But of those who did finish the season, the most interesting of them (16 in all) are listed here (there are more who deserve some consideration, but time just won’t allow it).

New York Yankees (David Wells) at Boston Red Sox (Derek Lowe).

Both teams had chances to score a bunch of runs in Game 4: the Red Sox ran themselves out of an inning again and the Yankees left the bases loaded twice (I believe).

I think we'll have a higher scoring affair today. David Wells will keep the ball away from the righthanders - will they try to pull the ball anyway? Derek Lowe will need his defence to be rock solid.

The Bronx Brawlers and the Fenway Maulers play tonight in a game of some significance to the citizens of New York and Boston.

Mr. Torre has asked Mr. Wells to rest his left arm and will begin the game with Mr. Mussina as his pitcher. Mr. Little will start with the venerable slowballer Mr. Wakefield and no doubt ask the dextrous Mr. Mirabelli to handle the offerings.

Frank Catalanotto will be Mike Wilner's guest on the pre-pre-game show tonight (7:00, FAN 590) and will be taking calls from listeners. That's 416-870-0590 in the GTA, 1-888-666-0590 from out of town. If you're finished eating turkey, it will be worth tuning in -- Cat's a thoughtful guy who expresses himself very well.

Better late than never, I always say. Here’s the first installment of a week’s worth of capsule reviews of the Blue Jays’ most interesting minor-league players. Modelled on the previous monthly Farm Reports available on this site, these end-of-year reviews are longer and provide some more detail about the player and the potential value he offers the organization.

New York Yankees (David Wells) at Boston Red Sox (John Burkett), 7:30 ET

Among the thousands of reasons to get rid of the DH, yesterday's game was a good illustration of the better ones. If Pedro Martinez had to hit on a regular basis, would he have thrown a pitch at a batter's head? Conventional wisdom has it that the chances would be reduced. If Roger Clemens had to bat, would Manny Ramirez have taken such exception to a seemingly ordinary high fastball?

Since the introduction of the DH, HBP rates have not differed greatly in the two leagues - in fact, HBP rates have roughly doubled in both leagues. My perception is that there have been more incidents of the nature we saw yesterday in the American League.

Chicago Cubs (Carlos Zambrano) at Florida Marlins (Josh Beckett) - 4 PM ET.

I expect the Cubs to wrap things up today. The Marlins will most likely be demoralized, knowing that they'll have to beat both Mark Prior and Kerry Wood in Chicago to advance. Beckett's curveball was nowhere in game 1, which suggests that he may have some sort of health problem (which we will hear about after Florida is eliminated). After Clement's solid performance in Game 4, Zambrano is the only Cubs starter who hasn't pitched well in the post-season. Today will be the perfect opportunity to regain some confidence. If the Cubs win the series today, they'll be able to set up their World Series rotation in optimal fashion (Prior starting Game 1).

Part 10, finally, of a 10-part series

Just about a month ago, Da Box invited two of the more controversial figures -- from the perspective of Boxers, anyway -- in Toronto media to spend some time with us, allowing us to get to know them, to pose (and post) some questions directly, to get a little insight into the behind-the-scenes world of the baseball writers we all secretly believe we could (and should) be.

Now that a little time has passed, now that the season has ended, now that more than 300 comments have been directed to the Toronto Star's Geoff Baker and Rich Griffin in response to the series, let's review, take a look at a few of the out-takes and offer up a final word -- and an invitation.

A tip of the cap to Jonah Keri of Baseball Prospectus for an outstanding interview with the Padres' GM. Kevin Towers was remarkably candid; in Part One, the former scout admits that he's still learning.

I've definitely changed my philosophy on pitchers. When I was an amateur scout, it was all about the radar gun. Now, I see that the guys that have success, they're strike throwers--you can throw away the JUGS gun. In this job, you have to continually change. If you stay one way, you become a dinosaur--you'll die.

Part Two is just as interesting. Towers calls himself a "sludge merchant," and provides more insight into the ways the Padres, and other teams like the Jays, are adapting.

The game has changed a lot in the last five, 10 years. Ownership expects instant returns. GMs are having more say in what goes into the amateur draft. It used to be that you'd delegate, put the scouting department in charge. Nowadays you're seeing more GMs in the draft room than there were 10 years ago.

Fascinating stuff.