We've selected the six finalists in the Batter's Box Splashy Headline Contest. The winner of the tickets is up to you -- make sure you vote in our new poll!

Read on to see our finalists.

There's one reason, and one reason only, to ever check out the New York Post. The Post has headlines, both on the front page and the dedicated-to-sports back page, down to an absolute science.

And that's the basis for our latest contest!

Who is heading to the Rogers Centre this long weekend?

In Part II I look at Jason Frasor, Vinnie Chulk, Justin Speier and Scott Schoeneweis in April. Click here to read the first of my bullpen in review article, where I talked about Brandon League, Matt Whiteside, Miguel Batista and Pete Walker. It also allows me to draw some conclusions about who was the most effective and which pitchers were used in critical situations. There are some interesting conclusions, including the fact that only three of the eight relievers had positive contributions during the month and the, perhaps not surprising, fact that Batista was not the pitcher the Jays called upon in critical situations.

In this review article we’ll use win probability to examine the performances of the Blue Jays’ bullpen. Part I looks at Brandon League, Matt Whiteside, Pete Walker and Miguel Batista. Part II will be up on Friday or the weekend and will examine Justin Speier, Jason Frasor, Vinnie Chulk and Scott Schoeneweis.

So the Blue Jays don't have a game tonight. Looking for your baseball fix?

Try some Syracuse SkyChiefs baseball, in this, the first Batter's Box Minor League Game of the Week. Syracuse's Scott Downs, last year's Pacific Coast League Pitcher Of The Year as a member of the Edmonton Trappers, faces off against ex-White Sock James Baldwin of the Ottawa Lynx at 6:00.

Today, on his 43rd birthday, I pay homage to the man, the myth, the legend that is Jim Walewander.

Howdy, everybody. For those of you who joined us since the offseason: every month, I produce a Blue Jays report card, grading each Jay using my patented GPBRFON system (Grades Produced By Random Firing Of Neurons).

What's gone wrong with the Jays, you ask? Well, not as much as you might think: every team goes through bad stretches. (Ask the Yankees, who had to face The Boss's full-on wrath after punting a few games early in the season.) But one thing now seems clear to me: talent always trumps effort.

Last September John Suomi was playing in the most exciting baseball series of his life and he had every reason to feel on top of the world. The 23-year-old catcher had just completed a very solid season for the Modesto A’s of the California League, which had included a spot in the California League All-Star Game. The A’s were playing the Lancaster Jethawks in the California League Championship Series and the best of five series was knotted at one game apiece. Suomi had solidified his status as something more than organisational filler, and a ticket to Double-A looked to be in the cards for 2005. However, in the third game of the championship series came the play that may have irreparably changed Suomi’s career.

I'm homeless.

Test your prognostication skills in the 2005 Batter's Box Predictions Contest!

In 2004, Simon held off 78 other contestestants to win the 2004 Contest. In 2003, I somehow won. Will this be your lucky year?

The prize for winning this year's contest may or may not include one of the following:

• Buster Olney's two-volume set Productive Outs: Theory and Practice and Fun With Scattergrams.
  
• A copy of Quiet Dignity: The Ozzie Guillen Story.
  
• A genuinely terrifying 24x36 picture of Jose Canseco, suitable for framing.

On to the Contest!

The following story will appear in the April 1 and April 15 editions of American Way magazine, the award-winning inflight magazine of American Airlines. It is republished here in full with permission of the author.

I saw the below cartoon today and just absolutely could not resist, because it leads to such an interesting QOTD (remember those?) ...

Each year, I always enjoy seeing the Jays' upcoming schedule: look at all that baseball waiting to be played! The following are some random ramblings on the subject.