The Toronto Blue Jays have signed four players to minor league deals.  Jordan Bastian from bluejays.com says the team has inked left-handed pitcher Willie Collazo, infielder Jesus Merchan and outfielders Jorge Padilla and Chris "The Big" Lubanski.  Two of the four have played in the major leagues.

The biblical scripture known as Baseball America arrived in my mailbox yesterday and it's the issue I look forward to the most every year - the  Top 10 Prospects for the American League East! 

Featuring the Orioles Brian Matusz on the cover, it contains a revision of the Jays Top 10 list that BA posted on its website last month.  The changes reflect the three prospects added in the Roy Halladay deal and each of them ranked highly on the revamped list.

The Toronto Blue Jays have claimed shortstop Brian Bocock on waivers from San Francisco and they signed outfielder and 2003 first round pick Chris Lubanksi from Kansas City to a minor league deal.  If Lubanski makes it to Toronto, start printing up the "Little Lubanski Urban Achievers" t-shirts.

A tip of the 2003 "T-Bird" cap to Bauxite brent for bringing to our attention that John Sickels has released his Top 20 prospects list for your Toronto Blue Jays.  For contrast and comparison, check out Baseball America's Top 10 list for 2010, the Hardball Times Top 10 and Batter's Box Top 30 here, here and here.

BA published their top ten prospects today.  The mystery of who would be number one was finally solved, BA went with the Batters Box concensus and Zach Stewart ascended to the top of the list.

Recent 40-man roster addition Reidier Gonzalez pitched a shutout inning but his Phoenix Desert Dogs lost to the Peoria Javelinas 5-4 in the Arizona Fall League championship game.

A hat tip to KaneCoKeith who alerted me that Dimaond Futures had begun ranking the farm systems of the major league teams with the Blue Jays.  Chad Jenkins is the top rated prospect.  In case you were wondering they didn't pick the Jays out of interest, Toronto is their 30th ranked minor league system.

And in other news Dick Scott has a new home.

The guys who are free agents who don't cost a draft pick, or more than the ML minimum, is out with over 500 names to choose from.  Can any help the Jays?

The Hardball Times rates outfielder Johermyn Chavez as the Jays best minor league prospect in its top 10 list.  The minor league crew at Batter's Box had Chavez at #12 in the top 30 list which you can check out here, here and here. 

To complete the minor league week here on Batters Box let's look at the movement in the top 30 lists from 2008 to 2009.  Five players graduated to the major leagues, replaced by five players who are new to the organization since last season.  Thirteen players dropped off the list from 2008 and thirteen players made it on to the lists despite being overlooked last year.

Here is the final installment of the top thirty prospects.  Unfortunately it is not an inspiring lot but prospect evaluation, and player development, is an uncertain process.  With some luck the Jays top ten listed below will all develop well and be productive.  That is what makes prospect following so enjoyable, you cannot predict the course of human histroy.

Number 30 through 21 are here.  Numbers 20 through 11 are here.

Check back tomorrow for some words from Dick Scott, the Blue Jays farm director. 

Today we look at the prospects rated at 20 though 11.

Welcome to the annual installment of Batter's Box's Top 30 Blue Jay prospects.

2009 was a mixed year for the farm system.  The system as a whole had a losing record and was one of the worst farm systems in baseball in terms of wins.  The winning was not helped by the Jays being unable to sign any of their top six picks in time for the Auburn season.  The Jays did send a lot of pitchers to the Blue Jays this season and there are some more pitchers in the queue behind Cecil, Romero and Rzepczynski.  The Jays did not have as much success with their hitters.  Most of the high school hitters from the 2007 and 2008 drafts had poor seasons.  College players such as JP Arencibia and Brian Jeroloman did not progress as hoped. 

The Jays farm system is short on top level prospects, any of the top five prospects could be considered number one, not because there are five number ones but because there are five number fives.  This system will likely be ranked in the mid-20's by Baseball America.

None of that stops us ranking the top 30 prospects so here we go, comments are welcome.

The Blue Jays recently announced the Webster Award winners who will be presented with their awards this weekend at the Rogers Centre.  Baseball America is starting their league top 20's today with the GCL and Carlos Perez makes the list.

In a season where the minor leagues send players such as Travis Snider, Ricky Romero, Brett Cecil, Marc Rzepczynski and Scott Richmond to the big league club, is it fair to say that 2009 was a disappointing year for the minor leagues?  Although those players made a great contribution to the major league team the system behind them is thin and many players who had great expectations on them failed to develop in 2009.  A major area of concern for the Jays should be the lack of development in most of the high school hitters picked over the last three drafts.  The Jays do a great job in developing pitchers, the success with hitters, in particular the high school hitters, has been less so.  The Jays need to evaluate whether their drafting has been poor or if they need to change how they develop those high school hitters.