The Toronto Blue Jays and the Vancouver Canadians have agreed to a two-year extension of their Player Development Contract. The original agreement was in effect until 2014 but the two sides agreed to continue their partnership through the 2015 and 2016 seasons.
The Vancouver Canadians have won two Northwest League championships since becoming a Blue Jays affiliate in 2011.

The Jays and Mets have rached another deal, in a roundabout manner, filling the void left behind when R. A. Dickey packed his bags for Toronto. Former Jay hurler Shaun Marcum has signed a one-year deal with the Metsies and will slide into the #4//5 slot in the rotation, bumping all others up one notch, as the team attempts to cover for the loss of the 20-game winning 2012 NL Cy Young Award recipient.

Marcum won seven games (in 11 decisions) for Milwaukee last season.

Read all about it on ESPN New York. So, Bauxites, once again ... what's your take?

The Atlanta Braves have agreed to a trade to acquire outfielder Justin Upton and third baseman Chris Johnson from the Arizona Diamondbacks for pitcher Randall Delgado, infielder Martin Prado and minor leaguers Nick Ahmed, Brandon Drury and Zeke Spruill, sources tell ESPN.

So, what effect will Atlanta's Double-Upton OF have on the National League East race, Bauxites? 

To celebrate the acquisition of R.A. Dickey by the Toronto Blue Jays, some friends and I watched the documentary Knuckleball! (recommended) followed by Dickey's destruction of the Orioles last June. It was a fun night.

When we paused the game to get more snacks, we accidentally discovered that Wilson Betemit looks exactly like Grumpy Cat when he strikes out.

Behold:

The Blue Jays have signed Mark DeRosa, presumably to be the right handed bat off the bench that AA was looking for.  To make room on the 40 man roster Sam Dyson was designated for assignment.  DeRosa is 37 years old, 38 by opening day, and hasn't had a 100 OPS+ season since 2009.  However I assume he will rarely see a right handed pitcher and DeRosa has hit better against lefties.

As I'm sure I've mentioned, I actually saw Stan Musial play baseball.

I wish I could actually remember it. I was a little wee kid, and my dad took me to see the Cardinals playing their A ball team, which was in Winnipeg at the time. Apparently the Cards made a practice of visiting a minor league affiliate on an off-day and playing an exhibition game against the prospects. I'm told The Man started, went 1-2 and came out of the game. My memory tells me the game was played at an open baseball field, with no outfield fence at all, and trees along the foul lines. I'm pretty sure that didn't happen...

When we're children we can believe that baseball players are heroes, people to look up to and admire without reservation. We all grow up, we all learn otherwise. But Stan Musial never let me down.

Stan "the Man"  Musial, one of baseball's greatest (and arguably, most under-appreciated) hitters and a Hall of Famer with the St. Louis Cardinals for more than two decades, died Saturday. He was 92.

Musial won seven National League batting titles, was a three-time MVP and helped the Cardinals capture three World Series championships in the 1940s. Read the full story here in ESPN.com.

Read more from Batter's Box's finest veteran, Dan "Magpie" McIlroy ... The Man

A pinch hit from earlweaver fan.....appropriate.

Every reader of Battersbox old enough to follow baseball in the sixties through eighties will have their own reasons for honouring Earl Weaver, one of the most wonderful personalities in baseball and among the most successful. Here are my personal top ten reasons:

Yesterday I received a package from an anonymous tipster familiar with the Darren Oliver situation. In it were copies of a large number of faxes purportedly from Jeff Frye to Blue Jays brass. I was stunned -- I mean, who faxes stuff in 2013? I was also surprised at how many of the alternate compensation packages didn't make it into the press.

In no particular order, here are some of the unpublished compensation suggestions put forward by Jeff Frye on behalf of Darren Oliver:

Now that everyone who qualifies for arbitration has been signed we have a solid idea of 2012's payroll.  Who is getting what and what positions are the pricey ones?

After unveiling its new logo nearly two months ago, the Buffalo Bisons completed its makeover today with a brand new home, road and alternate uniform during its annual Hot Stove luncheon.

The Buffalo Bisons new uniforms for 2013, commemorating the career of former Bison Ollie Carnegie — the International League's all-time leader in home runs with 258 and runs batted in with 1,044.

Darren Oliver is coming back.  Here is the Blue Jays announcement:

LHP DARREN OLIVER will return to the TORONTO BLUE JAYS for a 20th Major League season and second in a Blue Jays uniform after his US $3.0 million was exercised for the 2013 season.

OLIVER, 42, posted the lowest ERA of his career in 2012 with a 2.06 mark, which was the 3rd lowest mark in the AL with a minimum of 50 innings pitched. The Kansas City, Missouri native has now held opponents to a .237 average over his past seven seasons to go with a 2.86 ERA over that span. The left-hander has not posted a single season ERA above 3.00 since the 2007 season. The former 3rd round pick of the Texas Rangers in 1988, Oliver has played for nine teams in his career, including Texas on three separate occasions. In 716 career games, including 229 starts, the 19-year veteran has posted a 115-94 record with a 4.53 ERA

Yeah, it is a quiet time right now.  Colby Rasmus signs for another year, avoiding arbitration.  Adam Loewen signs up for another tour of the Jays minor leagues. 

The stars have aligned and Anders, Alex, Thomas, and I all happen to be around at the same time. So we recorded a Boxcast! We talked about what's wrong with the HOF voting process and a little bit about how to fix it, and then some Jays stuff: Dickey, personalities on the team, bullpen. The whole thing runs about 35 minutes.

Subscribe here. Listen here.

No one made it, just like 1996 except this time it wasn't due to a lack of talented players.