Is today the greatest and most important shared birthday in major league history? No, we're not going to build an all-1/31 team here, though we certainly could, but rather, just take a look at this ....

Today's birthday produced two absolutely no-doubt-about-it slam-dumk Hall of famers in Nolan Ryan (alll-time leader in strikeouts pitched and no-hitters among other categroies, not to mention one of the most improbably successful front-office figures in recent memory) and Ernie Banks (arguably the greatest power-hitting shortstop of all time and the iconic "Mr. Cub" of one of the sport's flagship franchises) -- and oh by the way, a third Hall of Famer who might be the most important player in the sport's history, Jack Roosevelt Robinson.

That's not to mention ...

Today's POTD looks at the 11-time Gold Glove award winner, who signed a minor league deal with Toronto recently.

The Toronto Blue Jays held their annual State of the Franchise event at the Dome Monday night for season ticket holders and it revealed an interesting nugget or two among some of the inane and long-winded soliloquies/questions.

Some fans seemed to be angry, much like the Blue Jays logo of 2004 to 2011.

Today we take our final look at the position players by predicting where the outfielders will land.  The outfield projections vary from simple to complex by team.

The Blue Jays have released their promotional schedule for the upcoming season.  The highlights include three bobblehead giveaways, a baseball card set and the return of the magnetic schedule after a one-year hiatus.

Today's POTD looks at a pair of new acquisitions by the Blue Jays, who were teammates with the Los Angeles Angels from 2007-2009.

Darren Oliver fires away against the Blue Jays in May of 2010.

There has been a lot of talk about how great the Jays minor league system is and how many top prospects there are. Naturally we are all getting excited but what have the top Jay prospects done in the past?

We finish our tour of the infield minor league assignments with a look at third base. This is not a position of strength in the Jays minor league system and you could see the same players in the same spots to start 2012 as played in 2011.

We started this series by looking at catchers and first basemen, today it's the middle infielders who we review.  Because of the interchangability of shortstops and second basemen we will look at them together making it a double position look.

 

BlueJays.com, via Ken Rosenthal of FoxSports.com, says the Jays have signed free-agent reliever Francisco Cordero to a one-year contract worth $4.5 million.

36 year-old Francisco Cordero was 5-3 with a 2.45 earned run average and saved 37 games with the Reds in 2011.

Tim Brown/Jon Heyman reports that Prince Fielder has signed with the Tigers for $214 million over 9 years. That's just shy of $24 million a year, or about $1.2 million less than Albert Pujols received on an annual basis.

Fielder will reportedly play first base, while Miguel Cabrera will move (to DH or Left Field, presumably.)

The Jays signed Brandon Morrow to a (for all intents and purposes) 3 year, $21 million deal with a club option for $9 million. Will he be worth it?

John Sickels has done a farm system ranking for the first time - and guess who's top?

1) Toronto Blue Jays: Eight B+ prospects with ridiculous depth behind them.
2) San Diego Padres: Incredible depth after the winter trades pushes this system almost to the top.
3) Texas Rangers: Continues to churn out talent, with much more percolating at the lower levels. I do not give the Rangers farm system credit for Yu Darvish. They would rank number one if I gave them credit for Darvish, but in my mind that is unfair to the other teams: I see him as a major league free agent, not a prospect.
4) Seattle Mariners: Jesus Montero plus three elite pitching prospects and others who can improve.

Yesterday we looked at the placement of minor league catchers for 2012 and it was relatively straightforward.  Today we look at first basemen and the picture is much more muddled.

 

Ken Rosenthal has just tweeted that the Blue Jays have signed potential Hall of Fame shortstop Omar Vizquel. Details and links forthcoming -- if you see them, add them in a comment!

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And here's the ESPN.com news story -- interesting, his profile on the Worldwide Leader now lists him as a third baseman. And by the way, he's less than 150 hits away from 3,000 (I had no idea!), so if he manages to play a lot, a milestone is at least possible ...