Every year, we commit a thread dedicated to inviting all Bauxites to share with us the best of your (not Josh) booty -- especially the baseball-related items from your stockings or under your tree. So, what diamond-related packages glittered under  your own morning star this Christmas?

And a quick shout-out to the greatest off-season prospect of all time, delivering for the 2,010th consectuvie year ..

KRINGLE, KRIS
Nickname: Sandy Claws
UTIL, veteran all-star
Aging vet is a bit portly, but can still fly .... Astonishingly productive and versatile, though top deliveries limited to once a year ... Can handle all kinds of weather but is noted for toying around a bit with intended targets ...  Very thorough, always checking twice before proceeding ... Stunningly, still  a free agent, making fans all over hope he's coming to their town ...
Relatives: "Father Christmas" of  Steve Christmas, Al Clauss, Johan Santana

Merry Christmas, Bauxites!  The POTD on this Christmas Day looks back on J.P. Arencibia's first major league at-bat against the Tampa Bay Rays at the Dome August 7th.

J.P. Arencibia appears to be looking for a sign from third base coach Brian Butterfield but Butterfield's attention is elsewhere.

And for your holiday enjoyment, here's reason number 2,378,512 that baseball is the greatest game of them all....

The Toronto Blue Jays added to their outfield depth in November by acquiring Rajai Davis from Oakland for minor league pitchers Danny Farquhar and Canadian Trystan Magnuson.  The POTD looks at Davis during May 2nd action between the Jays and A's at the Dome.

Rajai Davis tries to catch up to a Shaun Marcum offering.

Today's POTD focuses on the 2009 American League Cy Young Award winner and the man who's expected to field a few of his ground balls at short for Milwaukee in 2011.



Zack Greinke stands at attention for the national anthems prior to his April 21st start at the Dome.

I recently discovered a truly wonderful baseball website called Wezen-ball.com. I haven't spent a lot of time there yet, but suspect that I will -- there's even a whole area of the site dedicated to calculating the baseball stats of Charlie Brown, Snoopy, Joe Shlabotnik and the whole Peanuts gang.

what led me there was a link from one of the fabulous blog posts Sean Forman leaves on the greatness of BaseballReference.com -- the story linked to was a 2009 feature by Larry Granillo called "The History of the Highest-Paid Player in Baseball." Seriously, go read it. Like, now!

Okay, you back now? Settlle in ...w hat follows are a few thoughts about those men who have been, at least for a short time, the highest-paid players in the history of the game -- at least since Nolan Ryan became the sport's first milllion-bucks-a-season man back in 1980 ...

As Gerry reported in the previous thread, one-time Chicago Cubs phenom Corey Patterson has inked a minor league contract with the Blue Jays.



Patterson retreats to second base after a foul ball during first inning action between the Orioles and Jays at the Dome May 30th.

The Milwaukee Brewers have apparently aced out the Rangers, Yankeees, Angels and others in completing a deal in to acquire former Cy Young winner  Zack Greinke from the Royals.

 The agent for Brewers minor league pitcher Jake Odorizzi, who is part of the Royals package in return,  confirmed the deal on Sunday.

The Brewers also are expected to receive shortstop Yuniesky Betancourt  from the Royals.

Sounds like a high, high price for MIL to pay for what may well be a rental, but the deal also might make the Brew Crew the NL Central favorites for 2011 ...

I know,  I know, we here at Batter's Box have a hard time letting go of Roy "Doc" Halladay; more than a year after arguably The Greatest Jay Ever left for the City of Brotherly Love, his piture still graces the banner logo of this site.

Speaking of banners, the draped headline on the latest print edition of The Sporting News jumped out at me as I recovered from the mailbox this afternoon  ...  2010 PRO ATHLETE OF THE YEAR: ROY HALLADAY.Well ... okay, I guess.  Perfect game? (Check.)  20+ wins? (Check.) Playoff no-hitter? (Check.) Cy Young Award? (Check.) Yeah ... I guess he deserves it!

MLB Trade Rumors is reporting that the Jays have signed Edwin Encarnacion to a $2.5m deal for 2011 with an option for 2012.  I guess Adrian Beltre won't be coming to Toronto then.

Guess who just got back today

That wild-eyed boy who had been away

Hasn't changed, hasn't much to say

But man, I still think those Jays are crazy

Gregor Chisholm tweets that the plan is to use EE at first and DH along with Lind.

Bob Feller, one of the most remarkable pitchers ever to take the mound, has died at age 92.

In the "Who-Saw-This-Coming" Department, Cliff Lee has signed with the Philadelphia Phillies.

This isn't a trivia question; it's just something I've wondered about. Is it possible to select two baseball teams such that nobody on Team A was ever teammates with anybody on Team B? Were there any such pairs of teams in 2010? (I don't know if we should count players who were teammates in the minors or not.) I leave it as an exercise for the reader.

What else is going on that we want to talk about?

Brad Emaus was taken in the Rule 5 draft by the New York Mets a few minutes ago. The 24 year old (turns 25 in March) hit .298/.395/.495 in AAA this past year in 364 plate appearances, and .257/.351/.388 in 751 AA plate appearances. Emaus was Batter's Box's number 20 prospect in 2010, number 24 in 2009, and number 18 in 2008, but the team evidently never thought as highly of him, as despite playing second and third base (a current position of need for the club) he was not put on the 40 Man Roster despite the team having space. Hopefully Brad will catch on with the Mets, but if not he could still be returned to the Jays. Full list of draftees here.

Update: Anthopoulos explains his reasoning here.

Update: Miguel Olivo signs with the Mariners. Hello compensatory pick!

Read on for more news, including Carl H. Crawford signing with the Sawx.

Frequently-maligned Jay OF Vernon Wells is 32 today. According to the greatness that is BaseballReference.com, VW's "Most Similar" player through the age of 31 has been one Andre Nolan "Hawk" Dawson.

Not to paint TOO rosy of a picture, but the Hawk's age-32 season was 1987 -- that was his 49-homer NL MVP year. Just sayin' ...

Ah, to post, perchance to dream ...