As we learned here yesterday, former Jay Overlord Pat Gillick is a Hall of Famer. Bauxites expressed surprise that Marvin Miller was not yet selected for induction, though that seems inevitable after he fell just one vote short this year.

The only other candidate to receive even 50 percent of the vote was ex-Big Red Machine shortstop Dave Concepcion, who probably never gets in (though I admit it, I grew up in Ohio in the BRM days and personally would love to see Davey Shortstop in the HOF).

Who else deserves what? Here's my take ....

• Shocked he didn't get in overwhelmingly this year: George Steinbrenner
• Nice career, probably doesn't belong: Ted Simmons, Vida Blue, Steve Garvey, Al Oliver
• Probably belongs, probably gets in eventually: Billy Martin,
• Probably belongs, probably never gets in: Tommy John
• Probably doesn't belong, but watch out for the "New York Bump": Ron Guidry, Rusty Staub

Your thoughts, valued Bauxites?

I figured we could do with a Winter Meetings catch-all.  I don't know about you but aside from Opening Day, the Winter Meetings may just be my favourite time on the calendar.  Today's day one and the hot stove is pre-heating with some Jays content.

 

The first person who was primarily known for his work in Toronto has been elected. Congrats to Pat Gillick.

According to MLB Trade Rumors, the Jays organization has shipped veteran right-hander Shaun Marcum to the Milwaukee Brewers. Top prospect Brett Lawrie, a Canadian second baseman, is rumored to be the return for the veteran hurler.

Try the Boston Red Sox, gumshoes!   As noted in a previous thread, the Padres have traded first baseman Adrian Gonzalez to the Red Sox for three prospects - pitcher Casey Kelly, first baseman Anthony Rizzo and outfielder Reymond Fuentes.  The Red Sox will also send a PTBNL San Diego's way.

Update Dec 5 @ 5:40 pm:  The San Diego Union Tribune says the deal is not done yet.  It's believed Gonzalez and the Red Sox are not seeing eye to eye on a proposed contract extension.

Update Dec 7:  Now it looks to be done!  Seven years, $154-million bucks.



Meantime, the Blue Jays are hoping to make a big move of their own in acquiring a Cy Young Award winner.  The Toronto Sun's Bob Elliott reports the Jays are targetting Kansas City ace Zack Greinke and it's believed the asking price will at least be Kyle Drabek and Travis Snider for starters.

Baseball lost one of its greats yesterday, as former Cub All-Star hot cornerman Ron Santo passed on to the next plane.

I really like the way the inimitable Sean Forman of BasseballReferebce.com termed it: "Baseball lost a Hall of Famer (at least he is in my book) and a lifelong Cub yesterday. Our condolences to his family and to his fans."

Rest well, "other Mr. Cub."

The most surprising move in the Jays minor league managerial shuffle involved the recently retired Mike Redmond being named the new manager of the Lansing Lugnuts.  The 13-year major league veteran replaces fellow former major league backstop Sal Fasano, who moves up to Double-A with the New Hampshire Fisher Cats.



Mike Redmond in the Indians bullpen prior to a game against the Toronto Blue Jays at Progressive Energy Field May 5th.

Update III: The Blue Jays have acquired Carlos Villanueva, a reliever, from the Brewers for a player to be named to later, according to the Brewers twitter page. He is eligible for arbitration for the first time this season after putting up a 4.61 ERA in 50 relief appearances last year, while striking out 67 batters in 52.2 innings. He is not the enemy.

Update II: Some of the more notable players non-tendered: Jeremy Accardo, Willy Aybar, Taylor Buchholz, Jack Cust, Ryan Church, Edwin Encarnacion, Scott Hairston, JP Howell, Bobby Jenks, Fred Lewis, Russell Martin, Lastings Milledge, Dioner Navarro, Hideki Ojakima and Joel Peralta.

Fox Sports is reporting that Brian Tallet has been signed by the St. Louis Cardinals.  In addition tonight is the deadline for free agents who have been offered arbitration to accept or reject the offer.

A recent episode of CBC's Quirks and Quarks featured a segment on curveballs. Despite a right-off-the-bat gaffe (Bob McDonald equates "breaking ball" with "curve ball"), it's an interesting segment that is unlike anything I've read in the online research community. Wanna hear about it?

Toronto's AFL affiliate, the Peoria Javelinas, played in the championship game on Saturday and lost 3-2 to Scottsdale. Let's finish up our AFL coverage by looking at how the Jays representatives performed over the month-and-a-half-long season.

It's a Gang of Four: Downs, Frasor, Olivo, and Gregg.

Texas Rangers OF Josh Hamilton is your 2010 AL MVP. (To which I can only say, "Well ... duh!")

That said, it wasn't quite the blowout award that yesterday's Votto-for-NL-MVP slamdunk proved to be.

Four players were named on every AL ballot -- Hamiltion, Miggy Cabrera, Robby Cano and Toronto's own Jose Bautista. And Hambone received "just" 22/28 first place votes (Votto was 31/32) with others going to Cabrera (5) and Bautista (1).

Trivia: four Rangers prior to Hamilton have won the AL MVP. Who were they? (Hint: three should be pretty "-ez" to think up!)

Toronto-born Joey Votto, Cincinnati's young slugging 1B, is your 2010 NL MVP.

It wasn't close -- Votto collected 31 of 32 possible first-place votes (the other went to Phat Albert Pujols) in easily outdistancing Pujols, Carlos Gonzalez, Adrian Gonzalez. (Two Gonzos in the top four? Huh!), and Troy Tulowitzki, who rounded out the top five. Roy Halladay, who earlier this month received the NL Cy Young Award unanimously, was the highest-ranking pitcher in the voting at sixth.

Votto is the third Canadian-born MVP, after Larry Walker and Justin Morneau. Just 27, Votto hit .324 with 37 homers and 113 RBI; the first-time All-Star also posted a seasonal OPS of 1.024.

Batters Box recently caught up with Alex Anthopoulos as he returned from the general manager meetings in Orlando.  As Alex has mentioned in other interviews, and specifically around the Rajai Davis trade, he is still working on the roster for 2011 and he doesn't yet know how it will all come together and who will play where.  So given that, I did not ask Alex about things such as playing time for JP Arencibia, who plays third, who plays first, etc.  Alex either doesn't yet know the answer to these questions or, if he does, he doesn't want to share it with us yet. 

So given that Alex has just finished his first year on the job I asked him to answer more philosophical type questions so that we, as fans, know where the team is headed and what we should expect over the upcoming winter.

Alex last joined us in Da Box last February.  Prior to that Alex explained his background  and how he came to the Blue Jays in May 2009.