Tonight season ticket holders and other invitees will be at the Rogers Centre for the annual state of the franchise event which has been re-branded as "The Leadoff". Expect Mark Shapiro, Ross Atkins and John Gibbons to speak. In previous years the front office would answer some carefully selected and preapproved questions. I expect many of the questions this year will be about whether the Jays will re-sign Jose Bautista and EE. And the answer will be we would like to but it takes two sides to make a deal and we won't break the bank for any player, or words to that effect. I also expect some questions around the roles for Aaron Sanchez and Roberto Osuna this year. I don;t feel confident we will get a straight answer to that.

With the year almost at an end, I thought this was as good a time as any to revisit the magic that came before.

The winter meetings start today and run through the rule 5 draft on Thursday. Discuss all the blockbuster action here. Also Fangraphs has released the ZiPS projections for the 2016 Jays.

For 2016 I think we all want to see the Jays with guys at every position who could be the best in the game at that position. Especially with the pitching issues. So where do we see it and where could the Jays use a Tulo upgrade?

So a few things have happened...

Not a shock to anyone, but David Price is one of 3 finalists for the Cy Young and Josh Donaldson is one of the top 3 for MVP.

Traditional winter activities have always included arguing about the Hall of Fame.

The new boss at his introductory presser. Items of interest: 1) Tony LaCava is the interim GM; 2) he's not wedded to the five-year limit, says he can envisage longer deals for a player in the right circumstances. Doesn't believe in absolutes.

Said all the right things, as you'd expect from an experienced pro, and expressed a lot of enthusiasm.

Blood on the carpet, mud on the mattress
Waking up with that American sadness
Afternoon matinee, midnight madness
Come on everybody, let's get on with the business

OK. Now we can start talking about the off-season.

It wasn't the best of times, it wasn't the worst times. It was just like all the other times.

It was pretty irritating, to tell you the truth.

It's nice to finally be invited to the dance.

It has been a great regular season.  To be able to ask the question, "was this the best Blue Jay regular season in team history?", without gales of laughter ensuing is a rare treat. So, let's do it.  With some statistics and some flights of fancy.

You may have heard some worry expressed about the Taylor Swift effect - how bad things happened to Washington, San Diego, and Houston after the 1989 tour came to town.

It's worse than that. Much, much worse. Be afraid. Be very afraid. Consider:

It is with great pride and pleasure to start a thread that has been a long time coming since Batter's Box appeared on the internet scene in 2002. Ladies and gentleman, boys and girls, your 2015 American League East champions - the Toronto Blue Jays!