Former Marlins and Cubs closer Kevin Gregg has agreed to a one-year deal with the Toronto Blue Jays according to SI.com's Jon Heyman.  The $2.75-million dollar deal includes two option years that could pay as much as $12-million dollars total.  Gregg is expected to compete with Jason Frasor and lefty Scott Downs for the closer's role but the Toronto Sun's Bob Elliott speculates Downs could be on his way out.  A tip of the Jays 1989 road cap to Bauxite "The Original Ryan" for letting us know.

As we get closer to the 2010 Olympic Winter Games in Vancouver and Whistler, the Batter's Box POTD is getting into the spirit of things by focusing on some of the Canadian baseball players who made it front of the camera lens during the 2009 season.  Today, we follow the trail of one player who has moved from the American League East to the National League East.

Former Jay favourite Reed Johnson has signed a one-year contract with the Los Angeles Dodgers, a.k.a. Evil Empire West. The California native and Cal State Fullerton ex spent the past two years with the Chicago Cubs and hit .255 as a spare part in Second City last season.

Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

And what else is happening in this dry post-Winter-Meeting, pre-Spring-Training time of year?

Tom Cheek didn't win the Ford Frick...again.   Miller edges Cheek, Van Horne and Doucet for Frick Award‎

With all the news about Cliff Lee recently -- he was involved in a series of trades that Blue Jay fans paid some attention to, as I recall -- I found myself wondering if we could build a full roster of MLB "Cliffs."

The short answer is "yes." The longer answer is "wow, this team is a lot better than I expected it to be." The disorientingly long final roster-driven answer follows if you just click through ...

 

I actually don't have a lot of these left to do.

The American Cooperstown said no to Jays great Roberto Alomar but the Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame, like the Juice Man from Del Monte, said "Affirmative!"   Former Jays All-Star and Port Hope-raised Paul Quantrill will join Alomar in St. Marys, Ontario for the 2010 induction ceremony June 19th.  Elected posthumously were former Washington Senators/Minnesota Twins owner Calvin Griffith and Brooklyn Dodgers statistician Allan Roth, a key figure in Alan Schwartz's book, "The Numbers Game".

Dig that sound and shake it around you're mine , mine , mine

MLB.com released its Top 50 list of the best minor league prospects and two members of the Jays not only made the top 50 but the top 17.  See, I'll never lead you astray!

Chicks dig the long ball. That's always been good enough for me.

Here's part two of the update.

The Toronto Blue Jays recently signed Mississauga native Shawn Hill to a minor league deal.  The right-handed pitcher will look to join fellow hurler Shawn Camp on the Jays staff and become king of the hill while Aaron Hill mans second base.

State your case .... you have three choices.

1. Indianapolis
2. New Orleans
3. I don't care, shut up, when's Spring Training start?

I find it mildly interesting, for no particular reason at all, that the two Super Bowl towns are both AAA baseball cities ...

A recent essay by Batter's Box's own #2JBrumfield examined arbitration-eligibility news in the world of Major Leage Baseball. That called to mind recent efforts to build teams for our ongoing Baseball's Hall of Names based on player initials ... we've done dozens of such rosters of all types, ranging from G.M. to M.D. and P.R. to B.S. (that latter pairing, some wags would argue, is repetitive). But we've never done one for "R.B."

To do so, as always, we first need to set some ground rules ...

William Houston blogs that Rogers are nowhere near bringing a dedicated TV channel to Canadian TV, after acquiring a CRTC license for such a channel 18 months ago.

"By email, Jan Innes, vice-president of communications for Rogers, stated, “There is nothing to report at this time. Our discussions are still ongoing.”
The “discussions” would be tied to Rogers partnering with MLB Network to produce MLB Canada, or purchasing content from MLB Network for Baseball TV."

The Blue Jays have acquired pitcher Merkin Valdez in a deal with the San Francisco Giants for cash considerations.  Jordan Bastian of bluejays.com says Valdez will join the crowded competition for a spot in the Jays bullpen.

On Monday we looked at the Blue Jays 2004 prospects.  Today we will look at the 2004 prospects for the rest of the major leagues to see where, on the top 30 lists, major leaguers come from.