It's about baseball records and such.

Okay, who had Eric Wedge in the "first manager to be fired in the off-season" pool? Sure, it's not technically the off-season yet -- though it has been in Cleveland for a while! -- but soon-to-be-former Indians skipper Eric Wedge will complete the season, then look elsewhere for employment.

Former Indian hurler John Farrell, now the Red Sox pitching coach, is rumored to be a replacement candidate, though he may not be allowed to take the job per a contractual clause in Boston. So who will/should manage the Indians? And who's next on the MLB skipper chopping block?

The Boston Red Sox had a chance to clinch the AL Wild Card slot Tuesday night. Adam Lind had other thoughts.

The Jays slammed six homers in an 8-7 win, Lind clocked three of those longballs by hissownself -- the first Jay to hit three in a single contest since Frank Thomas a while back -- while Ricky Ro picked up his lucky 13th win and Jason Frasor saved his 11th game.

Lind is the second Blue Jay to reach the 35-homer mark in 2009, joining Aaron Hill, who hit his own 36th bomb against Da Sawx.

See now, it's not all bad news!

A while ago Richard Griffin did his list of best baseball books. This was on it.

Joe Posnanski writes about JP Ricciardi, again, and points out some of the contradictions in the Blue Jays GM.

“You would really like J.P. if you got to spend some time with him,” one friend in baseball told me. “He’s really a good guy and a good baseball guy.”

“You would really hate J.P.,” another friend in baseball told me. And so it goes.

The great Dave Till took care of this for us, year after year. I don't have Dave's fine sense of the classroom (it's been a while since I was actually in one, you know) but I'll do what I can.

Something to do while I wait hopefully for Jim Balsillie to give up on his NHL dream (they don't want you, Jim, can't you see?) and turn his attention to baseball.

The Blue Jays recently announced the Webster Award winners who will be presented with their awards this weekend at the Rogers Centre.  Baseball America is starting their league top 20's today with the GCL and Carlos Perez makes the list.

Nice little discussion starter the other day, in the form of a pinch-hit by Bauxite Brian W., in his look at the A.L. Cy Young race. 

The verdict: Um, we really don't know. Maybe Greinke deserves it. Maybe King Felix out in the Pacific Northwest. C.C. in the Bronx? Maybe somebody will explode in the last two weeks and win 20, effectively blinding the voters? We dunno!

Fortunately, there are a number of other awards that will be given for us to start fighting about ... er, discussing, debating ... ya know.  Are ANY of the major awards a slam dunk right now? (Okay, one is.)

So fill out your projections ... anyone who goes 10-for-10 -- gets every prediction right -- well, what are you doing here? Get to Vegas!

As the 2009 season winds down to its depressing conclusion the only possible cure is to focus on 2010 and look for positive signs.  It goes without saying that the Jays need to do what we, the knowledgable fans, think they should do.  So let's try and see if Batters Box can use the wisdom of our crowd to come up with a prioritized to-do list for the 2010 team.

So it's been four days since a new feature appeared here on Da Box ... that can mean only one thing -- it must be time for ... um ... that is, it's certainly good to welcome back ... er ...

Yeah, I got nothin'. The Jays, long ago mathematically eliminated, are entrenched in fourth place, actually closer to fifth than third; only the AL Central looks like it might have a mildly interesting finish in store, and even then, probably not.

So ... Open Forum! What's on your mind? How can the Jays be playing meaningful baseball a year from today? Or are you already locked in on the Leafs' power play situation or the Argonauts', um, whatever it is they do? Are you "following" any of the remaining teams, with a rooting interest either way?

And really, it's been a while ... how are you?

High and high in the sky
You make me feel like I can fly
So high

This Blue Jay's home run total for the month of September has already surpassed what he did before August 31st.  He's the subject of our latest POTD.

Brian W looks at the Cy Young contenders.

Stalwart Bauxite AWeb posted this in another thread just a while ago:

" ... even a declined Scutaro is one of the top 10-15 SS in the majors, unles his defense evaporates. Not exactly a great position in MLB right now."

Maybe we were all spoiled by the Jeter/A-Rod/Nomar "trinity" a few years ago, following on the heels of a Larkin/Ripken era launch that really started us down the road to higher shortstop-as-productive-hitter expectations. But is it true that short is a weak position in the major leagues right now? Let's see ...

Bauxite Ramone  had the following query:

The only worry I have is [Snider]  now has 38 strikeouts in 86 at bats, that seems alarming to me [since returning from AAA].  Is that cause for serious concern?

The Toronto Blue Jays will begin the 2010 campaign in the Lone Star State.