No fancy headline today.  Italy must go down in baseball flames tonight when they play Canada at the Rogers Centre.  First pitch is 6:30 p.m. EDT.

Are you watching the World Baseball Classic? There's actually quite a bit of earnest early competition.

• Adam Dunn, not the most popular player in these parts, came to Toronto as a late addition to the U.S. team and homered to provide the American margin of victory in a 7-6 win over the hometown Team Canada.
• It was (har!) a "Dutch treat" as The Netherlands -- The Netherlands! -- nipped the heavily-favored Dominican Republic, 3-2 as Sidney Ponson outdueled Edinson Volquez.
• In a few somewhat less competitive games, Venezuela beat Italy 7-0; Puerto Rico knocked off Panama, also 7-0; China beat Chinese Taipei, 4-1; and Japan blew out Korea, 14-2.

Your thoughts, Bauxites?

After seeing the Dustin Pedroia commercial that's running for an MLB video game for the seventy thousandth time this week, I decided to see if we could build a Hall of Names team built entirely of players named "Dustin." And though there are nine men who have had that given first or middle name who've reached the big leagues to date -- and nine is a nice baseball number -- the simple answer is "no, we can't."

Just at a glance, we can see at least three -- McGowan, Hermanson and Nippert -- are pitchers, so there would not be a full eight on defense to fill out the lineup card.

Ah, but what if we include all those guys nicknamed "Dusty" or named "Dustan," etc.? Yes, if we expand our parameters a little ...

Translation:  Brad Mills and Matt Clement pitched pretty well yesterday and Brian Dopirak supplied the shizzle with the swizzle stick as the Jays crushed the U.S. team with a 6-5 victory Wednesday in Dunedin.

Canada might have a shot of beating the United States in the World Baseball Classic if the game is close in the late innings.  As John Northey pointed out in an earlier thread, the American bullpen will be without Jays closer B.J. Ryan and Twins relief ace Joe Nathan as they have pulled out of the World Baseball Classic.  Ryan says he needs to work on his mechanics while Nathan has a sore shoulder. 

Spring is almost here, which means it’s not only time for a new Blue Jay season, but it’s also time for another Toronto Bauxite Baseball League season. This year will mark TBBL’s fourth season and I am pleased to bring you this message from league organizer Mike K. As a former (and hopefully future) TBBL participant I can thoroughly vouch for the league and the work done by the various individuals behind the scenes, as I’m sure many other Bauxites can.

The Washington Nationals will be looking for a new general manager.  The Associated Press says Jim Bowden has stepped down as federal investigators are looking into the club's alleged skimming of signing bonuses given to Latin American prospects.

Jeff Blair from the Globe and Mail reports the Jays are showing interest in free-agent shortstop Orlando Cabrera.  He thinks the team may try to accomplish this by dealing a corner infielder or reliever to clear some salary off the books.

UPDATE March 2/09:  Cabrera's going to Oakland according to ESPN's Buster Olney.  He has signed a one-year deal for $4-million bucks.

So the Toronto-biased talk has started already, albeit quietly -- Travis Snider, 2009 AL Rookie of the Year? Well, we'll see. But you know what? He may already be one of the three or four best players in MLB history with the given first name "Travis."

Actually ...

The BBFL has it's complete haul of owners for the year.  The trading window is open in the Alomar and Barfield divisions and will open in the Carter division this weekend as soon as we hear from one more owner and can complete roster assignments.  Feel free to use this this thread for trade/keeper discussions.

BBFL owners please get your keepers in promptly or I will pick them for you - this is not something you want.

Want to join us?   The waiting list for next year - or for any last minute drop outs this year - is empty, so if you'd like to join it please drop me a line at bbfl at gwynprice.com

Catch the taste!

Travis Snider has belted the first home run of spring training for the Jays, an opposite field poke to tie today's proceedings at 1-1 against the Phillies in Clearwater.  He was robbed of extra bases in his first at-bat on a leaping catch at the wall by John Mayberry Jr., the offspring of former Jay John Mayberry.   Just remember, when Snider wins the rookie of the year, you heard it here first!!

Meantime, Jason Lane has just followed with another solo poke and J.P. Arencibia just missed making it back to back to back jacks.  You can listen to today's game on bluejays.com.

The last stop on our minor league organization tour is with the relievers and there are a lot of them.  By my count there are at least 65 relievers in minor league camp plus a few more already assigned to extended spring training.  With smaller roster sizes in some minor league stops there are probably 40 jobs available plus I assume about 10 DL spots.  That's 50 places for 65+ guys.  The other change we see is a very large number of imports, whether by signing or claiming, that could fill the AAA and AA bullpens.  Where is the room for home grown guys like Sean Stidfole, Mike MacDonald, Zach Dials, Daryl Harang and Seth Overbey?

Real baseball is about to be played - well, it may not actually count but guys in Blue Jays uniforms will be going against guys in Yankee uniforms including a few actual major leaguers today at 1:05 PM. Woohoo!

Well, it's officially Prospect List season.  Three Blue Jays hopefuls make the Top 100 this year, though not necessarily in the order you might have thought.