Todd Barton Givin Jones came up to the Houston Astros in 1993 at the age of 25, posting a win and two saves in 37.1 innings of 124 ERA+ baseball.

Would anybody have guessed at the time that Jones would still be around 15 seasons later, having amassed 58 wins and 319 saves in 982 appearances (all but one of those in relief)?

So fourth place it is.

Six games to go.  Two games back of the Yankees with a 3 game set starting today.

Catch the third place fever!

The New York Mets and the Buffalo Bisons will be joined at the hip for the next two years, the Syracuse Chiefs officially said good-bye to the Jays by signing a two year deal with Washington and the New Orleans Zephyrs will hook up with the Florida Marlins for the next two seasons.  Where does that leave the Jays?  It's the place where Molly Sims, Nikki Cox and Vanessa Marcil used to work.  Sing it now, "A little less conversation, a little more action........"

Update:  The Blue Jays director of player development Dick Scott was at the home of the team's new AAA affiliate to announce their new deal.

The Yankees played their final game at the old Stadium last night, because the Yankees won't be in the World Series this year.

It is expected to be confirmed today that Shaun Marcum will need to undergo Tommy John surgery, which would put him out of the lineup for approximately a year (which would really mean 17 months, until March 2010). Thanks to various posters for the heads up.

Even though it appears that the New York Mets will sign an affiliation agreement with the Buffalo Bisons shortly, Syracuse.com reports the Syracuse Chiefs stockholders are now willing to sell part of the club to the Metropolitans in an effort to change the Mets mind to come to Syracuse instead.  Even though a Toronto-Buffalo affiliation looks like a pipe dream at this point, is there a tiny sliver of hope it could still happen?

OK, it is just 3 games in Baltimore but October baseball will happen in 2009 - unless those games are rained out.

I'm at the ballpark, going through the Game Notes...

The season is nearing its close -- 11 games remain. The magic number for both AL East and Wild Card elimination for the Jays is just three. The questions  of interest are mostly numerical -- do either Doc or AJ (or both) have two more wins left in them to get to 20? Does anybody get to .300, to 20 homers, or even to 80 RBI? Not really captivating stuff. So let's try out a Question of the Day ...

Rank the Blue Jays Top 10 Most Valuable Players, in order. Explain your rankings, even the smart-ass versions. Ready? I'll start you off with one; you fill in the next nine (yes, this might be harder than you think!) ...

Via the Jays website their winners are...

It looks like the Toronto-Buffalo sports connection with start and end with the Bills.  The Buffalo News reports that the Bisons will likely sign a player development contract with the New York Mets, instead of with the Jays.  A blog at Syracuse.com linking a blog of the Mets beat writer at the New York Daily News also suggests it's pretty much a done deal with the Mets and the Herd.  

I miss Roy Orbison.

It's not the sports pages, but the headlines of many North American newspapers these day contain the name "Ike," a reference to the latest hurricane headed out of the Gulf Coast.

Out of deference to the many afflicted -- most of whom are here in Texas where I live -- men like Bob "Hurricane" Hazle and Clint "The Hondo Hurricane" Hartung will not be considered in this article.

There hasn't been an "Ike" active in the major leagues since 1979, but that won't stop us from seeing if we can't throw together (see, there, I didn't write "whip up") a Hall of Names team, Ike-style ...

The Advance Scout also jumps back on the Blue Jays bandwagon, for the series that Alex and I are tentatively calling THE BIGGEST SERIES EVER. Not to, you know, jinx it or anything. On to... the Advance Scout!