The Jays and the NH Fishercats have reached an agreement to extend their affiliation through 2012.

Not many members of the MLB fraternity play into their fourth decade; in fact, generally speaking, only the elite play as long as the Jack Benny Milestone age of 39.

Here on Da Box, we have previously constructed an All-Age-40 team and later an All-Age-41 team ... yes, there was a fair amount of overlap from one to the other, but less than you might think.

As we meet an All-Age-39 team, there are a lot of familiar names; in fact, we can assemble a pretty decent squad just using the "Top 10 Leader" lists for the Age 39 Players on BasaballReference.com ... okay, not "pretty fair," make that "geriatrically unstoppable" ...

Let's meet them; they're called ...

What kinds of starting pitchers do the Jays have? And how does it affect their handling of the left field and shortstop positions?

Today is Arlie Pond's birthday. Er, well, rather, it would have been his (record-smashing) 135th birthday, but he passed on back in 1930. You don't remember Pond, in fact, have never heard of him? Well ...

As usual, most of the spots are spoken for.

The Blue Jays agreed to terms with four players on Thursday night, leaving Marco Scutaro and Alex Rios as the only Jays scheduled to head to arbitration. Reportedly the team is close to agreeing to a contract with Scutaro, which would leave only Rios and I'd be surprised if the Jays didn't come to an agreement with him, as well.

The folks over at The Sporting News have noticed the nice little starting rotation the Jays have assembled. The current issue of TSN magazine boasts a two-page spread entitled "Focus on A.L.Rotations" that, among other things, ranks the league from 1-14. Let's take a look at some of the highlights of that story, which has the Jay quintet ranked fourth (you guessed that from the headline, right?), nestled between the #3 Angels and the #5 Tigers ...

Glaus for Rolen is official. The formal announcment will be today.

A recent article in the Syracuse Post-Standard says a U.S. Senator has spoken to the Mets about setting up shop in Syracuse in 2009 and according to him, the Metropolitans are interested. 

So the Glaus-for-Rolen deal has dominated the pages and polls of Da Box for a day or more now, and it has been, correctly, labeled a true "challenge" trade.

Challenge trades are straight-up, one-for-one deals, usually involving two guys who play the same position. The first such trade I can remember is the legendary My-Bobby-For-Yours deal of 1974 when the Giants sent Bonds to the Bronx for Murcer. The most legendary such deal is one that actually never happened, when (legend has it) the owners of the Red Sox and Yankees got their drink on and agreed to deal Joe DiMaggio for Ted Williams before both backed out the next, more sober day.

So here are your questions for the day ...

Count me among those that don't like a Rolen for Glaus swap.

According to Fox Sports' Ken Rosenthal, "major-league sources" say the Jays are working on a trade that would send Troy Glaus to the Cardinals for Scott Rolen. Rosenthal reports that both players have agreed to waive their no-trade clauses.

In the annals of North American popular culture, two of the greatest heroes of the 20th century -- one fictional, one who played fictional characters -- bore the last/family name "Wayne." (We refer here, of course, to Bruce "The Batman" Wayne and to John "The Duke"Wayne.)

There have also been two major league players with that family appellation,neither particularly "heroic," LHRP Gary Wayne (14 wins and four saves mostly with MIN in the early 1990s) and RHRP Justin Wayne (eight starts and 18 relief appearances for FLA in the early part of the current decade). Fortunately, there are more than a hundred other ballplayers with "Wayne" as a first or middle name, so we shouldn't have too much trouble building a legitimate team for, no, not "The Batmen" (though that'd be a nice basebally name), but rather ...

Rich Gossage is now a Hall of Famer, the only member of the class of '08 at this point. Jim Rice just missed, Andre Dawson and Bert Blyleven were in shouting distance, and nobody else was close.

Your thoughts?

It's the season for minor league top ten lists.  Batters Box published our own list shortly after the season ended, but the more general minor league books are now becoming available.  Batters Box recently featured Deric McKamey's list from the Minor League Baseball Analyst.  The Baseball America list is out in the magazine and will be released on their web site on Friday.  John Sickels has just finished his book and his list is now available on his web site, and to complete the party Baseball Prospectus published their top ten list today.