The Jays signed Shannon Stewart to a minor league contract.

At the bottom of this Jeff Blair column there's a blurb that Dustin McGowan put on some muscle this offseason and now has a routine down to deal with diabetes.

The National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum announced today that Dave Niehaus, the voice of the Seattle Mariners for all 31 seasons of the team's existence, has been named the 2008 recipient of the Ford C. Frick Award, presented annually for major contributions to baseball broadcasting. Niehaus will be honored with the award during Hall of Fame Induction Ceremonies on Sunday, July 27, in Cooperstown, N.Y. The news came to Niehaus on his 73rd birthday.

Read the full press release here.

Happy Wednesday, everyone. Anything going on?

QOTD: What other ballplayers can you name, Blue Jays or otherwise (past or oresent) who can be given a TV character moniker? (Yes, yes, the creepy little girl Wednesday's name was "Addams" with two d's ... what, you want extra "D" from Russ?)

And what else is happening?

The world's politest fantasy league returns.

Update - Feb 21st:
Existing Owners, please reply to me ASAP if you haven't let me know if you'll be returning. I want to get this years ownership list finalised this weekend, and I really don't want to drop anyone without hearing from them. Even if you're not coming back just drop me a line to let me know, thanks to all owners who have responded, there are five I'm still waiting to hear from.

Update2 :
I forgot that Opening Day is officially March 25th. Therefore I don't think yahoo is going to let us draft on March 27th. Let's schedule March 20th at 9pm as our preferred draft time. We'll have to shorten the trading window a little. I'll post an updated timetable at the weekend.

It's family day in Ontario and Presidents day in the US, meanwhile almost all players should be in camp for the Blue Jays.  Spring training games will start in less than two weeks with intra-squad games coming up next Monday.

Gregg Zaun gives his explanation, by way of the National Post, on how his name wound up in the Mitchell Report. 

The Jays will have one less stop at the "Trop" in 2008.  MLB.com reports they will play the newly-named Tampa Bay Rays for the first time in Orlando this April. 

We don't often devote a whole thread here on Batter's Box to a single article published on another site, but if you have not yet read Tom Friend's From San Diego's favorite son ... to spoilsport for ESPN: The Magazine (and available free on ESPN.com), please do so.

It's long -- more than 4,500 words -- but truly a masterpiece, compellingly telling the story of one at-bat that took 15 years to set up. So read it, then come back here and tell us what you think.

Gary Denbo takes over for Mickey Brantley this year. The Globe ran a piece on him today.

Keith Law is well known to Batters Box.  Keith was employed by the Blue Jays from 2002 through 2006 and in 2003 dropped into Da Box for an interview.   Keith now provides a scouting perspective at ESPN.com where his weekly chats have become a favourite of mine because of Keith's honesty; the large number of questions he answers; and his willingness to answer questions on two of his other passions, books and food.   At ESPN Keith also breaks down trades and publishes prospect reports such as the top 5 prospects by organization and the overall top 100 prospects in baseball.  Keith agreed to an e-mail interview with Batters Box, reproduced below.  Batters Box thanks Keith for the generous allocation of his time to this interview.

Ah yes, if you hear those words spring training must be right around the corner.

Robert MacLoud has some pre-spring training tidbits as does Bob Elliot.  The biggest thing is that BJ Ryan might be ready when the season begins.

After all, this time next week we will at least be thinking about Florida.

The final No-Prize of the week goes to the Bauxite who can not only name the title of the song for which today's headline is the first line of lyrics, but can also use that song title in a sentence describing the current Blue Jay player of the responder's choice. Ready? Go!

FWIW, the All-Internet Board of Judges that oversees all Web sites has determined that this week's previous winners -- ayjackson, Chuck and ChicagoJaysFan -- are in fact eligible to win again. How exciting! Will we have our first repeat winner, or can some raw rook out there break on through to the other side?

While we wait to find out, some baseball ...

• Robinson Cano got $30M from the Yankees
• Luis Gonzalez got a little less than that, $1M, from the Marlins
• Clemens/McNamee...do you care or are you bored?
• The Royals don't wan't Sammy Sosa. Will anyone?
• Erik Bedard is apparently in Seattle for a physical, meaning the over/under date on this trade being completed is now June 6, 2016.

What else is going on?

Okay, today's No-Prize goes to the person who can write a headline for this catch-all thread that is from a song with "Thursday" in the title. I got nothin' ... those old "Lady Madonna" Beatle lyrics are the closest I can come.

And for today's starters ...

• Brendan Donnelly to the Indians. Good pickup!
• Eric Hinske signed a minor-league deal with Tampa Bay. Makes sense.
• Bobby Kielty re-signed with the Red Sox, also a minor-leage deal. Meh.
• Happy 53rd birthday, Damaso Garcia!

Not much else going on ... or is there? You tell us!