Giving most major league teams millions of dollars to play with and a list of available free agents is like giving whiskey and car keys to teenage boys. (Thank you, P.J. O'Rourke.)

So the madness is beginning...

Imagine you were a scout for a major league team last winter and your general manager calls you to ask about Josh Towers. Your team has a chance to trade for Towers and the GM wants to know what you think. You say Towers is a #5 pitcher and he is not even guaranteed a rotation spot with the Jays in 2005, you suggest to the GM that he should turn down the deal. Next day the GM is back on the phone, the Jays have sweetened the deal and now they are ready to give up Alex Rios. You tell the GM to jump at the deal, you saw Rios at New Haven in 2003 and you think he is primed for a breakout season. Fast forward to today, do you still have a job?

If you want to be a scout you better have an opinion and you better be right more than you are wrong or you could be facing the wrath of your GM, if you are still working for him.

Hey, a real move! The Mets traded Mike Cameron to the Padres for Xavier Nady, pending physicals.

Another off-season, another NFH Challenge!

Here's what Kingsley had to say in the Josh Towers signing thread:

This contract was a nothing more than a loyalty reward for what will undoubtably go down in the books as Towers' career year. His numbers were an abberration... counting on Josh to keep it together over another season, to count on 'it' not vanishing...well, friends, that's too many what-if's for me.
...
Josh will be nothing more than the long righty out of the 'pen come mid-season.

(Read the whole post here.)

Lots of things to challenge in there, aren't there?

The Canadian baseball team had a good and bad Olympic experience in 2004. The bad part was losing in the semi-finals to a strong Cuba team, having led late in the game. The Canadians did not expect to be playing Cuba in the semis but Australia pulled out a round robin win that helped them avoid Canada and place Cuba in the way of the Canadians. On the good side the team did make it to the semi-finals and many players still talk of qualifying for the Olympics, and the bus ride back to the hotel singing Oh Canada, as the highlight of their season. Now the Canadians get to start down the Olympic road again, the road to China in 2008 starts today in Arizona as Canada faces Nicaragua. The top four teams, out of six in this tournament, advance to the Americas Olympic qualifier next August in Havana. Last week in Arizona I talked with three of the Canadian hopefuls about their seasons.

The Globe And Mail and TSN are both reporting that Batter's Box favourite Josh Towers has signed a two-year deal with the Jays.

It's reportedly a $5.2 million contract in total, with $2.3M due in 2006 and $2.9M in 2007. Hopefully the groundball-inducing Josh will have the same fine defence behind him over the next two years that he enjoyed in his breakout 2005, in which he earned just $358,000 for posting a 120 ERA+ in nearly 210 innings.

Congratulations, Josh!

Yeah, so it's been a few weeks since the last Photo of the Week, but I have a doctor's note: a window slammed shut on the middle finger of my right hand, which made typing exceptionally slow and painful, and then a few days later I injured my back picking baby Theo up. So I've been better.

Here's one of our two Golden Guys:

Where do we stand? Apparently, GM Ricciardi has pretty much ruled out the trade rumours involving Bobby Abreu ("too rich for our blood") and Kevin Mench ("they asked for WHAT?").

Well, apparently the Orioles have no intention of bringing back Sammy Sosa or Rafael Palmeiro...

OK, moving right along...

So the 2005 Cy Young Award winners have been announced and Bartolo Colon took home the AL award while Chris Carpenter swept to victory in the NL.

Say, that's exactly what Bauxites predicted would happen back in early September. Well done, all!

The Arizona Fall League regular season ended yesterday and the Peoria Saguaros, home team for the six Blue Jay players, did not make it to the one game playoff. It was a tough season for the Saguaros as their record of 8-23 indicates. I was in Phoenix last weekend and I spoke with the Jays players, their manager ex-Jay Eddy Rodriguez, and several scouts.

The GM meetings are over and free agency begins.

Shortstop John McDonald was re-acquired by the Jays for cash considerations from the Tigers. McDonald is a capable late inning defensive replacement, and will provide depth in the event of a trade. Thanks to Dave, Hoju and Hugh for letting us know.

Here are your Blue Jay notes for today:

Back in early September, Bauxites projected that Cleveland's Eric Wedge and Atlanta's Bobby Cox would win their respective league's "Manager of the Year" awards.

As with the Rookies of the Year announced yesterday, the learned counselors here at BattersBox.ca were exactly half-right -- though this time nailing the NL half of the vote while failing to foresee Cleveland's eventual collapse to doom that shuffled the White Sox off to their first title since Kaiser Wilhelm was in control of Germany and landed manager Ozzie Guillen (a strong second to Wedge in the September balloting) the manager award. Cox's win is his fourth; Guillen's is his first.

What's going on at the winter meetings?

Do they know it's officially not winter for another 40+ days?