Christmas Day is just nine days off now, meaning most schools are closing down for a while following a week of exams, people at work are trying to finish spending (or finish justifying, depending on how well the employer's year went) the 2005 budget, and baseball fans are stuck in the midst of five months of what is collegially referred to as "the offseason."

The winter holidays are great in so many ways, but for baseball fans, frankly -- except for the Winter Meetings, which are already over -- they are a time of reflection and anticipation and ... ah, hell, a time of baseball-free boredom.

So maybe if we all close our eyes and hope real hard, St. Nicholas will bring us ...

The second player drafted under the J.P. Ricciardi regime was the first to reach The Show. With all due respect to other prospects who have been drafted and moved up and moved on, Dave Bush is the first of “Ricciardi’s own” that this Jays fan is pained to see gone. In a move that signals the organisational shift from rebuilding mode to the future is now, Dave Bush was dealt along with Gabe Gross and Zach Jackson to the Brewers for Lyle Overbay on December 8.

To get you started on making your own roundup of what's happening out there in Jays-land, here's a Geoff Baker piece that contains one hell of a promise from Shea Hillenbrand:

"I'm very confident that it's now going to allow me to become a player who can hit 30 home runs and drive in 100,'' Hillenbrand, the subject of widespread trade rumours, said yesterday in a telephone interview from his home in Arizona. "I've been in this game a certain number of years and I felt it was time to take things to the next level. You can quote me on that: I think I'm going to hit 30."

I've mentioned a few times that the Jays need to consolidate their roster. The Overbay move was a good example of this.

Yes, the weekend, which brought plenty of conversation and speculation here on Da Box, has passed into the netherworld of history.

And so ... Matt Morris to the Giants? Roger Clemens to the Red Sox??? Ricardo Rincon to the Cardinals, J.C. Romero to the Angels ... and Sidney Ponson to court in Baltimore.

What else is new? Should be new? And what d'ya think, anyway?

I'm in Vegas this week - the wifely person is on a business trip and I'm just tagging along as a tourist.

I just saw something you might find interesting.

I haven't heard anything new about... well, anything, but people are clamoring for a new general hot-stove thread.

And that's what this is.

"Hey, who's up for a Trivia Challenge?," reads the first line of an ancient (in the online world, May 17 of this year is "ancient") thread that has been getting some action here on Batter's Box recently.

So before we go much further and take a trivia thread over the span of a new year, it's time for (what I think is) Batters' Box Trivia Challenge #7!

It's too soon for another look at the current payroll projection ($78.7M, if you're dying to know), so let's instead turn our attention to how the current Toronto squad would line up against righties and lefties.

Over 300 posts in the Overbay trade thread and I don't even think anyone even brought up Overbay's splits once. How are we supposed to be 'stat geeks' if we don't go any further than OPS? I'll get the ball rolling.

What kind of nonsense is this? Not nonsense, but actually perfect sense, especially on a site dedicated to a team called the "Jays."

According to our good friends over at the incomparable baseballreference.com, there have been four major leaguers who went by "A.J." and four more by "B.J." -- and now, of course, one of each of those (Burnett and Ryan) are teammates for the 2006 TO Jays. Alas, C.J. Nitkowski was not acquired to complete the A.-B.-C. J. trifecta, but Nitkowski is more than welcome to join ...

The Red Sox have acquired top prospect Andy Marte for Edgar Renteria. With the previous acquisition of Mark Loretta, both the Sox infield and their offence has undergone a substantial renovation. Further changes may be in store, but it's a good time to take stock. Thanks to Cristian and Chuck for alerting us to the trade.

Bauxite gv27 reports that the Jays have completed a trade with the Milwaukee Brewers for Lyle Overbay and a PTBNL in exchange for David Bush, Gabe Gross and Zach Jackson.

The team will be holding a press conference any minute now.

Everybody's favorite Toronto reporter, Jeff Blair, says that a Wilkerson deal is dead but Overbay is still a possibility in his latest blog entry.

The Rule 5 draft will be held on Thursday, December 8th.