Thanks to Pistol for alerting us to Baseball America's ranking of the NY-Penn League's Top 20 Prospects. Non-subscribers can read this tidbit about the amazing Auburn Doubledays:

The Blue Jays stocked Auburn with a plethora of college talent, and the team went 56-18 to run away with the league's best record despite the promotions of first-round shortstop Aaron Hill and righthander Jamie Vermilyea. Hill ranked second in the top 20 on a list that included four of his teammates: righty Josh Banks, lefty Kurt Isenberg, shortstop Juan Peralta and first baseman Vito Chiaravalloti. Four other Doubledays -- Vermilyea, third baseman Ryan Roberts and righties Shaun Marcum and Bubbie Buzachero -- also received strong consideration.

The Jays' last homestand begins with their season-long nemeses from St. Petersburg. Toronto's 5-10 record against Tampa Bay probably hasn't cost the Jays a shot at contention in and of itself, but the 1-5 stretch against the D-Rays in late July and early August was what cemented the Jays' spoiler status for the 2003 season.

Tampa staggers into town with lineup full of frosty bats, and face some awfully long odds in thawing the lumber against a always-motivated Doc Halladay tonight. The remaining three matchups are more interesting, particularly Josh Towers gunning for a future with the Jays and a duel between surprising Doug Waechter and sizzling Kelvim Escobar.

Today's Advance Scout features some middle-of-the-order slumps, a talkative speed-burner in the middle minors and a Triple Crown that Victor Zambrano would rather not be wearing.

On to the Advance Scout!

I sometimes find it difficult to explain to people exactly what this site is. "It's an online community," I say, and invariably the reply comes back, "what do you mean?" I try to explain that it's a website that I write articles for, like a little magazine, only daily... but unlike a magazine, people congregate here and talk. It's not just one-way communication. It's more of a forum for discussion. Some of us who write for the site set the topic, but the conversations veer all sorts of ways, and they're all happening at once.

Little is more incomplete than an institution in search of an identity. Well, let us look no further. Like a bolt from the blue, an e-mail two weeks ago on the SABR-L list made me realize exactly what we are.

Batter's Box is a Peņa.

A place to discuss one of the more maligned but more interesting awards, the Manager of the Year in each league.

A place for discussing the Rookies of the Year for each league.

"A player shall be considered a rookie unless, during a previous season or seasons, he has (a) exceeded 130 at-bats or 50 innings pitched in the major leagues; or (b) accumulated more than 45 days on the active roster of a major league club or clubs during the period of a 25-player limt (excluding time in the military service)."

Fight! Fight! Fight!

We can have our MVP arguments in this thread. No spitting, and no pepper games.

Here is the verbatim text of the letter that is sent to MVP voters, for your information (and for starting arguments)...

An all-purpose thread (tough, hardy, and water-resistant to 30 metres) for doing what a lot of people will be doing this week... talking about the Cy Young Award candidates in both leagues.

Roy Halladay gets his 35th start of the season tonight, looking for his 22nd win. The win would snap the team record he currently shares with Jack Morris and Roger Clemens, but don't look for anything different from the usual from HLH. The line has him at +280 to win, so we can officially say "good odds".

I am seizing the reins, and beginning on behalf of Batter's Box what I hope will become an annual tradition.

This is our Blue Jays "Players Of The Year" awards, which will be voted by the fans of the team. One award will be given to a major league player who played with the Jays during the year, and one award will be given to a minor league player who played in the Jays' farm system during the year.

In order to vote, send an e-mail to otnorot55@yahoo.ie with the subject "Players Of The Year". Please vote for one major leaguer and one minor leaguer. In order to make it even easier to follow these instructions, you can click here and your browser should set up your e-mail for you.

The Box braintrust are going to get together to think up a suitable award which will be given to the winning players.

In Spencer Fordin's notes on MLB.com, he mentions Bobby Kielty's determination to get stronger for next year, then sheds some light on the Jays' pitching plans for the final week.

Pete Walker is out of the starting rotation -- again -- and Vinny Chulk might be in for the first time in his big-league career. Tosca named his starting staff for the next four days: Mark Hendrickson, Roy Halladay, Josh Towers and Kelvim Escobar.

Thursday's game is officially TBA, but according to Fordin, it will be Chulk, with Lidle bumped a day. It seems that Mark Hendrickson will go to the bullpen after today, and Pete Walker also has the manager's confidence against lefty batters.

"We're going to be a little more cautious with [Miller and Kershner], and he's the one guy that can counter left-handed hitters," Tosca said about Walker. "They're just gassed."

The game I'll be keeping an eye on (other than Doc's impending 22nd win) is Florida at Atlanta (Mark Redman versus Mike Hampton). This is Florida's last road game of the regular season: a win would leave them a game up with a 3 to play at home against the Phillies beginning Tuesday.

AL West/Wildcard

Team	Wins	Losses	Remaining	Yesterday	Schedule	Elim
Oakland	93	63	6	Sea 12-0	Tex 3, @Sea 3	__
Boston	91	64	7	Cle 2-0	Bal 4, @TB 3	__
Seattle	89	67	6	Oak 0-12	@Ana 3, Oak 3	5

Oakland stunned Gil Meche and the Mariners with 5 runs in the 2nd on route to a 12-zip shellacking. The AL West is all but Oakland's - there's every chance they'll wrap it up with Texas in town (they need only to match the Mariners' performance versus the Angels). The Mariners lost ground to the Pedro Sox and only poor play by Boston versus also-rans can save Seattle now.

Good morning all! From here on in, I'll be providing daily updates on all the pennant races.

AL West/Wildcard

Team	Wins	Losses	Remaining	Yesterday	Schedule	Elim
Oakland	92	63	7	Sea 3-9	Sea, Tex 3, @Sea 3	__
Boston	90	64	8	Cle 4-13	@Cle 1, Bal 4, @TB 3	__
Seattle	89	66	7	Oak 9-3	@Oak 1, @Ana 3, Oak 3	7

The Mariners made it two impressive performances in a row in Oakland, and with Boston getting hammered in the late innings, Seattle has renewed hope for a playoff spot. Their patient approach at the plate should help them against Rich Harden, who has great stuff but hasn't quite harnessed it yet. They are slight favourites for the sweep, which would cut the Athletics' division lead to 2 games. The wildcard lead is likely to remain at least 1.5 games, as Pedro takes the mound in Cleveland.

This is a repeat of last Sunday's pitching matchup in Toronto. A seemingly indifferent Cory Lidle grooved a few in the first inning and fell behind 3-0, then after the Jays cut the lead to 3-2, a sixth-inning 2-run shot by Jay Gibbons sealed the deal. On The FAN 590 the other night, Mike Wilner speculated that Lidle won't get any offers as a free agent and may have to accept a minor-league contract with an invitation to spring training. Good riddance. Of course, that's what we all said about Esteban Loaiza.

Baltimore southpaw Matt Riley went five innings for his first big-league win, four years after being rushed to the Show while barely out of his teens. He had good success in AA (5-2, 3.11) and AAA (4-2, 3.58) this year, striking out a combined 150 while walking 51 and giving up 126 hits in 142.2 IP. In his first AL start, he was touched for a solo homer by Josh Phelps, along with three singles and three walks. We'll see tonight if the Jays learned anything about him.

The Seattle Mariners, stuck in an offensive funk for several weeks now, were facing a must win situation against the Oakland Athletics by the Bay Friday night.

They were up against Cy Young candidate Tim Hudson. Hudson had been almost invincible against the most dangerous rivals in the league. Check out his performance against 3 of the 4 best teams in the A.L. this season:

William Houston in todays Globe has good news Rob Faulds is 'on the bubble' as Sportsnet's Jays announcer. He goes on to even better news, that the job will probably be offered to Box favourite Dan Shulman, before ending on a downer - Shulman will likely refuse and the likeliest candidate is Rod Black.

Houston reported last week that Toronto One might be covering up to 25 Jays games next year, as Sportsnet is looking to lighten its baseball schedule. Hopefully the new channel will not become Faulds new home.