Spring Training officially gets underway for the Blue Jays today, with pitchers and catchers reporting to the Bobby Mattick Training Center at Englebert Complex in Dunedin, Florida. Four starting pitchers are guaranteed to make the 25-man roster, barring injury, as are five of a possible 6 or 7 relievers.

Ladies and Gentlemen, I hereby issue the first of what will hopefully be many NFH Challenges.

Mr. Robert Dudek, you are so certain that Shea Hillenbrand is a bad investment. What will Mr. Hillenbrand have to do to prove you wrong?

Congratulations to Simon, who narrowly held off Jes Golbez, Sky, and 76 other contestants to win THE 2004 CONTEST, the annual Batters Box prediction game. Simon garnered 40 points out of possible 100. Final scores ranged from 40 down to 5 with an average of 20. Simon earned victory with his clairvoyance regarding the American League; he picked all three division winners, the wild card, pennant winner, and World Series champion.

It is my understanding that Simon will celebrate his victory by adding chocolate to milk.

The consensus picks tallied only 22 points but did correctly predict Boston's first World Series championship since 1918. The consensus earned additional points for Boston's pennant, Minnesota's division win, Florida's third-place finish, Cincinnati's fourth-place finish, and Vlad Guerrero's MVP award.

On to the highlights and lowlights of this year's voting:

Coach had a great idea earlier, leading to today's ...

Question/Challenge of the Day: Create an ad campaign or a single commercial -- print, TV, online, don't matter, just tell us which -- for the 2005 Blue Jays featuring Corey Koskie. Canadian Hot Corner Star.

As a public service, we're pleased to present, free of charge, two alternate versions of tomorrow's standard Canadian newspaper article on the Jays' decision [not] to offer arbitration to Carlos Delgado. Since Delgado's return [departure] will be a major story, this will surely be of assistance to harried columnists. Editors should feel free to adapt the article of their choice to suit the precise circumstances and/or agendas of their publications (e.g., search-and-replace "Godfrey" for "Ricciardi.")

Curious about the best bullpen arms in Japan? Well I was, so I decided to try to find out who they were. I examine some good arms that could be appearing in the majors in the next few years, and I also quickly look at Denny Tomori, who was rumoured to be linked to the Jays a few weeks ago.

The final installment of the roundtable takes a look at the team going forward:

More roundtable, this time looking at some of the season's disappointments:

Part III of the roundtable takes a look at several Jays:

After the season the Batter's Box roster got together to discuss the season. Here's what was said in the first of the five part series:

Continuing the first installment of the year in review, here's the next chapter in the Batter's Box Roster roundtable:

Over the past two days we’ve presented our assessments of the men paid to throw, catch, and hit baseballs down at the SkyDome in 2004. What of those designated to collect and guide the on-field talent? We graded them too, and here’s what we thought of the job they did.

Yesterday we presented our report card for the Toronto pitching staff, v2004. Today, to use a term loosely, we turn our attention to the hitters.

2004 was a forgettable year for the Toronto Blue Jays and their fans, as the club floundered its way to 94 losses and the AL East cellar, a locale not visited by this club since 1997. With it all said and done, who were the culprits responsible for the mess? Who on the club turned in an individual performance not deserving of a Last Place label? The Batter’s Box roster has handed out grades for all of the good, the bad, and the ugly 2004 Jays, and over the next 3 days we’ll present these assessments.

Dear George,

I hope you don't mind the informality of this letter, but I really feel that I know you after watching all of those Seinfeld reruns.