12:05 PM Eastern

So Monday morning I hopped in the ol’ Vista Cruiser with the family for what was supposed to be a fun-filled afternoon hop across the border to Buffalo, the intent being to hit the brand-spanking-new P.F. Chang’s for lunch, pick up “Just Dance” for the Wii for the girlies and grab a couple of pairs of those neat new Skechers walking-on-a-fulcrum shoes at massive American-type discounts.

A great plan in theory, but not so much in execution.  As we drove up to the bumper-to-bumperness crossing the Peace Bridge on the way in to the U.S., it started to snow.  By the time we got up to the customs official a half-hour later, you couldn’t see three feet in front of your face.

We sat at Chang’s lunching it up while watching nature’s fury pound the parking lot outside.  The Mongol was spectacular, as always, though the Mandarin Chicken wasn’t nearly as good as I’d hoped.  The lesson?  Never order anything new.  Anyway, another notch in the Chang’s-across-America tour.  I’ve now hit them in Tampa, Orlando, Miami, Scottsdale, Nashville, Indianapolis, Vegas, Boston, Pittsburgh, Rochester and Buffalo.

The lake-effect snow beat the hell out of the Queen City at that rate for, oh, about six hours.  The Walden Galleria gradually got busier and busier with people pulling in to, as they said, “escape Armageddon”.

Eight to ten inches later, we realized that there was no way we were getting home, so I went down to the Apple Store, Pricelined a hotel room, and we hunkered down at the Buffalo Airport Holiday Inn for the night. Major props to Aaron K. at the Apple Store, by the way.  He walked me through the MacBook stuff, let me use the laptop even though I had absolutely no intent of buying one, and then printed out my hotel confirmation.  Thank you, sir.

The hotel was conveniently located next door to a Denny’s, so that worked for dinner AND breakfast (I don’t recommend the Pancake Puppies, unless you’re in the mood for a Tiny Tom’s/Timbit sort of combo thing, only greasier – they didn’t sit well, to say the least).  Tuesday morning, though, the sun was out, the roads were clear, and the drive home was completely uneventful, as though nothing had happened the day before.  By the time we crossed over into Queenston, it was as though there hadn’t even been a storm – probably because the wintry brimstone didn’t even reach there.

Damn lake effect.

So, why am I regaling you with the details of my trip?  So that it’s now tax-deductible?  Well, partially, but also because there’s really nothing happening in the world of baseball other than Jason Bay signing with the Mets and Mark DeRosa with the Giants.

Poor Jason Bay – he goes from what was a great situation for him in Boston to a far less great situation in Flushing and for just six million dollars (Aside – how sick is it that we can say “just six million dollars” as though it’s an insignificant amount of money, given that it’s more than most of us will make in our lives?).  Bay’s representatives seriously misread the market, and now he winds up in a place in which he doesn’t want to be, in a ballpark that doesn’t suit his game at all, and all because his agent led him to believe that he could do far better than the $60 million over four years that the Red Sox offered him both at the all-star break and again this winter.

On the Blue Jays front, don’t expect Alex Anthopoulos to stop trying to wheel and/or deal just because he’s getting married on Saturday and heading off to honeymoon in Hawaii for ten days.  He still has conversations going with free agents and with other G.M.’s on several fronts, and deals could very well be made over the next couple of weeks.

Those deals, however, will not involve Ramon Castro.  It turns out that the power-hitting back-up catcher who everyone reported that the Blue Jays had signed earlier this month is still a free agent.  The Jays never did sign him, despite getting involved in negotiations with him.  I’m not sure how or why it fell through, or if it even got close enough to reach the point where one can even accurately say that it “fell through”, but it didn’t happen.  Right now, John Buck is the Jays’ starting catcher, and Raul Chavez will be his back-up.

I have one more hosting gig before the New Year, it’ll be the New Year’s Eve Afternoon Spectacular (or some such) from 2:00 – 4:00 pm Eastern on the 31st.  My big brother, the famous film critic, will be in for the first hour to talk movies, and in the second hour we’ll have Brandon Morrow (unless his cell phone fails him – he’s on vacation) and probably some cheesy ’80s trivia as well.

Today and tomorrow are your last chances to vote for Tom Cheek.  The damn Facebook voting thing seems to reset itself every three days or so, so there’s no real way to know where Tom sits in the balloting, other than the fact that he’s definitely in first or second.  Regardless, it’s a close race with Jacques Doucet.  Yes, Tom will absolutely finish in the top three in the voting, and will be included on the final ballot for the Ford C. Frick Award for inclusion in the broadcasters’ wing of the Hall of Fame, but that wasn’t the point of this exercise.  The point was to have him finish first by such a huge margin that his candidacy wouldn’t be able to be ignored any longer.  I really do appreciate all those of you who have come out and voted, and I’m asking all of you again to really come out and blitz the voting over these last two days.  There is none more deserving of your time and effort.  Please go to www.facebook.com/baseballhall to cast your vote for Tom.

Rational, reasonable comments are always welcome.

11:20 AM Eastern

FIRST THINGS FIRST  – CAST YOUR VOTE FOR TOM CHEEK!!!!!  The voice of the Blue Jays, of baseball and of summer in Canada is on the ballot to get onto the final ballot for the Ford C. Frick Award for Broadcasting Excellence, an honour that would get him into the broadcasters’ wing of the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, NY.  It’s up to us to make sure he gets his due.  Go to www.facebook.com/baseballhall, go to the “poll” section and please vote for Tom.  Do it every day – time is ticking away.  There are only eight more days of voting remaining and as I write this, Tom is in first place by a slim margin over Jacques Doucet.  Thank you.

Now then…….yesterday the Blue Jays made it official, with Alex Anthopoulos making another move to add high-ceiling, controllable talent – dealing Brandon League and Johermyn Chavez to the Mariners for Brandon Morrow.

I  mentioned in the earlier post what I think of Morrow, and I think he’s a fantastic gamble to take.  Huge power arm with a big curveball, as Alex said very reminiscent of A.J. Burnett.  He’s battled some serious control issues (he needs to basically cut his walks per nine innings almost in half to be an ace), but control often comes late for big-time power pitchers.  Burnett, for example, walked 4.5 hitters per nine innings through his age 26 season and has walked 3.4 per nine innings in the six seasons since.  This after walking 5.4 per nine innings in the minors on the way up.

For his part, Morrow has walked 5.8 batters per nine innings in the major leagues, but over a three-year career that includes a couple of seasons in which he should have been in the minors.  The fifth overall pick in the 2006 draft (five spots ahead of Tim Lincecum, which haunted him in Seattle), Morrow threw all of 16 minor-league innings before making it to the big leagues.  He was jerked around by the Mariners – going from the ‘pen to the rotation and back and forth, from the majors to the minors and back – and never really being given a chance to develop.  The Blue Jays should give him that chance.

It’s noteworthy to look at Morrow’s ten-start stint in AAA late last summer.  In the hitter-friendly PCL, he posted an ERA of  3.60 and walked only 3.8 hitters per nine innings.  The Jays may well start him back in the PCL next spring – he has options left – but they fully expect him to be part of the rotation.  Right now (even though he won’t break camp in that spot), he’s probably their number two starter behind Shaun Marcum.

This guy is a potential gem, front-of-the-rotation type stuff, and the kind of pitcher that you go out and get when you have the opportunity.  He could well be the guy who leads the staff when the Blue Jays return to contention, with Kyle Drabek, Brett Cecil and Marcum behind him to form a pretty fearsome foursome.

One would have hoped that Brandon League might have been the guy to finish off those games behind that potentially-great rotation, what with the killer 98 mile-an-hour sinker and whatnot, but he had to go to make this deal happen.

I’ve got a lot of time for League, both on the field and off.  On it, he never developed into what the Blue Jays imagined he’d be, but he got jerked around a bit, too, moving from the bullpen to the rotation and back, and up and down from the minors.  He was never given a specific role in the big-league ‘pen, but then he never went out and earned one, either.

League’s numbers were staggeringly different this season when he came in from the bullpen (excellent) as opposed to when he took the mound from the dugout (horrifying).  If the Mariners – with that ballpark and a fantastic infield (left-side anyway) defense behind him – just give him the ball for the 8th or the 9th and let him go, he’ll have a fantastic year for Seattle.

That’s what the M’s were looking for – help for 2010, a year in which they see a real opportunity to take the A.L. West.  League does more for them in 2010 than Morrow does, and the Jays hope Morrow does much more for them in 2011-2014 than League would have.

You always deal the great reliever for the great starter, even if the “great” in both cases has yet to be realized, and may not be.

In adding Johermyn Chavez, the Jays deal what appears to be a solid minor-league talent.  Sure, he strikes out too much, but he hit for good power in his second trip through the Midwest League, will take a walk, and is a good outfielder.  He’s only 20, and four years hence could be a nice big-leaguer.  But I love the fact that Alex is viewing his minor-leaguers as assets to pick up other assets.  That’s what they’re there for.

A lot of people are making a very big deal about the fact that Chavez was available in the Rule 5 draft and not taken, as if that shows that he wasn’t thought of as a prospect two weeks ago, but is now.  It’s not true.  Had Chavez been selected in the Rule 5, he would have had to spend the entire season in the major leagues.  Acquired in trade, the Mariners have a year before they have to put him on the 40-man roster and FOUR years before he runs out of options and they have to keep him in the majors.  Big, big, big difference.

What’s interesting is the parallel between Chavez and Blue Jays’ draft “busts” Kevin Ahrens and Justin Jackson.  They all played at Lansing in 2008 as 19 year-olds, and here are the numbers:

Chavez – .211/.272/.323  Ahrens – .259/.329/.367  Jackson – .238/.340/.368

In 2009, Ahrens and Jackson moved up a level, to high-A Dunedin.  They both struggled terribly, with Ahrens hitting .215/.282/.302 and Jackson hitting .213/.321/.269.

Chavez stayed in Lansing to repeat the lower level and had his break-out .283/.346/.474 season with 21 homers.  If he had moved up a level like the other two had, would so many people still be thinking of him as a big-time prospect?  And had Ahrens and Jackson repeated low-A, would so many be thinking of them as busts?  Probably not.

Morrow may not become the pitcher his ability indicates he can.  He may not overcome the injury and control problems he’s already had.  But he’s very, very easily worth the gamble.

I’m hopping back into the hosting chair a few times over the next week (it’s Christmas!  Bring in the Jews!).  This afternoon, I’ll be hosting from 2:00 pm Eastern to 4:00 pm, and Tony LaCava will be one of the guests.  I’m trying to get Morrow to fill one of the other spots, but I haven’t heard back from him yet.  The first hour will be open phones.  I’ve got three hours on Boxing Day, from noon Eastern to 3:00, and Brian Butterfield is confirmed as one of our guests.  He might be the only guest – I might try to do something a little different that day.  I also have two hours on New Year’s Eve from 2:00 pm Eastern to 4:00.  Make sure you tune in, make sure you phone in, and make sure you vote for Tom!

Rational, reasonable comments are always welcome!

1:40 AM Eastern

First of all, go vote for Tom Cheek already.  He’s slipping  behind in the vote totals.  Make your voice heard at www.facebook.com/baseballhall – only 10 days left!

Second of all, the Blue Jays have completed their second trade in a week, sending Brandon League to the Seattle Mariners.  Reports are that the Jays are adding a prospect and receiving Brandon Morrow back from Seattle.  I can’t confirm the return, though I’m pretty sure it’s Morrow, but I can confirm that League will soon be on his way to Seattle to take a physical.

How can I confirm this?  A source close to the trade told me.  I love all the intrigue and mystery, but this time I’m going to come right out and tell you – Brandon League told me.

What do I think about the deal?  Well, you’ve got two incredible right arms moving, each of which has been attached to a guy who has been a long-term source of frustration for his team.  The prospect will likely be a decent one, because Morrow is still controllable for a while – not even arbitration-eligible – while League is already into his arb years.  It wasn’t long ago, probably this time last year, that Morrow was being talked about as a potential front-of-the-rotation guy.  He has had elbow and shoulder problems, though.

It all depends on who the prospect coming from the Jays’ end is, but it seems like a pretty reasonable “change of scenery” type of trade that could pay off really well for one or both of the teams involved.

There are about 150 comments or so in the hopper that I have to get to about the Roy Halladay trade, I will do so tomorrow.  If you want to add to the queue reasonably and rationally, you’re more than welcome!

1:20 AM Eastern

Paul Beeston referred to it as a closing of the books on one era and the opening of another.  Roy Halladay is a Philadelphia Phillie and the Blue Jays get two top-flight stud prospects plus another first-rounder who’s a long way off in Travis D’Arnaud.

I put together a retrospective on Halladay’s Blue Jay career for the Fan590, with some radio highlights of his career (including a few calls by the late, great Tom Cheek), and you can listen to it here:

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There’s no doubt he was one of the greatest ever to wear the Jays’ uniform – perhaps the greatest – and could very well be the first homegrown Blue Jay to make it to the Hall of Fame.  There’s no overstating Halladay’s ability and what he meant to the team, the city and the fans, but there was also no question that he had to go.

So what do I think of the return?  Well, take a look at the last three major trades involving a big-time stud starting pitcher.  For Cliff Lee,  the Indians got four solid prospects, led by Jason Knapp – a big-armed second-rounder who was pitching well in A-ball at 19.  The other three had all been top prospects the years before, but had slipped back.  All of Carlos Carrasco, Jason Donald and Lou Marson were close to being major-league ready (and Carrasco and Marson played in the bigs this past season, with limited to no success), but their stars were all fading when they were dealt.  It doesn’t mean they won’t amount to anything, but it does mean the shine was off all of them.

For CC Sabathia, the Indians got themselves one legitimate big-time stud bat in prospect Matt LaPorta.  He was the most sought-after minor-league hitter out there and will start for the Tribe this season.  While he’s not eligible for rookie-of-the-year in 2010, he could really hit the ground running.  They also got another former first-rounder in Zach Jackson, 25 at the time, but it’s been a long time since he’s been thought of as a guy who was going to have a real impact in the majors.  The other players to come to Cleveland were Michael Brantley, a good (but powerless) bat and a real speedster – he has a chance to be the Tribe’s leadoff guy for a while, and 31st-rounder Rob Bryson, who got hurt and pitched rookie ball last year at 21.  LaPorta and Brantley are very nice pieces.

The Twins got killed in dealing Johan Santana to the Mets, getting  back Phillip Humber as the big prize.  The former third overall pick just signed with Kansas City as a minor-league free agent.  Also coming over were injured second-rounder Kevin Mulvey, Endy Chavez-clone Carlos Gomez (perhaps with less bat) and Deolis Guerra,  who looked like a nice piece, and still might be, and who was having moderate success in high-A ball at 18.  Guerra reached AA this year at 20, with good peripherals for New Britain, and had better wind up being the big prize in that deal.

So what do we have?  For Lee, one very promising arm, a decent catcher and two guys whose star had fallen hugely, but who had upside.  No first-rounders.  For Sabathia, one super-stud, one nice piece and two fillers.  One first-rounder and another who had already lost his status as a prospect.  For Santana, one hopefully nice piece, one decent glove and two gamble arms.  One first-rounder.

For Halladay?  Two super-studs in Kyle Drabek and Brett Wallace and a young catching gamble with great upside in Travis D’Arnaud.  First-rounders all, and the oldest one just 23.  Wallace was the most sought-after minor-league bat out there, just as LaPorta was a couple of years ago, with Oakland having demanded him as the key piece in the Matt Holliday trade in July.  Drabek was a highly-sought-after arm, so much so that the Phillies deemed him untouchable in their negotiations with J.P. Ricciardi for Halladay in July.  D’Arnaud, who is only 20, is seen as a good catch-and-throw guy who Alex Anthopoulos described as having “easy power” and who is a year removed from hitting .305/.367/.464 at two levels of A-ball as a 19 year-old.

Did the Jays outdo the Indians (twice) and the Twins?  It certainly seems that way, and they did it while dealing a player who is older and who had a gun to their heads in the form of a no-trade clause that he was willing to use.

Does the fact that it appears as though (given all the information we have TODAY – not in 2014) the Blue Jays did very well for themselves make a lot of their fans happy right now?  I doubt it.

The truth of the matter is that arguably the best pitcher in the game is gone, off to the National League where he’ll go something like 28-1, 1.95 in leading the Phils to their third straight NL East title and perhaps their third straight World Series appearance, and Jays fans have nothing they know about to show for it.

Will Drabek be the Opening Day starter in 2010?  Of course not.  He’s likely to start the season in AA New Hampshire.  Will Wallace be the clean-up hitter and first baseman on Opening Day?  Not a chance.  I mean, he could make the team out of Spring Training, but that’s a longshot, and if he does chances are he’ll be batting ninth and won’t be playing against lefties.  How many callers will ask me about D’Arnaud next season, wondering why he isn’t in the bigs yet?  The over/under is 7,000.

This is a trade that is going to require patience, but it’s a trade the likes of which is rarely seen.  A great player goes, and a pair of fantastic prospects come back, with another high-ceiling body who isn’t there just to fill things out and make it look good.  It could be akin to the Bartolo Colon deal, on which Tony LaCava worked and in which Cleveland got back Grady Sizemore, Brandon Phillips and Cliff Lee – all of whom turned out to be stars.  It could be like the Erik Bedard trade, in which the Orioles got young studs Adam Jones and Chris Tillman as well as closer George Sherrill, who they wound up flipping for a couple more prospects.

When will we know?  Three or four years, maybe, but given the fact that Roy Halladay was holding all the cards, this was a great deal for the Blue Jays, and a great start to Alex Anthopoulos’ career as a G.M.  Beeston said it opens the books on another era, and it’s one in which the Blue Jays will be built around pitchers like Drabek, Brett Cecil, Shaun Marcum, Ricky Romero, Zach Stewart, Marc Rzepczynski, Henderson Alvarez, Josh Roenicke, Daniel Farquhar and maybe even Tim Collins, and hitters like Adam Lind, Aaron Hill, Travis Snider and Brett Wallace.  Some of these, and some others, will be your favourite Blue Jays in the next three years or so and the Jays are hoping there are enough stars in there to form the core of their next great set of teams, echoing the 1985-1993 clubs.  Think of 2010 as 1982, I guess.

One more thing, and it’s about Roy Halladay.  It’s fantastic when athletes who have been built up by the media actually live up to it.  Halladay will be either 36 or 37 when his new contract with the Phillies expires, depending on the vesting option.  When the contract does expire, it will be the first time in Halladay’s career that he will have been a free agent, assuming he doesn’t sign yet another extension.  Is there another all-star level player in the game who has forgone free agency three times in order to sign early contract extensions?  He has yet to even throw a pitch in a season after which he’ll be a free agent.  It truly is an amazing thing.  It’s not about the money for him, though he’s obscenely wealthy.  It’s about loyalty and commitment and now, it’s about the ultimate prize.  Halladay wasn’t always the most accessible guy in the clubhouse, but he was always polite when he didn’t have time to be interviewed, and when he did give you time, he didn’t do it Scott Rolen-style, with one eye on the clock and always giving you the impression he’d rather be doing something else.

I’ll miss having him around, but not as much as I’ll miss getting to see him pitch every five days, and I wish him nothing but the best of luck as a Phillie.  Hopefully, if he ever actually does become a free agent, he’ll come back home to play out his last few years back here where it all started – in a rotation headed up by Kyle Drabek, throwing to Travis D’Arnaud, with Brett Wallace at first and batting clean-up.

Rational, reasonable comments are always welcome!

6:15 PM Eastern

FIRST THINGS FIRST  – CAST YOUR VOTE FOR TOM CHEEK!!!!!  The voice of the Blue Jays, of baseball and of summer in Canada is on the ballot to get onto the final ballot for the Ford C. Frick Award for Broadcasting Excellence, an honour that would get him into the broadcasters’ wing of the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, NY.  It’s up to us to make sure he gets his due.  Go to www.facebook.com/baseballhall, go to the “poll” section and please vote for Tom.  Do it every day.  Thank you.

Now then………………It’s been a pretty busy afternoon so far, huh?  I was on The Game Plan, talking to Alex Seixeiro, when the news came out that Roy Halladay had actually been spotted in a hotel in Philadelphia, and since then it’s been one report after another, with a lot of reporters doing a lot of digging.

Here’s where we are:  It appears as though the Blue Jays, Phillies and Mariners have agreed on a three-way trade that would send Halladay to the Phils  (4 1/2 months too late if you’re a Phillies fan), and a package that includes Mariners’ prospect Phillipe Aumont and Philly prospects Travis D’Arnaud and one of Michael Taylor or Dominic Brown to the Blue Jays.  Many believe that Cliff Lee is the main piece going to Seattle.  Lee’s agent has said that Cliffy wants a contract extension of his own, but Lee doesn’t have what people refer to as “leverage”, since he doesn’t have a no-trade clause.

Who are some of the others who might be included in this deal?  Well, we know the Mariners have had interest in Lyle Overbay in the past, and could use a first baseman.  They also don’t have any lefties in the bullpen, so Scott Downs is a solid option for them.  Seattle has two big-armed young righties in Brandon Morrow (whose future could be in the bullpen or the starting rotation) and Mark Lowe (the M’s “closer of the future” until this year’s eemergence of David Aardsma).  They’ve also got Carlos Triunfel, a shortstop who turns 20 in February and who was their top prospect going into the 2009 season – a year in which he got fat, broke his leg, tore up his ankle and treated the Mariners to an array of attitudinal issues.

We have heard about the Phillies’ prospects since July – Taylor, Brown, lefty J.A. Happ,  righty Kyle Drabek.  The Jays had also been interested in young shortstop Jason Donald and catcher Lou Marson, but they both moved to the Indians in the deadline deal for Cliff Lee.

Lee is the mystery piece here – no one seems to be sure that he’s actually in the deal.  The Phillies do need to clear money in order to fit Halladay in, and they need to give up something significant in order to pick up Aumont and whatever other prospects are necessary to get the deal done, but does it have to be Lee?  One wonders why the Phils didn’t simply non-tender Joe Blanton in order to free up a bunch of money.  And isn’t the point to have both Halladay and Lee for the playoff push?  After all, if they’d had Halladay instead of Lee this fall, they still wouldn’t have won the World Series.

That said, Lee does seem to be the guy about whom everyone is talking.

There are still so many details to work out, even if the player package has been agreed upon by all sides.  Halladay has to hammer out an extension with the Phillies and everyone has to pass their physicals (which may be an issue if Triunfel is involved).  There’s almost no way we get an official word on this until Wednesday at the absolute earliest.  But it appears as though the pieces ARE in place, the blockbuster is set to bust, and the Alex Anthopoulos era has truly begun.

Of course, it could all still fall apart.  Alex hates leaks, and for good reason.

I can’t say what I think about the deal until the entire package is revealed, of course, and really we won’t know how the Jays did until at least three or four years down the road.  After all, Aumont’s arm could fall off, so many things could happen.  But I am excited to see that there are some top-level prospects being included.  Still, prospects are just that.  Aumont and Taylor may be future stars, as may Morrow and Triunfel, but they may not be.  The Phillies, without question, get the best player in this deal and (if it’s Lee), the Mariners get the second-best.  The Jays could wind up with a huge payoff down the road, though, and that road might not be too long – Taylor finished last season in AAA, and some say he could be a big-league lead-off man as soon as this season, and Aumont spent time in AA last season at the tender age of 20.  Remember, too, that Aumont pitched in that great Canada-USA game at the World Baseball Classic in March, working out of a bases-loaded, none-out jam by getting David Wright on a little looping liner to short, then striking out Kevin Youkilis and Curtis Granderson.

It’s going to be a fun couple of days as we wait for this thing to become official, but we now have our first semi-concrete look into the future of the Blue Jays – how bright is it?  We shall soon see.

I’ll get into a discussion of Halladay’s Blue Jays legacy once the trade is officially made, but suffice it to say that this guy gave the best years of his career to a team that couldn’t surround him with enough of the right pieces to knock off the Beasts of the East.  This is no whiny superstar begging out of a bad situation; this is a guy who gave up free agency TWICE to stay with the team that drafted him, and wasn’t going to do it a third time.  Hopefully we get a farewell tour from the good doctor in 2016 or so, after the new contract with the Phillies expires.

I was going to put up a post today with my opinions on the Jays’ moves of the weekend, and chances are you’ll get more depth from me in the comments section (which I’ll get around to soon, I promise – it’s going to be a busy night with both the Halladay stuff and me finishing off the Fat Elvis Finals that are currently tied a game apiece) – but briefly:

-I couldn’t believe the Jays didn’t non-tender Jose Bautista, but was even more amazed to see that they brought him back at the same price; a worthwhile gamble and one obviously agreed to ahead of time.

-Likewise Raul Chavez, a surprise non-tender, but then coming back on a minor-league deal to put himself in the same position in which he was last spring (which worked out awfully well for him).

-Joey Gathright on a minor-league deal when there were other suitors is an awfully nice get, so long as they use him properly:  Fourth or fifth outfielder and fantastic speed off the bench.  My great fear is that Cito Gaston becomes so enamoured of Gathright’s wheels that he makes him the team’s lead-off man despite that sterling .327 career OBP.

-John Buck is a nice stopgap catcher; cheaper than and almost as good as a guy like Miguel Olivo.  There really wasn’t much out there.

More to come, very obviously – and there’s a good chance I’ll be on the Fan590 from 9-10 AM Tuesday to take your phone calls with Mike Hogan.  Rational, reasonable comments are always welcome!

1:50 PM Eastern

FIRST THINGS FIRST  – CAST YOUR VOTE FOR TOM CHEEK!!!!!  The voice of the Blue Jays, of baseball and of summer in Canada is on the ballot to get onto the final ballot for the Ford C. Frick Award for Broadcasting Excellence, an honour that would get him into the broadcasters’ wing of the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, NY.  It’s up to us to make sure he gets his due.  Go to www.facebook.com/baseballhall, go to the “poll” section and please vote for Tom.  Do it every day.  Thank you.

Now then……….the Blue Jays wrapped up their wheelings and dealings – or distinct lack thereof – at the Winter Meetings without the big boss.  The Rule 5 draft took place this morning in the absence of General Manager Alex Anthopoulos, who took an early flight and got the heck out of Dodge.  Chances are, Alex didn’t want to face the hordes of media that would have descended upon him at the end of the draft, when there’s really no way to cut out and just do a private chat with the local scriveners and electronic types.

So the Rule 5 was left in the hands of Alex’s two trusted lieutenants, Tony LaCava and Dana Brown, along with Charlie Wilson, the new director of minor-league operations.  The three of them put their heads together and delved deep into Brown’s intimate knowledge of the Washington Nationals’ system, him having just come over from being their scouting director, and selected a pair of right-handed relievers:  Zech Zinicola in the major-league phase and Ruben de la Rosa in the minor-league phase.

Zinicola has to remain on the Blue Jays’ active roster (or major-league disabled list) all season or be offered back to the Nats for half the draft price of $50,000 that the Jays paid for him.  Zinicola will  be 24 on Opening Day and was a 6th-round pick of the Nationals back in 2006 out of Arizona State.  He has been clocked from 90-96 miles an hour and features a plus slider, which makes him an attractive commodity.  What he doesn’t feature is a whole lot of control – he has walked 103 over 210 innings as a pro, an average of 4.4 per nine innings.  He’s no Nuke LaLoosh, the guy who has no clue where the ball is going when it leaves his hand, but he’s still someone who has to do a better job throwing strikes.  He’ll get his chance under the watchful eyes of Bruce Walton and Rick Langford.  If Zinicola needs a year of coaching and teaching and experience at the major-league level in order to really turn into something, the Jays can definitely afford to have him sit around as the 7th man in the bullpen all year.

Last year, Zinicola started the season at Double-A Harrisburg – his fourth stop at that level – and was very good, save for the nine walks in 20 innings.  He was bumped up to AAA for the second time, and for the second time, really struggled.  Not with the walks, though – he only issued 10 free passes in 33 1/3 innings.  He just got beat up, allowing 47 hits and winding up with a 7.56 ERA.  A lot of that was bad luck, believe it or not, as the BABIP against him was a whopping .442 – the norm is supposed to be around .300.  Again, while his ERA was 7.56, his FIP (Fielding Independent Pitching) was just 2.99, which augurs well.  It appears – but only appears, certainly I’ve never seen the guy pitch – that Zinicola wasn’t nearly as bad last year as his numbers would indicate.

De la Rosa is a lot farther away, having been selected in the minor-league phase after pitching about 30 innings in the Gulf Coast rookie league last season.  I say about 30 because three different minor-league sites have three different statistical totals for him.  Regardless of where you look, though, he was dominant.  The native of Bani in the Dominican Republic (birthplace of Erick Aybar – could it be??) will be 23 on Opening Day, so he’s old for his level, but in the GCL last season he put up a 0.96 ERA and1.14 WHIP, striking out 44 in just 28 innings (or a 0.87 ERA and 1.06 WHIP, striking out 47 in 31 innings, depending on who you believe).  Opponents had a .318 BABIP against him, which is far more normal than Zinicola’s, and de la Rosa posted a FIP of 1.83.  Again, it’s a sample size of very few innings and it’s a low-level league for someone his age.

De la Rosa hits 93 on the gun with a plus curveball and good make-up, and even though he was picked in the AAA phase of the draft, he’s not required to stay on the Vegas roster or be offered back to Washington.  The Jays can put him at any level they want.  That’s good, because it’s a hell of a jump to go from the Gulf Coast League to the Pacific Coast League.

In other Blue Jays news, there was a buzz around the Marriott this morning because of a report that the Jays had signed Joey Gathright.  The speedy free-agent outfielder would be a solid fit for the Jays as a fourth outfielder – he’d be a tremendous pinch-runner, solid defensive replacement and a not-unreasonable lefty bat off the bench.  I can’t remember the last time the Jays had that kind of speed on the bench – Tom Lawless, maybe?

But, the report’s not true.  LaCava did say that the Jays would love to have Gathright, but nothing is done and there are still a few teams to which he’s talking.  Gathright hasn’t been much of a hitter in his big-league career, with no platoon advantages (.626 career OPS vs. lefties, .631 vs. righties) and no power at all to speak of.  He’s played 445 games in the big leagues and on September 16, 2006, hit a two-run homer off of Joel Pineiro in Kansas City.  That would be his one.

Again, he’d be a good 4th outfielder and pair of legs off the bench, and I expect that the Jays will likely be able to reel him in.

On the Roy Halladay front, there’s been no news today – especially with the G.M. gone.  As I said yesterday, it feels to me as though the Angels are now the frontrunners, though their rumoured offer of Joe Saunders, Erick Aybar and Peter Bourjos falls a slugging Italian catcher short, if you ask me.  There’s a story floating around that the Phillies might be willing to include Cole Hamels in their offer for Halladay.  The 2008 World Series MVP is under contract through the 2011 season and under control for another year after that – he’d definitely make Anthopoulos sit up and take notice.

It seems as though the Red Sox are going to deal Mike Lowell and cash to Texas for young catcher Max Ramirez (who they got from Cleveland a couple of years ago in a Kenny Lofton trade).  The deal would open up room for them to sign Adrian Beltre to take over at third and give us in Toronto more opportunities to watch the man most call the best defensive third baseman in the game work his magic.  The Rays are going to get Rafael Soriano from the Braves and the Astros have just signed Pedro Feliz – maybe moving to THAT hitter-friendly ballpark will help.

For what seemed like a very quiet Winter Meetings, we wound up with seven trades involving players like Curtis Granderson, Kevin Millwood and The Boofinator (second best Boof ever), and 21 free agents signings – the biggest being Randy Wolf’s three-year deal worth almost $30 million.

I leave Indianapolis tonight thinking that before Chanukah is over (teh first light gets lit tomorrow night!), we’ll see the Blue Jays make multiple changes – but it’s just a feeling.  The next big day should be Saturday’s deadline to tender contracts to arbitration-eligible players.  Jose Bautista has reason to be wary – but of course, he did last year, too.

I’ll probably get in and answer the comments later this afternoon – keep ‘em coming, rationally and reasonably!

9:35 PM Eastern

Sorry, I just spent the last three hours cutting up Cito Gaston and Alex Anthopoulos tape – I have nothing left for a pithy title for this post.

The last full day of the Winter Meetings was a little busier than the days previous, with the Yankees, Tigers and Diamondbacks officially announcing the three-way deal that we discussed on Monday.  The Orioles were busy, too, picking up Kevin Millwood to lead their staff and show the kid pitchers the ropes – Texas got Chris Ray back.  The Rangers are also closing in on Rich Harden for way more money than I thought he’d cost ($7.5 million for one year).  There’s Bengie Molina (Mets) and Yorvit Torrealba (Rockies) talk, and the Milton Bradley deal that was imminent 24 hours ago hasn’t happened yet, and may not get done before the end of the Meetings.

We had a lovely lunch with Cito Gaston this afternoon, and then a more formal sitdown with him later on just prior to the daily chat with Alex Anthopoulos.  I’ll take you through the talk with Cito first.

The Jays’ skipper-for-one-more-year said that most of his plans for 2010 will be based on the return the Jays get in trading Roy Halladay.  He has no clue who will be in his rotation, save for Ricky Romero, though he said he hopes Marc Rzepczynski will be a starter – mentioning that he had a terrific year as a rookie if you disregard his 2-4 record (and he’s right!  3.67 ERA, 1.32 WHIP, 60 K in 61 1/3 innings, opponents hit .225/.317/.366).  He neglected to mention Shawn Marcum until much later in the conversation, eventually saying he’s another one of those guys that might or might not be healthy.  It seems as though Romero, Rzepczynski, Marcum, Cecil and whoever comes back for Halladay will make up the Jays’ rotation – so if the Angels rumours are true and it’s Joe Saunders, the Jays could have four lefty starters.

In the absence of Marco Scutaro, Jose Bautista is the prohibitive favourite to be the lead-off man – assuming he’s tendered a contract y Saturday, which is not a safe assumption, followed by someone that the Jays get in the Halladay trade (Erick Aybar?), Aaron Hill, Adam Lind and some combination of Vernon Wells and Lyle Overbay.  Edwin Encarnacion, Travis Snider and whoever catches would make up the bottom third, if it’s a shortstop batting second.  Gaston said he wants to try Hill and Lind hitting 3-4, but believes that Lind has a mental block about hitting clean-up and so he might have to move him back to the three-hole.  He thought that if that happened, Hill could hit clean-up, but that might put too much pressure on him, so it might be Vernon, with Hill going back to the two spot.

Some other nuggets:

-Cito thinks the Jays need to improve the farm system and expand their international scouting in the Dominican, Venezuela and Puerto Rico.

-He doesn’t believe that as much as half the clubhouse had turned on him late last season, but if they’re still upset with him, they’ll only have to deal with him for one more year.

-Bringing Nick Levya in from third to be the bench coach is the best option for the coaching staff, since a bench coach needs to have a real connection with the manager, and be a good friend – that’s why Cito didn’t accept any of the bench coach jobs he was offered prior to his managerial comeback.

-Ricky Romero should be good to throw about 200 innings this season, with Cecil and Zep being able to go to about 175, assuming they all stay healthy.

-Cito remains a huge fan of Halladay’s, understands why he wants to be traded and wishes him the best.

-His wish list in a deal for Halladay includes an innings-eating starter and an outfielder or a catcher.

As I have with Alex’s audio the last couple of days, I present here all the Cito clips I sent back to the station:

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After talking to Cito, the assemblage headed upstairs to Jay Stenhouse’s room to get our daily briefing from Alex Anthopoulos.  Alex was more forthcoming today than he has been at any other point here in Indy, probably because Cito spent so much time saying “it depends on what we get back for Doc”.

Alex even came close to addressing some of the rumours that have been flying around for months, saying “it’s been clear we’ve been targeting players on certain teams” and “it’s easy to say what players fit for what we’re trying to do”.  He continues to try to get a third, and even a fourth, team involved in a Halladay trade in order to make as many pieces fit together as possible and maximize the Jays’ return.  He said that he’s trying to get as high a volume as possible of guys who have a chance to wind up being premium players.  It doesn’t necessarily mean that he’s only looking at players who have 0-3 years of service time and are therefore not yet eligible for arbitration.

Anthopoulos understands both that trading Halladay isn’t what a lot of fans want, and that the eventual return might not be something that makes a lot of fans happy.  But he said that he doesn’t “expect everybody to agree with the things that we do, that just goes without saying, but I think everyone’s going to understand that the reasons that we do things are going to be well thought-out, there’ll be a process in place, and obviously everything that we are doing is what we feel is best for this organization.”

Alex also touched on tomorrow morning’s Rule 5 draft and Saturday’s non-tender deadline.  He has been talking to  representatives of free agents whom he considers solid replacements for players he might non-tender to see if there’s the possibility of letting a guy (Jose Bautista?  Brian Tallet?) go and signing a similar player at a far cheaper price.  He said he should know by Friday to whom he’ll be tendering contracts, though some of those decisions could depend on potential trades that are being discussed.

As far as the Rule 5 draft, the mechanism by which the Blue Jays were able to acquire players such as George Bell, Kelly Gruber and Manny Lee, among others, Alex said that there are some players available that intrigue him, but he has yet to decide whether they’re worth the cost of the 40-man roster spot and whether they’d be able to keep such a player on the major-league roster all season.  In my thinking, if there was a year to take a gamble on a Rule 5 guy, this is it.  So was last year, but they didn’t draft anyone then.

There are only 38 players currently on the Jays’ 40-man roster, which means that the Jays shouldn’t lose any players they actually like.  If they leave two spots open and lose an important player then, says Alex, “shame on us.”  I asked him specifically about Adam Loewen, a guy whose bat steadily improved as the year went along (except for his Arizona Fall League session) and someone who is Rule 5 eligible in whom I thought some teams might have interest.  It turns out that when the Jays signed Loewen to his two-year minor-league deal last winter, they insured themselves against somebody snapping him up in the Rule 5 by including a clause in his contract that increases his salary to $3 million if he makes the major-league roster this year.  So nobody is going to take Loewen.

Alex also talked about the money that the baseball operations department has to spend.  While not giving any specific numbers, he said that there’s a pool of money from which the entire department has to draw, which includes scouting, draft bonuses, payroll, everything.  So the idea that they have a specific budget to spend on their draft picks is incorrect.

Here are all the clips of Alex’s briefing that I sent back to the station, in one tidy package:

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OK, that’s about enough for today.  I don’t think that the Jays make a move prior to leaving Indianapolis tomorrow  (Alex and his crew are on an early afternoon flight – Toronto weather permitting), unless it’s to grab someone in the Rule 5 draft. The Halladay-to-the-Angels rumours are likely to heat up over the next day or two, and you have to wonder if the Jays would be well-served to move on a package that includes Erick Aybar, Saunders or Jered Weaver, and minor-league speedy outfielder Peter Bourjos.  I would like to think that they’d want to get slugging catcher Mike Napoli back in any deal with the Halos.  That package of four gets it done for me – then they’d have to figure out what to do with Alex Gonzalez.

Thanks to all those of you who participated in the live chat this afternoon!  Now go vote for Tom at www.facebook.com/baseballhall.

Rational, reasonable comments are always welcome!

3:30 PM Eastern

Here it is:

http://www.fan590.com/feature/special/ 

8:15 PM Eastern

FIRST THINGS FIRST  – CAST YOUR VOTE FOR TOM CHEEK!!!!!  The voice of the Blue Jays, of baseball and of summer in Canada is on the ballot to get onto the final ballot for the Ford C. Frick Award for Broadcasting Excellence, an honour that would get him into the broadcasters’ wing of the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, NY.  It’s up to us to make sure he gets his due.  Go to www.facebook.com/baseballhall, go to the “poll” section and please vote for Tom.  Do it every day.  Thank you.

Now then…….it was another quiet day at the Meetings, and having just downed a $2.00 Nestle Crunch bar for some much-needed evening energy after not having eaten since lunching on a lobby Starbucks coffee cake early this aft, I can tell you all about it.

We had one big deal get done – though it still hasn’t been officially announced.  Curtis Granderson is a New York Yankee, see the previous post for my thoughts on that.  That brings the total of trades so far here to two, the other being Brian Bruney’s move from the Yanks to Washington for a player to be named that the Yanks will choose (first overall) in Thursday’s Rule 5 draft.

No major signings yet, though Chone Figgins’ deal was officially announced today, and the hottest rumour is one that’s still circulating as I write this – the Cubs are very close to a deal with a mystery team in the A.L. that will see them divest themselves of one Milton Obelle Bradley.  Who is the mystery team?  Well, it’s not the Blue Jays.  Despite Cito Gaston mentioning that Bradley is a guy he’d want (and frankly, I think that Cito is a guy who could very likely keep Bradley focused and in check), the front office has no interest in adding that headache.  My guess is it’s the White Sox, and we may find out as the night progresses.

Evidently the Rangers have offered Neftali Feliz and Justin Smoak to the Marlins for Josh Johnson, as well.  I’m not sure about that one, because I don’t know why the Marlins wouldn’t have screamed “Yes!” before the Rangers even finished the sentence.

Other stuff we know – the Blue Jays were in on Curtis Granderson, but didn’t offer the right pieces for the Tigers.  I’m not sure if the Jays were looking at Granderson in order to flip him for younger, cheaper assets or to have him as a piece for the ’11, ’12 and 13 squads.  The Yankees are still in on Roy Halladay, despite the fact that they no longer have Austin Jackson.  It almost definitely means, though, that they’d have to include 20 year-old catching-prospect-who-likely-plays-first-or-third-in-the-bigs Jesus Montero and one of Joba Chamberlain or Phil Hughes.

The highlight of the day, of course, was Alex Anthopoulos’ meeting with the Toronto assemblage.  Over the course of 45 minutes with the Jays’ G.M., we learned many things.  Included among them:

-There’s nothing imminent on the trade front, though good dialogue is continuing with several teams.

-Except that there is a non-Halladay trade in the works that may come to fruition if a player gets through the Rule 5 draft.

-Roy Halladay is a unique asset, no team has anything like him, nor is there his like on the free agent market, so the Jays hold all the cards in making a deal involving him.  No other trade that’s made or free agent who is signed should affect the Jays’ return in a Halladay deal, according to the G.M. (while not discussing specifics).  They’re in no rush, but will move when they get a satisfactory offer as opposed to holding out for something even better.

-Offers have been made to several free agents, but they’ve been early-stage offers and have been declined, so right now there’s nothing on the table.

-Teams are interested in several Blue Jays, not just Halladay.  Alex said that they’ve received multiple inquiries on “five or six” different players.

All 18 of the audio clips that I sent in to The Fan are reproduced here, for your listening pleasure, as they were yesterday:

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I hit the Trade Show this afternoon during one of today’s many down times when wandering through the lobby just couldn’t ease the hurry-up-and-waitness of this day.  It’s usually a fun place to go, with all sorts of different exhibitors hawking their wares to minor-league teams, but this year’s edition seemed somewhat lacking.  The coolest thing in there among the souvenir bat-decorators, mascot costume-makers and cleaners, seat sellers and turf builders was the world’s biggest jersey – an inflatable monstrosity that can also act as a batting cage if you want.  Sadly, I can’t even remember the name of the company that makes it,  but I’ll try to go back down tomorrow and get you a picture.  Also, there were free dipping dots.  There are always free dipping dots.  I seem to remember that 20 years ago, I got dipping dots at the CNE and they were touted as the “ice cream of the future”.  Well, the future has arrived, and there’s still ice cream.

So now I’m off to Paul Fleming Chang’s for dinner with the mlb.com boys and then back to the hotel to play Game 7 of my Fat Elvis Baseball Collective LCS.  If I win, it’s off to the finals for the 7th time in nine seasons (five titles so far).  If I lose, the league’s founder and commissioner goes to the big dance for the first time ever.

Cito has arrived in town, and tomorrow the assemblage will lunch with the Jays’ skipper.  I don’t know if we’ll have our own table or if we’ll be joined by another team’s media, but one of my greatest Winter Meetings memories is sitting with the Twins’ assemblage in Dallas a few years back and listening to John Gibbons and Ron Gardenhire sharing old war stories from their days in the Mets’ system.  The two of them were absolutely hilarious.  Maybe we’ll sit with the Reds and be able to listen in on Cito reminiscing with Dusty Baker.

Rational, reasonable comments are always welcome!

2 :45 PM Eastern

As we near the halfway point of this year’s Winter Meetings, we finally have a trade to report, and it’s a pretty big one.  The New York Yankees, Detroit Tigers and Arizona Diamondbacks have gotten together on a three-way deal that will send Curtis Granderson to the Bronx.  The Tigers get Yankees’ prospect Austin Jackson and bullpen lefty Phil Coke, along with Diamondbacks’ prospects Max Scherzer and Daniel Schlereth.  Arizona gets Tigers’ starter Edwin Jackson and Yankees’ young starter Ian Kennedy.

We wish a hearty mazel tov to all involved for getting the process underway and breaking up what’s been a very, very quiet day in Indianapolis.  Before this trade, the biggest news was that the massive blizzard that is pounding the midwestern U.S. and heading up into the Toronto area soon will bypass us down here in Indy.

So, what does this trade mean for the Blue Jays?  It means the Yankees have a much better centrefielder now than they did an hour ago, and he’s locked up for another five years if the Yanks want him that long.  Granderson tops Melky Cabrera in every facet of the game, with the exception of being able to hit left-handed pitching.  Austin Jackson is the biggest chip that the Yanks moved in the trade, and he had been talked about as a big piece in a potential Roy Halladay trade, but you have to think that:  A – the Yankees would rather have Halladay than Granderson, and so wouldn’t ruin their chances to obtain Doc in order to get Curtis, and 2 – the Yanks would still be able to build a package around Joba Chamberlain or Phil Hughes and Jesus Montero, even without Austin Jackson involved.

Good for the Tigers for picking up three very good young pitchers to add to their big three of Justin Verlander, Rick Porcello and Jeremy Bonderman.  Granderson seems a big price to pay, but if Jackson (who turns 23 in February) is ready for the bigs, it should be a net plus for Detroit.

Arizona gets Edwin Jackson and Kennedy for Scherzer and Schlereth, so two young starters for their top young starter and a first-round lefty reliever.  Kennedy is a good post-hype buy, a guy who was touted as a future star a year ago but about whom no one was excited after a year that was taken off the rails by surgery to repair an aneurysm in his right shoulder.  Jackson had a good year for the Rays in ’08 then got traded to the Tigers for Matt Joyce, and he had an even better year in Detroit.  One has to wonder, though, why a 26 year-old with a fantastic arm gets traded twice in the space of one calendar year – and three times so far in his career.  Maybe it’s because he is one of only three active big-leaguers who were born in Germany (I don’t even know what that means).

There’s nothing going on on the Blue Jays front.  Well, there’s probably a lot going on on the Blue Jays front, but Alex Anthopoulos is bound and determined not to let anyone know about it – and he’s doing a great job.  The Toronto assemblage will meet with him again this afternoon at 4:00 to try to pry any nuggets of info out of him that we can, knowing that he’s going to be very careful not to comment on any specific players or any specific trades.  Maybe we can get him to talk about potential free agent signees – Miguel Olivo?  Yorvit Torrealba?  Reed Johnson?  Eric Hinske?

Back with more after we talk to Alex!  Now go vote for Tom – www.facebook.com/baseballhall, then go to “poll”.

Rational, reasonable comments are always welcome!