Tip 'o the hat

As soon as I finish this post, I'm going to add a new link to the sidebar - one that should no doubt have been there long before now but sometimes sites just escape my notice. But thanks to an item in a link dump post at Bluebird Banter, I'm reading and enjoying a great jays blog that is new to me but not new to the net: Jays Journal.

Writers Matt Germain and Jared MacDonald are currently in the midst of pumping out player profiles on their Top 50 Jays prospects which are so well done I want to go back and take my list down in shame. Opinions are opinions, of course, but each of these profiles features bullet points on pertinent facts right down to the uniform numbers. I won't say I'm going to agree with every slot in terms of relative ranking (and after all, every list is different) but you can only admire the amount of work that goes into each post. I'll no doubt be factoring in this new information when i write my spring Prospect list update. In the mean time, for sheer bulk of information, JJ is right up there with Bluebird Banter for the best Jays blog I've seen.

Other items:

Item 1: While I'm touching base let me just say that I congratulate the Brewers on dealing for Grienke and in relation to that, can we PLEASE stop dignifying Bob Elliot's SPECULATION about a Drabek/Snider combo as if it were an actual proposal between the Jays and Royals? Thank you.

Speaking of the Royals and Grienke, and the stupidity of the afre-mentioned speculation/non-rumor - here's an interesting bit of news about that whole drama from Jeff Blair:

Alex Anthopoulos will not be among the general managers recalibrating this week after Zack Greinke’s shocking trade to the Milwaukee Brewers, which is expected to be finalized Monday. Anthopoulos, the Toronto Blue Jays GM, asked the Kansas City Royals about Greinke’s availability early in the off-season, but was told the pitcher would not waive his no-trade clause to Toronto. End of story. Greinke agreed to go to Milwaukee, and sources suggest he believes he can do better statistically in the National League heading into free agency in two years.

So, again I plead - even though I know that Bob Elliot is as one of the gods to the Toronto sports media (I'm looking at you in particular Grif) - let's move on, eh?


Item 2: On the Jays' re-signing of Eddie Encarnacion, and their professed intent to play him mostly as a DH and reserve 1B - I'm down with it. Low cost, solid potential for lightning-in-a-bottle.

Item 3: Brett Lawrie insists he's gonna break camp with the Jays. I'm very sure that AA isn't done yet but in the mean time, I'm not convinced that he can't force their hand and make the drop him into RF (or at 3B, where I'd love to see him work out) on opening day.

Item 4: If the Royals are resigned to a couple of years of losing, I'm still more than a little interested in the idea of scooping up Alex Gordon on the (relative) cheap.