With Carlos Ruiz and Brian McCann already off the market, Salty is now widely regarded as the best backstop available.

The Twins, Rockies and Blue Jays have emerged as the most likely candidates to sign free-agent catcher Jarrod Saltalamacchia away from the Red Sox, reports Jon Heyman of CBS Sports.

Boston still has a two-year offer on the table for Salty, so his return to Beantown appears the most likely scenario at the moment, but that could change if one of the other interested clubs is willing to give him a longer contract. The switch-hitting backstop is reportedly on the market for a three- or four-year deal -- the Red Sox have been reluctant to go over two -- and he might be able to get it now that he's the best catcher left in the shallow free-agent pool.

Brian McCann and Carlos Ruiz were the easily the biggest behind-the-plate names on the open market this fall, but both have already inked long-term deals. Their early deals leave Salty, A.J. Pierzynski and a long list of back-up types as the only free-agent options available to a host of clubs still looking to upgrade behind the plate.

The Twins and Rockies have productive catchers on their rosters, but both clubs are looking to move those players out from behind the plate: Minnesota has already made the executive decision to move Joe Mauer to first base full time, and Colorado is reportedly, per Heyman, trying to shift Wilin Rosario to the outfield. In order for those moves to work, the clubs need someone to step in at catcher, which is presumably where Saltalamacchia comes into play.

The Twins do have young prospect Josmil Pinto ready to step in to catching role next season, but that hasn't stopped them from being linked to Saltalamacchia over the last few weeks. The Rockies' situation behind the plate is much more uncertain with Rosario out of the picture, which explains why the club went so hard after McCann before the Yankees scooped him up.

The Blue Jays' situation is a bit different from the two other interested parties. They too have an incumbent catcher, but he was anything but productive for the team this past season. J.P. Arencibia did hit 21 home runs for Toronto in 2013, but he did so while hitting under the Mendoza line and turning in one of the worst on-base percentages (.227) by a qualified player in modern baseball history.

While there has been a large amount of early movement in free agency so far this winter, it's unlikely that the Saltalamacchia situation will resolve itself before next month's Winter Meetings. Given the state of things, his best bet is probably to get clubs competing for his services in Orlando, which could net him the long-term deal he wants.

ESPN's Buster Olney suggested on WEEI Wednesday morning that the perceived lull Saltalamacchia's market so far this fall might be due to injury concerns similar to those that plagued Mike Napoli last year. Salty's agent was quick to rebuke this claim, pointing out to Alex Speier of WEEI that his client hasn't been on the disabled list since 2010.

His agent indicated that the catcher's market might be more lively than everyone believes, using the ol' "just because you're not hearing about it doesn't mean it's not happening" gambit. He also implied that the Chicago Cubs are not in the running for Saltalamacchia's services.

More from SB Nation MLB:

• Hall of Fame ballot announced | An annual exercise in frustration

• Alex Rodriguez calls out Bud Selig in lawsuit | "A-Roid" T-shirt

• How to fix the Blue Jays | Complete series

• Yankees won’t give Beltran a third year | More rumors

• Death of a Ballplayer: Wrongly convicted prospect spends 27 years in prison

The recent NHL deal signed by Rogers Media will not have any negative effects on the Blue Jays payroll.

Head of Rogers Media, Keith Pelley, was on the Sportsnet 590 The Fan this morning and the discussion touched upon the effects that the new NHL deal will have on the Blue Jays. If you missed the news of the deal then here's a quick summary:

The NHL and Rogers Communications have come to terms on a 12-year, $4.9 billion broadcast rights agreement that will make Rogers the exclusive broadcast and multimedia partner of the NHL in Canada. This grants the company exclusive rights to all NHL content on all platforms and languages. In Canadian dollars, the deal is worth $5.2 billion.

Naturally, the question for Blue Jays fans was whether the team's payroll would take a hit as money gets tight at the Rogers Centre. Keith Pelley squashed those rumours this morning in an interview with Jeff Blair and the audio can be found here. If you don't feel like listening to the interview (it is quite boring), then here are the Blue Jays related highlights.

Pelley first made it clear that this rumour of the Blue Jays payroll decreasing is unfounded:

It does not affect the Blue Jays payroll in any way whatsoever.

With the massive amount of NHL games, especially during the playoffs, that will be aired on Sportsnet during the beginning of Blue Jays season there is a good chance of some conflicts with Pelley saying:

Keith Pelley also tells @FAN590 potential TV broadcast conflicts between #NHL and #BlueJays could land Jays games on @City_tv or CBC

— Shi Davidi (@ShiDavidi) November 27, 2013

I don't think that's horrible news as finding games on CBC is a lot easier than searching for Sportsnet One on your remotes. Most Blue Jays fans will remember the times not too long ago where Blue Jays games on the weekend were occasionally broadcast on CBC, which will only help the team's national interest.

Finally, Pelley made it very clear that Rogers still is extremely committed to their baseball team:

We are everything Blue Jays.

Seems like that is cleared up, although there's still a chance that down the road money gets tight for the team if this NHL deal isn't as successful as Rogers hopes. For Montreal baseball fans, maybe there's a chance TSN and Bell get together and try to bring baseball back to the former home of the Expos since their list of programming is looking quite bare at the moment.

Now that the news of whether the Blue Jays have money is out of the way, the next news we should be reporting is that they went and spent some of it.

Who would we vote into the Hall of Fame?

The Hall of Fame ballot has come out and we are going to run a series of polls to see who we would vote into the Hall. We'll do 2 or 3 of these a day until we get through the ballot. I'm going to try to put the polls into a story stream so they don't fill up the whole page.

I'll go in alphabetical order, skipping some that won't get any votes.

Being an Expo fan, Moises Alou has a warm place in my heart and I've always liked the guys that didn't bother with batting glove, though the less said about what he did to 'toughen his hands' the better. He had a pretty decent career, 332 home runs and 1287 RBI, with a really nice slash line, .303/.369/.516. And how many guys get to the majors and have their father for manager.

He played in 7 All-Star games, was 2nd in Rookie of the Year voting in 1992, got MVP votes 7 times, finishing 3rd twice and he owns 1 World Series ring.

So give us your vote.

Do you think that Craig Biggio should be in the Hall of Fame?

The next on the list would be Armando Benitez, but I don't really see him as a possible Hall of Famer. He had nice career, 15 years as a reliever. 762 games (57 all time), 3.13 ERA, 289 saves (26th all time). A good player, not a Hall of Fame type.

Craig Biggio, on the other, has a pretty strong case. He played 20 seasons, all with the Astros. He hit 281/.363/.433, with 291 home runs, 1175 RBI, 1844 runs scored and 414 stolen bases.

Craig came up as a catcher, played there for 4 seasons, spent 11 seasons at second base, moved to center field for a couple of seasons and then went back to second to finish off his career.

He was a 7 time All-Star, won 4 Gold Gloves and 5 Silver Sluggers. Baseball Reference has him at a 62.1 WAR, putting him 88th all time among position players.

He was one of the best players in baseball for several years.

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Once again the Blue Jays come up short with their giveaways.

Going to baseball games is about watching the game, not getting giveaways, but it'd sure be nice to start getting some creative Blue Jays giveaways down at the Rogers Centre. This year, the Blue Jays will be giving out three bobblehead dolls, but the players featured on them have not been announced yet.

• In the home opener, the rally towel will be given away upon entrance, and the magnet schedule will be given away at the exit to stop folks from tossing them onto the field.
• The replica jersey giveaway day will be fun: since each jersey will feature a player, fans will run around trading with each other to get one of their favourite player.
• The two "fan vote t-shirts" will be given away on "Connect with the Blue Jays night," a "fun social media night for fans who follow the Blue Jays with in-stadium giveaways all game long." The old Blackberry Tweeting Tuesday events are gone.
• The visor and bucket hat giveaways on the same weekend marks the Canadian holiday of Dorky Headwear Weekend.
• End of an era: no Mr. Sub giveaways this year. For a long time they sponsored a sports bag giveaway, then last year it became a cooler bag, and this year the promo is gone.

Overall, very vanilla and blah giveaways. There's not a lot of creativity, a lot of them seem like bland swag corporations order for tradeshows. For a good list of giveaways, just look at the San Francisco Giants (they've only released their first-half schedule). In the first month they will be giving away a calendar, two bobbleheads (Hunter Pence and Duane Kuiper!), a scarf, a sports bag, a sports sleeve (for kids), a magnet schedule, a 1954 replica World Series ring (!), and a replica bat (for kids). Another contrast is in non-cap headwear giveaways: the Giants are offering hipstery fedoras. And man, the Hello Kitty Giants plush doll on June 8!

Why can't the Blue Jays marketing department think of cool giveaways like: Munenori Kawasaki English phrasebook sponsored by Rosetta Stone, Redbull cans with Brett Lawrie's face on them, statuettes of Steve Delabar's elbow plate sponsored by Home Hardware, Andrew Stoeten beards sponsored by theScore, Colby Rasmus wigs sponsored by Gabi's, a St. John's Ambulance-sponsored Dustin McGowan first-aid kit, a Jeff Samardzija shark fin cap, and so on. So much potential!

But, maybe I'm being too negative. Those bucket hats couldn't be that bad, right?

The first 20K fans on Canada Day will receive this stylish bucket hat! 2014 giveaways: http://t.co/hTDJwg60tdpic.twitter.com/S7PYemnDlf

— Blue Jays-Official (@BlueJays) November 27, 2013

I want to become a Giants fan.

Would you vote Barry Bonds into the Hall of Fame?

Next up on the list is Barry Bonds. Baseball must be the only sport around whose best player ever is not in their Hall of Fame, but there are reasons. Last year was his first time on the ballot and he got 36.2% of the vote. I doubt the BBWAA vote will change enough to get him in this year.

I really don't have to tell you anything about Barry. You all know he hit a ton of home runs (762, most in major league history). He played 22 seasons, has a .298/.444/.607 slash line. 1996 RBI, 514 stolen bases.

He made 14 All-Star teams. Has 7 NL MVP awards, 12 Silver Sluggers, 8 Gold Gloves. Baseball Reference has him at a 158.1 WAR, 2nd all-time among position players.

And he used steroids.

And he was a jerk.

So there is your choice. Do you think he deserves to go into the Hall, despite his cheating?

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The Blue Jays walked 510 times last year, but how many opportunities for the free pass did they throw away?

Since the Moneyball era began baseball fans have found themselves discussing walks more than ever before. Although the base on balls isn’t the most exciting play in baseball, its importance has garnered greater appreciation in recent times. When describing a baseball player to a friend you might think to include information on how often he walks now, something that didn’t come up nearly so often in the past. When Blue Jays fans look at J.P. Arencibia there is a multitude of possible ways to criticize his performance, but one of the ones that often comes up first is his lack of walks. In past years it might have been as easy as saying, "HE HIT .194! ARE YOU KIDDING ME?!?!" There is plenty of validity to that statement as well. I’m not trying to paint baseball fans of a certain age as Neanderthals or trying to say baseball fans are smarter now because there is more awareness about walk. Baseball fans are people and people haven’t gotten any smarter in the last fifteen odd years. There has just been a change in the way the game is discussed.

On a personal level, I have always been interested in patience, plate discipline and walks. On that note I thought I would talk about the kind of walks that are rarely discussed: walks that didn’t happen. One of the most basic cognitive flaws that humans exhibit is the failure to consider scenarios that didn’t transpire. Usually we are smart enough to conquer this on a small scale. For instance, if you roll a die three times and the numbers 1,2 and 3 come up it is unlikely that you will forget that 4’s, 5’s and 6’s are equally likely to be rolled, even though didn’t see those numbers rolled. On a larger scale we often lose track of things that didn’t happen because they don’t seem relevant. I give you fair warning that if relevance is what you seek, you might be disappointed with what follows.

Perhaps at this point I should specify what I mean by "walks that didn’t happen". At the core what I really mean is "walks that should have happened". It’s pretty hard to define things that should have happened and I realize how far I’m wading into the wishy-washy here, but hopefully you’ll indulge me. A walk that should have happened is a scenario where a batter has three balls on him and swings for a pitch outside the strike zone. The idea is that the player had a walk available to him and all he had to do was not swing.

Clearly it’s not that simple. Firstly, it’s not fair to assume that hitters have can identify balls and strikes perfectly, if they could baseball would be a much higher scoring sport. Secondly, when I’m working with strike zone data that data comes from PitchFx’s determination of what the strike zone should be in a perfect world as opposed to the strike zone that is called by umpires.

In examining these "walks that weren’t" one way I’ve tried to mitigate these limitations is by steering clear of all 3-2 counts. In a full count situation a hitter may feel the need to go outside the strike zone in order to protect the plate. In order to prevent the called strikeout he does not have the luxury of taking borderline pitches. In this case it’s unfair to criticize a lack of plate discipline when in fact swinging for a pitch outside the strike zone might be the best course of action.

That left 3-0 and 3-1 counts. A ball in a 3-0 or 3-1 count results in a base while a strike cannot result in an out. I thought that this scenario would incentivize hitters to lay off anything that could be a ball because a ball guarantees a base, whereas the consequences for taking a strike are far from disastrous. While hitters almost never swing in 3-0 counts, I figured that in a 3-1 situation they might swing aggressively in the heart of the strike zone but tend to avoid pitches at the margins.

First we’ll take a look a 3-0 counts. In the chart below I’ve listed all the players individually (I included every Blue Jays player with over 200 PA) but the individual results included such small sample sizes that they are virtually meaningless. To be honest, there isn’t a lot to see here because Blue Jays hitters, like most others, tended to let the 3-0 pitch go. It’s an almost unheard of move to reach for a pitch outside the strike zone on a 3-0 count.

3-0 Counts

As I said, there isn’t much to see here. Hitters almost never swing in this situation so it follows that they almost never chase pitches outside the zone. Blue Jays hitters missed out on 3 total walks in these situations, assuming the umpires are calling the rulebook strike zone of course. That’s virtually nothing. Things get far more interesting when we look at 3-1 counts.

3-1 Counts

The individual samples are tiny here but is anyone surprised that J.P. Arencibia has swung for the highest percentage of pitches in this situation and Munenori Kawasaki has swung for the lowest percentage? I didn’t think so.

There are a couple of things going on here. Firstly, in theory, Blue Jays hitters have forgone the opportunity for 81 walks due to free swinging in 3-1 counts. That’s half a walk per game, which is pretty significant. Once again, that number isn’t exact because of the discrepancy between the Brooks Baseball strike zone and the one the umpires actually call, but it’s a good estimate. Half a walk per game goes a long way, if a pitcher tacked on 0.50 BB/9 to his stat line people would take notice.

What’s more interesting than the volume, of what would largely be considered costly and ill-advised swings (I didn’t include it above because the sample was so small, but for the record Blue Jays hitters hit .241/.241/.379 on these pitches) is the rate at which they are occurring. Even though Blue Jays hitters should be erring on the side of caution when it comes to pitches on the edges or outside the zone in 3-1 counts they are actually swinging outside almost exactly as often in these situations as they are overall (31.6% O-Swing in 3-1 vs. 30.5% overall).

The reason for these swings is a matter of speculation. Often 3-1 is described as a perfect "hitter’s count" where hitters can expect a fastball. As a result, perhaps hitters are more concerned with sitting on a fastball than that pitch’s location. Perhaps the assumption that they will get a pitch to hit puts hitters in an aggressive mindset. It's impossible to say definitively.

What I do know is that when it comes to 3-0 hitters have no problem laying off a pitch because they have so little to lose and a base to gain. In 3-1 counts they similarly have more to gain by taking a pitch than by swinging at one and yet there aggressiveness outside the strike zone is unaltered. I limited this to 2013 and to the Blue Jays because it gives a tangible idea of the amount of walks that are lost on a yearly basis to what I would generally describe as needless swinging in three ball counts. Such a small target gives merely a snapshot at this strange phenomenon. To give another snapshot, this is Joey Votto’s career swing rate by zone in a 3-1 count:

Even the master of the walk is taking his share of healthy out of the zone cuts in 3-1 counts.

If you break it down it really doesn’t makes sense:

1. Swinging for pitches outside the strike zone is bad, unless you stuck in a two strike count. You are less likely to make contact and even if you do it’s less likely to go for a hit.
2. Walking is good. Getting bases without giving up outs is a good deal.
3. When you are sitting at 3-1 taking a strike isn’t the end of the world.

That’s pretty much it. Of course it’s unfair to expect perfect strike zone recognition and discipline, and of course umpires don’t call a perfect strike zone. It still seems that players would become more conservative when the walk was in play. I haven’t even looked at any pitches in the strike zone here. I would expect hitters to swing aggressively for strikes the way they always do. Swinging for strikes tends to be a good idea.

Nowadays the walk is getting more love than ever before. The free pass is sexy for the first time in baseball history. However, just because something is well regarded by baseball fans, or even baseball executives, it doesn’t mean it makes it way to the field. The players don’t really care about Moneyball, they just play baseball the way that got them to the big leagues. Where an outside observer sees walks that might have been, it's possible that a baseball player just sees good cuts in a hitter's count. The league-wide BB% in 2013 was 7.9%. That’s exactly the same rate as in 1913. Although baseball is changing in many ways, the rising K% and sinking offensive numbers come to mind, it’s still fundamentally the same. The bigger change going on right now is the way segment of the fan population has chosen to observe the game. As part of that segment I find that instead observing the swings that happen, I’m seeing the walks that could have been. It’s a fun way to see baseball, but it’ll also drive you a little bit nuts.

Would you vote Roger Clemens into the Baseball Hall of Fame?

The next player on the Hall of Fame ballot is Sean Casey, but, as much as I liked Casey, he isn't a Hall of Famer by any standard. He played in the majors for 12 years, had a really nice slash line, .302/.367/.447, with 130 home runs and 735 RBI. He didn't have the power you'd like to see out of a first baseman (25 home runs were the most he'd hit, he was only over 20 twice), but he kept a high batting average and got on base well. I always liked guys that got on base a lot.

Roger Clemens is a guy that did have a Hall of Fame type career, if you are willing to overlook the substances he injected into his body.

In 24 seasons, Clemens had a 354-184 record, 3.12 ERA in 707 starts. 1580 walks, 4672 strikeouts (3rd all-time) in 4916 innings. He won 20 games in 6 different seasons.

He won 7 Cy Youngs, including 2 as a Blue Jay. He won 1 AL MVP award. Played in 11 All-Star games. Baseball Reference has him at a 133 WAR which is 3rd all-time for pitchers.

Roger was found not guilty of lying to Congress in 2008. Personally, lying to politicians seems like a strange thing to be put to trial over.

We have a few guys on the ballot that are believed to have used steroids, Roger, well he was a jerk about it. When he was found to have human growth hormone delivered to his house, he blamed it on his wife. To me that's as lousy a move as there is, guys are supposed to protect their wives, not use them as an alibi.

There are other things in his past that might cause the BBWAA to leave his name off the ballot. Throwing at Mike Piazza, with the ball and a broken piece of bat. And his affair with an under-aged Mindy McCready doesn't exactly speak to his good citizenship.

And, of course, Roger is the only person that, on this site, we are allowed to call a fuckhead, because, of course, he is.

Roger is a tough call for me, because I figure keeping keeping someone out for using PEDs is unfair because we we don't know every player that was using. We know Roger was using but how many guys get voted in that we don't know. Is it fair to keep him how just because he was stupid enough to get caught? But then, Clemens is such a perfect example of walking fertilizer, that it is hard to get past what a lousy person he was.

There are lots of lousy people in the Hall, but do I really want add another?

Would you vote Tom Glavine into the Baseball Hall of Fame?

Happy Thanksgiving, to those of you on the other side of the border. Hope the turkey is great. And thanks for giving us football to watch, since there isn't going to be any baseball news today.

I'm going to skip a couple of guys, Ray Durham and Eric Gagne, they were both good players, but not Hall of Fame types.

Ray Durham played 14 seasons in the majors, mostly as a second baseman, for the White Sox, Giants, A's and Brewers. He hit .277/.352/.436, with 192 home runs, 875 RBI and 273 stolen bases. He made the All-Star team twice. He was a pretty good leadoff hitter, in the early part of his career. He scored over 100 runs 6 straight seasons. I'd be really happy if the Jays could find a second baseman like him.

As much as it would be nice to have a French Canadian in the Hall. Eric Gagne's was great, for 3 seasons. He had 152 saves, over those 3 seasons and set a record for successful consecutive saves with 85. Unfortunately injuries robbed him of his effectiveness and shortened his career.  In total he played 10 seasons, pitched in 402 game, had 187 saves with a 3.47 ERA.

Now Tom Glavine has a good shot at the Hall. A 22 year career, 305 wins, 203 losses. A 3.54 ERA in 682 games, all starts. He won 2 Cy Youngs, was named to 10 All-Star teams and even has 4 Silver Slugger awards for best hitting pitcher. His teams made it to the playoffs 10 times, though he only has 1 ring. He was on the losing side against the Blue Jays in 1992.

I don't really think I have to sell him, just look at his stats.

Would you vote Luis Gonzalez into the Baseball Hall of Fame?

I was going to skip over Gonzalez, but he had a long career and pretty good one, by the numbers.

He hit 354 home runs, drove in 1439, stole 128 bases, with a .283/.367/.479 line.

He had been kind of a high batting average, high on base guys early in his career, then in his 30's he became a home run hitting. He hit 10 home runs in his age 29 season, but that was as an Astro, back in the Astrodome era. Barry Bonds, in all his PED glory would have a hard time hitting home runs that.

The next season, traded to the Tigers, he hit 23. After that he went to Arizona and hit 26, 31, 57, 28, and 26 home runs, the next 5 seasons. He also drove in over 100 runs each of those year, peaking at 142 RBI in 2001.

Of course, there may have been reasons for his sudden jump in power, but I don't remember any evidence, I don't think he was mentioned in the Mitchel Report. If we give a pass to Barry Bond, when we know he used, do not even consider Gonzalez because we suspect?

Would you vote Jeff Kent into the Baseball Hall of Fame?

Next on the list are Jacque Jones and Todd Jones, but I don't think we need to vote on them.

Jacque was a pretty good outfielder for 10 major league seasons, 7 of them with the Twins, 2 with the Cubs and the last split between the Tigers and Marlins, playing mostly the corner spots. He was never an All-Star and never lead the league in any offensive category. He only had 3 seasons with a OPS+ over 100.  His best season was 2002, hitting .300/.341/.511 with 27 home runs and 85 RBI, the most RBI he would ever have in a season. Career he had a .277/.326/.448 line with 165 home runs and 630 RBI. I don't think anyone would consider him for the Hall.

Todd Jones had some good seasons as a closer. He had more than 25 saves 7 times in his 16 year career, leading the league in save once. He played for 8 different teams. He was an All-Star once. In 982 games(17th all time), he had 319 saves (16th all time), but with a rather high (for a closer) 3.97 ERA. He's the prime example for saves being over rated.

Jeff Kent had a very good 17 season career that started with the Blue Jays. He was traded in the middle of his rookie season to the Mets for David Cone. We can't complain too much, we won the World Series that year. He was pretty good for the Mets. if not terrific. He was traded to the Indians in the middle of the 1996 season. After that season he was part of a big trade between the Indians and Giants. It was with the Giants he became a star. After San Francisco he went to the Astros and Dodgers.

In total he played 2298 games, hit 377 home runs, had 1518 RBI with a .290/.356/.500 slash line. Not bad for a middle infielder. He won the NL MVP in 2000,  played on  5 All-Star teams and won 4 Silver Slugger awards. He had more than 100 RBI 8 times (helped along by opponents intentionally walking Barry Bonds)

He also didn't get along with Bonds, which is a bit of a plus in my book, though he really didn't have to be such a jerk about it. And then there was the time he broke his wrist, during spring training. At first he said it happened washing his truck, but turns out he crashed his motorcycle doing wheelies. He was also a contestant on Survivor.

I do think that it would be kind of funny if Kent was voted into the Hall and Bonds wasn't.

Aside from a few minor league free agent signings and picking up options, nothing of note has happened in Blue Jays land so far this offseason, and we being fans--and bloggers who have to come up with content--are getting impatient. Now, we're not asking for a move to be made just for the sake of making one, but please could we have a move to analyze?

The lack of news means that we need to dig into the history books to find something to write about. So here is a list of the dates of the first trade of every offseason in club history.

Looking at that list, we can see why Pat Gillick earned his "Stand Pat" nickname in the 1980s, having made no offseason trades in 1985, 1987, 1988, and 1991. Since Gillick, the Blue Jays have only had two no-trade offseasons: 1997 (of course that year, Gord Ash signed Roger Clemens on December 13), and 2006 (in that offseason, J.P. Riccardi focused on signing free agents Royce Clayton, Gregg Zaun, and Frank Thomas in November, and signing the seven-year extension with Vernon Wells).

shere are some upcoming events where there may be some happenings. Monday, December 2 is the deadline for the Blue Jays to tender contracts to arbitration-eligible players--I don't see the Blue Jays non-tendering anyone (despite Esmil Rogers being listed as a candidate on MLB Trade Rumors) but perhaps they could pick someone up. December 5 is the last day to designate players for assignment before the Rule 5, which will occur on December 12, the last day of the Winter Meetings which start on the 9th. The Winter Meetings is as good of a time as any to complete trades and sign free agents. But don't hold your breath on Jeff Samardzija--the Cubs are reportedly willing to wait for other clubs to fight over him, and Peter Gammons thinks that it might be February before he is moved.

Get us a cool Christmas present, Mr. Anthopoulos.

Would you vote Greg Maddux into the Baseball Hall of Fame?

Next on the list would be Paul Lo Duca, but he's not a serious candidate. He had one really good season, hitting .320/.374/.543 with 25 home runs and 90 RBI. Beyond that he was little better than average in his 11 year career. Slash line .286/.337/.409 with 80 home runs and 481 RBI in 1082 games. I mean, I'd rather him at catcher than JP, but no he isn't a Hall of Fame type.

Greg Maddux, on the other hand, has 355 wins to his credit, as well as a 3.16 ERA, 4 consecutive Cy Young awards, 8 times an All-Star and 18 (!) Gold Gloves. Chicks may dig the long ball, but wins are pretty impressive too.

On top of all that Baseball Reference has him 8th all time in WAR among pitchers. I know some of the BBWAA have this thing about not electing anyone unanimously, but if they were going to do it, Maddux would be the right choice.

Would you vote Edgar Martinez into the Baseball Hall of Fame?

Edgar Martinez gets on the ballot for the 5th time. He's been running between 32 and 37% of the Writer's votes and he isn't building momentum.

Edgar played 18 seasons with the Mariners, hitting .312/.418/.515 with 309 home runs, 514 doubles, 1261 RBI. He was on 7 All-Star teams, won 2 batting titles, 1 Roberto Clemente Award, and 5 Silver Sluggers.

He has a 62.9 career offensive WAR, good for 68th place on the all-time list.

There are lot of arguments about whether a DH belongs in the Hall. I don't see any reason DH's should be excluded, but I'm not sure that Edgar has the numbers that earn a spot.

Would you vote Don Mattingly into the Baseball Hall of Fame?

Donny Baseball is an interesting case, his career only lasted 14 seasons. At his peak he was great, maybe the best player in baseball for a few seasons, but back problems brought his stats down, so he doesn't have the counting starts that get you into the Hall.

He had 222 home runs, 1099 RBI and had a career slash line of .307/.358/.471. He was AL MVP in 1985, was named to 6 All-Star teams, had 9 Gold Glove and 3 Silver Slugger awards. Baseball Reference has him at a 39.8 career WAR.

This is his second last time on the ballot, unless, of course, he gets listed on less than 5% of the Writers' ballots. 13 times on the ballot, his 28.2% on his first try was his best number. He's been as low as 9.9%.

And, of course, he should have cut those sideburns.