Not much out there for Jay's links. Richard Griffin has a nice piece on the how the Halladay trade came about.
The Phillies' offer of Kyle Drabek, Michael Taylor and Travis D'Arnaud was sitting on the table, but there was nothing left to play it off against. Rookie Jays GM Alex Anthopoulos had gone the equivalent of "all in" with a pair of twos.
I agree Anthopoulos did the best you could have hoped for, really amazingly well considering he only had one team bidding for Doc, but if you are going to make the poker analogy why wouldn't you go with 'Alex went all in with one Ace'. Or is that a little too on the nose?
Over at Baseball Prospectus they have their Top 11 Jay Prospects. Little stolen bits:
Perfect World Projection: Drabek will be an All-Star level starter.
Perfect World Projection: Wallace be a good offensive first baseman, possibly in the mold of current Blue Jay first baseman Lyle Overbay.
Perfect World Projection: D'Arnaud projects to be an above-average everyday catcher.
Perfect World Projection: Jenkins will be a good middle-rotation innings eater.
Perfect World Projection: Carlos Perez: It's a star-level ceiling…
Perfect World Projection: Jake Marisnick: His upside is massive.
The Good: Some scouts think Gustavo Pierre has the tools to rocket up this chart, with one saying, "Within two years, we'll be talking about him being No. 1." He's a big, athletic shortstop with easy power potential and above-average speed. Defensively, he's got smooth actions and an above-average arm.
And talking about our best players under 25: Morrow was a fantastic pickup. There might not have been a better "change of scenery" player in the game, and Toronto paid little for his potential.
Jordan Bastian has a new blog entry up, telling us that the Jays are among the teams watching Ben Sheets throw next week. It doesn't sound like the Jays have great interest but figure they should keep an eye on everything that goes on.
Jordan also says that after JP's streak of not going to arbitration with any player, Alex is a little more willing to let it happen. He has set next Tuesday, the day teams and players have to submit their numbers to the arbitrator, as the deadline for negotiations, after that they'd go with what the arbitrator says. The arbitration eligible Jays that are left to sign are Shaun Marcum, Brian Tallet, Jason Frasor, Casey Janssen, Jeremy Accardo and Shawn Camp.