Annual Selection Of Players: Rule 5 Draft Day At The Winter Meetings - Day 4

I am pretty sure that the Toronto Blue Jays will not be picking any players on the Rule 5 Draft (officially named the "Annual Selection of Players" in the Major League Rules) tomorrow. Why? First, they have a full 40-man roster, and second,

Just spoke to Anthopoulos, who is leaving before tomorrow's Rule 5 draft. Says #Bluejays have NOTHING going on right now. #Jays

— Mike Wilner (@Wilnerness590) December 5, 2012

Of course, that doesn't stop other teams from plucking off players from the Jays' unprotected list, something that MjwW has detailed in his FanPost. The last player picked from Toronto was Brad Emaus, who was drafted in 2010. Emaus played 14 games for the New York Mets before being returned to the Blue Jays, and one day later Toronto traded him to the Colorado Rockies for Chris Malone, who in turn played just 9 games for the Dunedin Blue Jays. The last significant player taken from the Jays was Jay Gibbons in 2000. The last player Toronto took was some pothead named Zechry Zinicola from the Nationals in 2009 (he was returned in Spring Training).

The big news yesterday was that Tom Cheek will be enshrined in the Hall of Fame as the 2013 Ford C. Frick Award winner. Sportsnet 590's Mike Wilner, who has been spearheading massive fan vote campaigns for the past several years, has written an excellent piece on his relationship with Cheek--a must read for Jays fans. Thanks, Mike, you made this happen. Shi Davidi wrote down reactions from former general managers Pat Gillick and Gord Ash, Mrs. Shirley Cheek, and Paul Beeston.

In other news, J.P. Arencibia spoke with Jeff Blair and Dirk Hayhurst about trade rumours and links baseball writers to meteorologists, insulting both professions. Shi Davidi spoke with Alex Anthopoulos about Yunel Escobar being flipped to the Tampa Bay Rays, saying that he doesn't worry about what other teams do with players after they consummate a trade.

Anthopoulos went on the radio to talk with the Fan's Bob McCown and Stephen Brunt and spoke about his discomfort with the sheer number of people at the Winter Meetings, the lack of any promises to Arencibia that he would not be traded away, a significant increase in players and agents who are interested in coming to Toronto, how Carlos Villanueva theoretically could return but he would have to compete for the fifth starting spot, as well as the health of his pitchers. Sergio Santos "should be fine" for Dunedin, Dustin McGowan has "more uncertainty" surrounding him, and Kyle Drabek and Drew Hutchison won't be available until after the All-Star Game.

I would hazard a guess that not much will be happening today, so please do take some time and continue voting in our Hall of Fame polls. At 9 am Eastern on Sportsnet 590 the Fan, Jeff Blair will be joined by Mike Wilner, Shi Davidi, and Dirk Hayhurst in a roundtable on the Winter Meetings. If you're free a couple hours later at 11 am Eastern, do tune into a Google Hangout with Drew Fairservice, Andrew Stoeten, Ben Nicholson-Smith (of MLB Trade Rumors), and Jonah Keri (of Grantland). And if you feel like to attend a real life hangout, join me and other Blue Jays fans and bloggers tonight at 7 pm at Tall Boys Bar (838 Bloor Street West at Ossington) to watch Dave Stieb throw his no-hitter. More information about the event here. If you can't make it I may be live-, and possibly drunk-, tweeting the event @Minor_Leaguer.