We shouldn't like Endy Chavez, but...

If you know anything about your good friend the Tao, you should know how much we hate small ball and the scrappy, slappy players who play that game. Small ball is for mosquito leagues. Or tee ball. Or the league-mandated women that you must carry on your co-ed, modified slo-pitch softball team.

It's not for a team looking to hang in the AL East.

But for whatever reason, we kinda can't help but like Endy Chavez, in whom JP Morosi of FoxSports.com (via MLBTR!) says the Jays have some interest. Sure, he's got a career OBP of .312, and slugs a not-so-mighty .367. And for a guy who puts up those sorts of numbers, he doesn't exactly leave a charred path in his wake on the basepaths, posting stolen base numbers of nine, six and five over the past three season. (Albeit in limited time.)

Chances are, we just like this guy because we still think fondly upon the 2002 season that he put up with the Ottawa Lynx, where he tore up the International League with an .858 OPS (and a .343 AVG, which probably matters for a slap hitter.) Also, he sports some pretty impressive numbers in the realm of defensive metrics (how did we live before Fangraphs?), with a career 15.7 UZR/150 in the outfield (24.8 in LF, 10.7 CF, 19.8 in RF).

Maybe the best thing for us is if the Jays don't go ahead and sign him, so that he can remain a hero in our mind's eye. If we ended up watching him for a full season, it might start to dawn on us that he's the Latin Reed Johnson. (Although Endy doesn't run like a girl. Which is an important distinction.)

Get them to sign on the line that is dotted!

As Alec Baldwin's character in Glengarry Glen Ross noted, "Only one thing counts in this life: Get them to sign on the line which is dotted!"

And so, we follow along with the news of 2009 draft picks who are dragging out their decisions on signing until the last possible second, which is to say tonight. Or today. Whatever.

We're following the action over at Jim Callis' Baseball America Draft Blog, where most of the signings are being broken. If you've got better things to do than to hit refresh on a web page all afternoon, then check out our Twitter thingy (@TaoofStieb) and we'll probably be cursing and swearing about stuff over there.

Also notable: Stoeten of the Drunks has a good post summarizing what's happened so far (Jays going way over slot for later round picks), and what is likely to happen (Good Canadian boys don't sign with the Canadian team, even though they're good Canadian kids and the Jays should have been drafting lots of good Canadian boys all along because they're good Canadians and they'll make the good Canadians in the stands feel good about being Canadian, as we all revel goodly in our Canadianness.)