This thread now contains news of the announcement of the 2008 American League Most Valuable Player. Dustin Pedroia? A-Rod? Morneau or Mauer? Carlos Quentin? Josh Hamilton? Francisco Rodriguez? Cliff Lee?

Update: Pedroia wins

Who should have won? And why?

The first couple of standard projection methods have come out so lets start seeing what our 2009 Blue Jays might look like.

Baseball America publish their top ten prospects today, followed by a subscriber chat this afternoon.  Thanks are due to mylegacy who has reported the top ten from the actual paper which has already been mailed to subscribers. 

Previously headlined:
More awards coming today ...
Shortly, this very thread will carry news of the announcement of both the AL Cy Young Award winner and the 2008 AL and NL "lineups" of Silver Sluggers.

Before we get to the announcements -- they're still a few hours off -- tell us, who will win? Who should?

Update: Lee wins; Jays' Halladay a far-distant second
Update II:  And here are your Silver Sluggers '08.

In a result that I'm sure is surprising to nobody, Geovany Soto and Evan Longoria have won their respective Rookie of the Year Awards. And in CRAZY BREAKING NEWS, the A's swooped in from left field to acquire Matt Holliday. I'm hearing Greg Smith and Brett Anderson are part of the package, but it's still being finalized.

Another Trade! (9:14PM) The Nationals have just traded Emilio Bonifacio along with prospects Jake Smolinski and P.J. Dean for Scott Olsen and Josh Willingham, according to Peter Gammons.

Update (4:18PM): A few sources seem to indicate that the final A's package consists of Carlos Gonzalez, Greg Smith and Huston Street.

Update (3:57PM): Greg Smith has been confirmed as part of the package. Anderson, Ryan Sweeney, and Carlos Gonzalez are also in the mix per ESPN.

 It's official (well, as close as can be.) AJ Burnett will opt out of the last two years of his contract, forgoing 2 years and $24 million.

The Jays are  announcing this afternoon that they will be bringing back Paul Beeston on an interim basis, to lead the search for a new CEO of the club. Beeston was the club's first employee, and was team president during the glory years, from 1989-1996. From 1997-2002 he served as president and chief operating officer of Major League Baseball. Thanks to various Bauxites for the heads up.

Ron lets us in on how he made it to Yankee Stadium before the wrecking ball swings.

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Yankee Stadium generated a lot of headlines recently when it hosted its last game. Earlier this year, I had the pleasure of visiting the House that Ruth Built.

OK, it is just 3 games in Baltimore but October baseball will happen in 2009 - unless those games are rained out.

I'm at the ballpark, going through the Game Notes...

It's one of my favourite plays in baseball.

For those that missed it, there have now been 249,996 HRs hit in MLB history after Delgado's 2 HRs last night.

Sometime early tonight HR #250,000 will likely be hit.  Here's a list of the players that hit the previous milestones.

Predict who it will be!

The Jays added six players to their roster today.  Brad Wilkerson and Kevin Mench; Shaun Marcum, Scott Richmond and Brian Wolfe; and Curtis Thigpen.  David Purcey takes on the Twins tonight, facing Glen Perkins, he of the sub-4 ERA.

Entering the final week of the regular season, just three of the eighteen playoff spots have been secured.

In honor of ESPN asking fans to pick the best players in the history of all 30 franchises, ESPN.com's Page 2 is, as they put it, " honoring those who weren't so accomplished."

They're providing three candidates for each team and want readers to choose the worst (player) season for each franchise from the past 50 years. "We scoured the records beginning in 1959 and came up with what we believe are three viable candidates for each team," it says on Page 2. Ready to meet your Blue Jay candidates? Feel free to defend/criticize their choices, but provide alternatives ... here we go ...