Every autumn, there are arguments about what the "Most Valuable Player" award means, or should mean, and all the familiar arguments about winning teams, lineup protection and hitters vs. pitchers are trotted out ... among so many others. So let's settle this -- okay, at least set up the argument -- in June, rather than waiting to see if anyone wins 25 games or knocks in 150 runs or whatever ...

Here's the question: Who is the most valuable player in the game today, right now? And here are the parameters: If every player in the game was a free agent entered into a common draft, and you had the first pick, who would you take?

Some things to consider ... Age, salary, general health. So for instance, is Albert Pujols, age 29 and making $14M, worth more than David Wright, age 27 and making $5M? Or do you actually gamble on a rookie-wage youngster? Or ... do you prefer to fill a "tougher" position like catcher with Victor Martinez (Late edit: OK, OK, I should have written "Joe Mauer." Would you believe it was  typo?) or shortstop with Hanley Ramirez?

Make your pick. And defend it!

Las Vegas and New Hampshire won, Lansing lost, Auburn were washed-out.  The FSL had their all-star game and Moises Sierra had three hits, Tim Collins pitched a shutout inning.  Randy Ruiz and Brian Dopirak wielded the lumber for their teams with three hits each.  Ruiz had two home runs, Dopirak one.

So... where exactly does the Blue Jays pitching stand at the moment? Why don't we investigate.

I was saving this for tomorrow, but with the prospect of three pitchers hitting the DL all at once, it seems best to add this information to the discussion.

John Feinstein wrote a book titled "Next Man Up" a few years ago.  The book followed the Baltimore Ravens for a season and the title of the book comes from the theme that football is a game of injuries.  Football is a tough, vicious, injury-causing game and teams are always looking for the next man up to replace someone who has to leave the game due to injury.  The Blue Jays current theme is Next Man Up. 

The Jays have reportedly signed OF David Dellucci to a minor league deal, and will call him up after a couple of games in AAA.

While I had the spreadsheet open, I thought I'd check Jays starts on short rest. This data goes all the way back to the beginning.

In the wake of Roy Halladay's recent 133 pitch effort, the most ever in his career, I took a quick look at how Halladay had fared in his subsequent outings (very, very well indeed as it turned out.)

Seeing as how I have all this data available, I thought I'd also have a look as to where that game stood on the all-time list of pitches thrown by a Blue Jays starter, as well as any other bright and shiny objects that caught my attention.

The bats and brooms were out Monday night, as both Dunedin and Las Vegas had big offensive days, with Dunedin sweeping their two game tilt against St. Lucie.

Funny how a 9 game losing streak shifts the Jays from massive depth in the pen and rotation with a solid offense to a team needing help everywhere :)

Lets do some overall checking...

2 -for-4 for the affiliates on Sunday.  Las Vegas walked off with an improbable win, and Lansing's bats channeled the big club's to ruin a fantastic start by a quickly developing prospect.

Edward Rogers III has taken over from his father Ted as the controlling owner of the Jays.  A Western grad, Rogers is the President of Rogers Cable division.

No idea what this means for the Jays if anything, but, it's interesting to note that the official ownership remains in the Rogers family.

Disclaimer - the following is an article I wrote for Baseball Prospectus Idol, a contest whose purpose is to find a new writer for BP. The ten finalists have been announced, and, well, I am not among them. But I wanted this piece to see the light of day, so enjoy!

Disclaimer 2 - this piece was written before, um, certain events took place. Fortunately, these events only strengthen the article's main point!

Remember when I asked you to predict how every team in the bigs would perform this year? Let's see how people are doing.

All but five MLB teams have played at least a full one-sixth (27 games) of its schedule. And the casual fan might need a fifth to make sense of what's happening.

Toronto is in first place? Okay, you knew that. But Kansas City and Texas are leading the other two divisions? And Boston is just barely holding off Seattle for the Wild Card lead? Cleveland is in last place? The Yankees, Rays and Angels are all under .500?

The National League is making more sense, with the Phillies, Cardinals, Dodgers and Brewers all holding way-too-early-to-celebrate playoff spots right now. There are no stunning "losers" just yet, though the Mets surely expected to be better than 13-13.

What team has surprised you the most to this point?