Joel Sherman of the New York Post appears to be the only local writer who can see the needs of the New York teams (outfielders and relievers) and think to report information about what either team will need to pay in the trade market.  He runs down several right-handed hitters who can play the outfield and are current residents of Traderumorville, USA.

Unmentioned is Barry Bonds, the one player Yankees' GM Brian Cashman and Mets' GM Omar Minaya have been forced to comment upon.  The Yankees appear in a better situation to resist the temptation given their deep reservoir of pitching prospects to use to address the outfield.  The Mets don't have that  and may be forced to seriously consider adding Barry Bonds.

Jason Bay and Xavier Nady, Pittsburgh Pirates:
Mr. Sherman confirms what Buster Olney said yesterday.  The Pirates want a ton for either OF - each garnering two premium prospects and Bay fetching a third B-level one.  At that price, I would be very surprised to see either dealt unless the Pirates' definition of "premium prospect" is different from my own.

To me a "premium prospect" is Matt LaPorta.  The Yankees would have to include AA OF Austin Jackson, the team's current #1 overall prospect according to Jim Callis of Baseball America.  The Mets would have to include OF Fernando Martinez.  I don't see either team dealing either player.

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Rotojunkie  has taken over the dynamic feature started by Baseball Happenings that draws on the collective knowledge of the blogging community to provide intelligence on which players are currently considered the leading contenders for the big three baseball awards - MVP, Cy Young and ROY - for the American and National leagues.  This week's AL voting should be available later today. 

Here is the way I voted.  My biases for voting in the Cy Young and MVP awards lean towards those hitters and pitchers playing on contending teams.  ROY determination is not tied are strongly to his team's record, but good rookies on expected paly-off contenders will get additional consideration.

AL Cy Young:
1.  Roy Halladay, Toronto Blue Jays
2.  Cliff Lee, Cleveland Indians
3.  Joe Saunders, Los Angeles Angels

Despite having two fewer wins and a higher ERA, Roy Halladay gets my 1st place vote over Cliff Lee.  Halladay has thrown 15 more innings (107.7 vs 92.7) and has a better K/BB ratio (6.6 vs 5.4).  With Lee returning back to Earth, he only has wins to prevent others from seeing he is no longer the front-runner for the award.

AL MVP:
1.  Josh Hamilton, Texas Rangers
2.  J.D. Drew, Boston Red Sox
3.  Milton Bradley, Texas Rangers

Josh Hamilton remains at the top of the AL MVP voting, but he is being challenged by teammate Milton Bradley, who current lead the AL in OBP (.451) and OPS (1.081).  Making a surprise leap into the top three is Boston Red Sox RF J.D. Drew.  With David Ortiz out of action, Drew has stepped-up in June with 7 HRs and a .447 AVG.  On the season, he is second in OBP and OPS to Milton Bradley.  He gets the 2nd place vote thanks the his team being in first and Bradley getting competition from Josh hamilton.

AL ROY:
1.  Jacoby Ellsbury, Boston Red Sox
2.  David Murphy, Texas Rangers
3.  Joba Chamberlain, New York Yankees

Anyone notice the New York Yankees have four rookie pitchers on their staff not including Ian Kennedy?  Maybe this plan of fiscal discipline will pay-off - assuming all of them last past the July 31st trading deadline.  I can see a couple of these rookies, like Jose veras and Russ Ohlendorf, finding their way the the Seattle Mariners for LHP Jarrod Washburn or Miguel Batista.

There has certainly been an outage of offense in the American League this season. The questions of why and for how long remain unanswered. Here is a list of the Top 3 players by position using Baseball Prospectus' VORP statistic. Note how much difference there is just between the top player and the third-best one. This would lead me to believe a Stars & Scrubs versus a balance approach may be the best fantasy strategy. Agree?

Also, note how poorly the OF VORP leaders due relative to the other position players. The top VORP is lower. This supports the contention that the OF is "shallow" relative to the other positions. However, the drop-off is not as dramatic. There could be more depth in the OF relative to other positions. This supports a strategy that focuses on acquiring the top positions player at the expense of OFs. Agree?

Finally, look at the top three DHs. This helps epxlain the drop in AL production this season. That extra hitter has struggled mightily. I bet the answer to this question goes a ways to explaining the production outage in the AL.