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The NL Cy Young might be a close race this year.  Tim Lincecum is the leader, but plenty of others merit consideration: Adam Wainwright, Chris Carpenter, Matt Cain, and Dan Haren.  Ubaldo Jimenez, Josh Johnson, Javier Vazquez, Clayton Kershaw, Jair Jurrjens, Joel Pineiro, Randy Wolf, and Wandy Rodriguez are having strong seasons as well.  We've got about a month to go, keep in mind.

The last few NL Cy Young winners: Lincecum, Jake Peavy, Brandon Webb, and Carpenter.

Next up in our awards discussion, the AL Cy Young.  The candidates: Zack Greinke, Felix Hernandez, C.C. Sabathia, Roy Halladay, Edwin Jackson, and Justin Verlander.  Jon Lester could enter the mix with a huge September.  Mariano Rivera is another name to consider, if you like closers for this award.  Here's the question: can you make a legitimate argument for anyone other than Greinke, without bringing up win totals?

The last few AL Cy Young winners: Cliff Lee, Sabathia, Johan Santana, and Bartolo Colon.

Would you like to join the MLB Trade Rumors team?  We are looking to add a couple of writers.  The position pays on an hourly basis.  The criteria:

• Strong evening availability – typically 5-10pm CST shifts.  Weekday daytime availability is a plus. 
• Knowledge of all 30 baseball teams, no discernible bias toward your favorite.  Knowledge of basic hot stove concepts, arbitration for example.
• Ability to analyze articles and craft intelligent, well-written posts summing up the news in a few paragraphs.  I want the best of both worlds, as you have to be able to do this very quickly after the source article is published.  It's preferred that you add value to the article with your own insight, numbers, or links to other relevant articles.
• Attention to detail – absolutely no spelling errors, especially for player and journalist names.  Ability to follow the MLBTR style and tone.  Also it is important to avoid duplicating content previously covered on the site and avoid posting about topics MLBTR does not cover.
• Ability to use an RSS feed reader such as Google Reader.  Ability to use Twitter.  Both of these are crucial.
• Blogging experience is preferred.  We use TypePad, which is easy to use if you have blogged before.
• You have to be able to put up with me, responding to constructive criticism and digesting the MLBTR instruction document quickly.
• If you're interested, email mlbtrhelp@gmail.com and explain your qualifications.  Also, within the body of your email (not as an attachment) write one sample, fictional MLBTR post using real players.  For this sample post, come up with something that could actually happen.
• Please don't send anything to my other email address.  Usually we receive a few hundred inquiries, so unfortunately I cannot reply to all or even most.  Thanks.

For those of you who don't feel like digging through Eddie's latest Elias ranking projections, here's a list of free agents projected to snag Type A status.  An asterisk means the player has a 2010 option.

Bobby Abreu
Jason Bay
Josh Beckett*
Rafael Betancourt
Orlando Cabrera
Johnny Damon
Jermaine Dye*
Scott Eyre
Chone Figgins
Troy Glaus
Mike Gonzalez
John Grabow
Kevin Gregg
Vladimir Guerrero
Rich Harden
LaTroy Hawkins
Trevor Hoffman
Matt Holliday
Orlando Hudson
John Lackey
Cliff Lee*
Felipe Lopez
Victor Martinez*
Bengie Molina
Darren Oliver
Magglio Ordonez*
Andy Pettitte
Manny Ramirez*
Marco Scutaro
Rafael Soriano
Billy Wagner*
Randy Wolf
Jose Valverde

You can forget about Beckett and Lee hitting the market, and Martinez is unlikely.  Cabrera cannot be offered arbitration if he's a Type A, per the terms of his contract.  That leaves us with 29 potential Type A free agents with the chance for draft pick compensation.  Of course, to have a shot at two draft picks the team needs to offer arbitration.  That's not happening for Glaus and several others.  Click here for a refresher on draft pick compensation.

The Angels lead the way with five potential Type As.  The Cubs, Dodgers, and Red Sox each have three (not counting Beckett).

Yesterday's AL Rookie of the Year discussion post generated a ton of discussion.  Today let's get your thoughts on the NL candidates.

Names likely to be in the mix: Andrew McCutchen, Garrett Jones, Chris Coghlan, Dexter Fowler, Everth Cabrera, Casey McGehee, Ryan Roberts, Will Venable, Colby Rasmus, Gerardo Parra, Jake Fox, Ryan Hanigan, Chris Dickerson, J.A. Happ, Randy Wells, Tommy Hanson, Ronald Belisario, Ramon Troncoso, Kenshin Kawakami, Jordan Zimmermann, Brian Sanches, Dan Meyer, and Luke Gregerson.  Here's a look at the names we were considering back in April, by the way.  Jones, Coghlan, Happ, and Wells were not top contenders at that point.

Recent NL ROY winners: Geovany Soto, Ryan Braun, Hanley Ramirez, and Ryan Howard.

The other day we talked about which players we'd like to see called up to the big leagues this month, so let's change things up a bit. What do you think about the concept of September callups in general?

Is it fair to have more players available this late in the season when playoff races are being decided? You can argue that having an extra reliever or an extra pinch hitter possibly decide a game in September isn't fair to the 25 players who've been on the roster all year. Would it make more sense to have callups in April?

Let us know what you think in the comments. 

Let's get away from the hot stove for one post and talk about the American League Rookie of the Year candidates.  Rattling off some of the top names:  Nolan Reimold, Elvis Andrus, Gordon Beckham, Brett Gardner, Andrew Bailey, Brad Bergesen, Jeff Niemann, Ricky Romero, Jose Mijares, Tommy Hunter, Rick Porcello, Brett Anderson, and Scott Richmond.  Who's been the most valuable rookie in 2009?  And which of these players would you most want on your team moving forward?

The last few AL ROY winners: Evan Longoria, Dustin Pedroia, Justin Verlander, Huston Street, and Bobby Crosby.

It's hard to believe that it's almost September, no? The sun is going down a little earlier these days, it's getting a bit more breezy out, and the playoff races are starting to heat up. Teams can start calling up extra players on Tuesday, so clubs out of contention will hold auditions for next year while teams in the race will add extra weapons off the bench and bodies to keep their regulars rested.

Who do you want to see your favorite team call up? If you're a Pirates fan, do you want to see Pedro Alvarez in September? What about Jason Heyward or Buster Posey? Mike Stanton? Remember, a player has to be on the 40-man roster to be in the Major Leagues, so a callup might not be as easy as you think. 

Forgive the self promotion, but if you're a Yankees fan, I wrote about who the team may call up in September earlier this week at my usual spot, River Ave Blues.

We all know about the nearly two decades worth of futility. The Pirates haven't cracked the .500 plateau since 1992 and it's all but certain that streak will not come to an end this season. However, after years of the previous regime filling out the roster with expensive band-aid veterans like Jeromy Burnitz and Mark Redman, new GM Neal Huntington has reversed course and dealt basically all of his veterans for young bodies that he hopes will be the foundation of the next contending Pirates team.

Some of Huntington's more notable trades include…

• Trading Jason Bay to Boston for Andy LaRoche and three other prospects.
• Trading Xavier Nady and Damaso Marte to the Yankees for Ross Ohlendorf and three other prospects.
• Trading Nate McLouth to Atlanta for Charlie Morton and two other prospects just four months after signing him to an extension.
• Trading Freddy Sanchez to San Francisco for prospect Tim Alderson.
• Trading Ian Snell and Jack Wilson to Seattle for Jeff Clement, Ronny Cedeno and three additional prospects.

The media and fan backlash has been harsh, but Huntington has stuck to his guns. He has invested heavily in the draft the last two seasons, and has young Andrew McCutchen turning heads as McLouth's replacement. The team is still losing with regularity, but at least now the franchise appears to have a direction.

What do you think of the moves the Pirates have made in the last year or so? Do you think they're on the right track, or were they better off keeping players like Bay and McLouth and Sanchez and building around them? There's an argument to be made for both scenarios, but tell us what you think in the comments.

While we're still awaiting official word, it appears that the Angels will add Scott Kazmir to their rotation at the cost of some prospects later tonight. The Halos will reportedly take on Kazmir's entire contract, which is upwards of $23MM if the club declines his 2012 option. The team also has a decision to make this coming offseason about incumbent ace John Lackey, who is set to become a free agent for the first time in his career.

So tonight's question is this: how will the Kazmir pickup affect the Angels pursuit of John Lackey, if at all? Does the club now have a little more leverage now, meaning they could hold the line in negotiations with Lackey a little harder than they would have since Kazmir represents a "replacement ace." Or does it not even matter?