Coco Crisp Traded To Royals  —  By Tim Dierkes [November 19 at 11:09am CST]  —  11:09am: The deal is official, according to a Royals press release.  —  10:23am: SI.com's Jon Heyman confirms the deal.  —  10:02am: Red Sox exec Ben Cherington was on XM's MLB Home Plate radio station recently.

MVPs: Howard & K-Rod, Not Pujols & Pedroia  —  Thirty years ago, I created the statistic Total Average.  Now I'm almost ashamed to have been one of the original baseball geeks.  Where did we go wrong?  —  This week, Albert Pujols won the NL MVP Award.  Why?

PADRES: Where are all of Peavy's suitors?  —  Cubs may be out of running after re-signing Dempster  —  The news that the Chicago Cubs signed pitcher Ryan Dempster on Tuesday could severely affect the club's participation in the Jake Peavy sweepstakes.  —  But according to some published reports, it might not.

BERNIE: I'M NOT DONE YET  —  Musician Bernie Williams said last night he has a new CD coming out in April called “Moving Forward.”  —  Just in case any GMs like Brian Cashman are interested, Williams also said he has not shut the door on his baseball career.  Williams, 40, is not totally ready to move forward away from baseball.

Yankees-Sabathia: What's the holdup?  —  Things don't move as quickly this time of year as we all hope they would or think they should.  The Yankees offered CC Sabathia $140 million for six years last Friday, and the popular question now is: “What's taking him so long?”

Commentary: Valverde, Wigginton have to go  —  Goodbye, Jose Valverde.  You, too, Ty Wigginton.  Pick up your lovely parting gifts at the door.  —  The Astros seem likely to trade both of them in the next few weeks.  You won't like the reason.  Don't shoot the messenger.

Mets have choice of either K-Rod or Fuentes  —  The Mets have many goals and many choices in this baseball offseason, but as they take in the lay of the land now, they think they know this:  —  Acquiring a closer will be first on their list of accomplishments.

News: Murphy has a Knee Sprain  —  According to a league source, Mets 2B Daniel Murphy suffered a right knee sprain in the Arizona Fall League, which is why he has not played since Nov. 10.  —  Murphy had been hitting .397 with 18 RBI in 15 games during the AFL.

Cubs go Dempster crazy  —  After settling mound concerns by giving Dempster 4-year, $52M deal, team set to address lineup worries  —  Having accomplished their top offseason priority more than a week before Thanksgiving, the Cubs start turning their attention today to the left-handed-hitting …

Wakamatsu to Mariners, Dempster contract info  —  It was eight days ago that reality intervened with vacation.  I was supposed to be on vacation when Matt Holliday was traded to the Oakland Athletics.  It brought to mind not Dante Bichette, but Dante from “Clerks.”