Andrew Friedman, the genius behind the Rays' sudden rise, was honored on the first night of the GM meetings as the Sporting News' Executive of the Year. Baseball Prospectus (those silly stat geeks...) honored Joe Maddon as the AL Manager of the Year along with naming Evan Longoria the AL ROY.

The official awards come out next week when Maddon is expected to be named the Manager of the Year and Longo expected to rack up another ROY award.

(And don't look now, but the strong favorite for 2009 ROY? Oh yeah, he belongs to the Rays... sorry MLB, but we're gonna be around a while!)

Albert Pujols was the MVP, so three cheers for him.