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The streak is over. The American League completely ignored the 7-9 record and 1.62 WHIP of Cleveland's Aaron Laffey and named Kansas City's Zack Greinke as their 2009 Cy Young Award winner. With Greinke's accomplishment comes the realization that the Indians have no choice but to keep all of their pitchers next season and that my Tribe bobblehead collection is about to get fifteen more Grady Sizemores in occupational clothing.

Tonight's Dugout is after the jump.

Wednesday night's loss to the White Sox didn't help the Royals' playoff chances one bit. It was a sobering night for Royals fans, who now have to come to terms with the possibility that their team might not be playing baseball late into October.

This team can still make it this year, though, if they do a few things right. There's a very strong possibility that today's Dugout is after the jump.

Have you seen the commercial for this year's All-Star Game yet? If not, here's a brief summary. A hand comes out of the sky and pulls the Gateway Arch out of the ground. It turns out that the Gateway Arch is a magnet that can attract baseball players and fans to it. (A special magnet.) The hand moves it all around America, picks up a bunch of people, then dumps them all on the Busch Stadium turf while Albert Pujols stands there and scowls. It's amazing.

It takes a minute to watch, but an eternity to comprehend. Fortunately, The Dugout's Speculation Station is here to help. Your Dugout is after the jump, and so is the video.

So far, The Dugout has established three relatively static "straight man" characters on the Royals: pitchers Zack Greinke, Brian Bannister, and Joakim Soria. This season, of course, they're joined by perennial Dugout man-children Kyle Farnsworth and Sidney Ponson. So we can say that the Royals have a Full House, Aces full of Jokers, and shovel this terrible poker-centric joke on top of the massive pile of poker-centric jokes that the Royals have had to suffer over the years.

Today's Dugout is after the flop.

The first meeting of The Dugout's Speculation Station was met with considerable success. Its panelists -- Brian Bannister, Carlos Delgado, and Chipper Jones -- contributed their thoughts in a (largely) rational and orderly manner, and as a result, a greater understanding was grasped of the item at hand.

Today, The Speculation Station turns its curious and objective gaze toward a 1988 commercial for the Nintendo Entertainment System's R.B.I. Baseball. Let's wish our thoughtful participants well as they attempt to digest and understand this material!

Today's Dugout is after the jump.

Anyone who has watched a local Cincinnati Reds broadcast is familiar with the JTM commercial that plays at least every other commercial break. It features Bronson Arroyo singing a song about frozen food products, and it is tremendous. With commercials like these, a simple pithy remark just will not cut it. Oh, no.

That's why I have decided to assemble the Speculation Station, a tribunal that gives special attention to things like this. Video of the commercial, as well as tonight's Dugout, are after the jump.