On Friday, the right-handed Cuban pitching prospect Miguel Alfredo Gonzalez agreed to a six-year deal worth close to $60 million with the Phillies, according to an industry source. The Phillies had not yet confirmed the deal.

Welcome to Ace-Offs, MLB.com’s designation for can’t-miss pitching matchups. When two aces are scheduled to go head-to-head, we’re going to highlight it for you, the baseball fan.

For the third consecutive year Saturday, the National Baseball Hall of Fame will stage it awards ceremony at Doubleday Field, separating it from Sunday’s inductions. This year, the ceremony will be headlined by MLB.com reporter Paul Hagen, the recipient of the annual J.G. Taylor Spink Award

Way back in January, MLB.com launched its Top 100 Prospects list, along with Top 20 rankings for each organization. Now, well into the season and past the Draft, Minor League All-Star breaks and the Futures Game, the landscape of the MLB Pipeline has changed considerably.

Mat Latos threw 7 2/3 innings of two-run ball and Xavier Paul and Jay Bruce homered off Zack Greinke to snap the Dodgers’ six-game winning streak Thursday at Dodger Stadium, 5-2.

The Angels teed off in the fifth and sixth innings, totaling seven runs on nine hits to back an effective C.J. Wilson and notch an 8-3 victory over the A’s on Thursday.

Hisashi Iwakuma continued his mastery of the Twins on Thursday with six scoreless innings, and the Japanese right-hander got plenty of help from his offense as the Mariners rolled to an 8-2 victory in the opener of a four-game series at Safeco Field.

Before departing for New York, Alfonso Soriano got a chance to address his Cubs teammates one last time, saying an emotional goodbye to players he had provided leadership and mentorship to over the years.

Aaron Hill snapped out of his slump and provided the offensive support for left-hander Wade Miley as the D-backs beat the Cubs, 3-1, on Thursday night at Chase Field.

Curtis Granderson and Jayson Nix each went 0-for-2 with a walk and a run scored for Class A Advanced Tampa on Thursday night at George M. Steinbrenner Field, where they’ll remain through the weekend as they work their way back to the Yankees.

Right-hander Jeremy Guthrie fanned five in six solid innings for his second win over the O’s this season, as the Royals rolled to a 7-1 victory on Thursday night to claim the series at Kauffman Stadium.

It appears the next phase of the Cubs’ makeover is in full swing, while the Yankees are still very much playing for 2013. Those interests have intersected in the person of Alfonso Soriano with the Trade Deadline less than a week away.

Mark Buehrle tossed a two-hit shutout to snap Toronto’s seven-game losing streak as the Blue Jays topped the Astros, 4-0, on Thursday night at Rogers Centre.

For all his recent struggles, Lance Lynn still managed to become the National League’s fourth 12-game winner Thursday. The pacing issues that plagued Lynn his last time out appeared to return, but they didn’t last long as he overcame an escalating pitch count that surpassed 100 in the sixth to efficiently retire his last nine batters while the Cardinals hung on for a 3-1 win over the Phillies.

Porter Fischer, a former Biogenesis employee who exposed the anti-aging Miami clinic’s association with numerous baseball players, said in an interview aired Thursday on ESPN’s “Outside the Lines” that he has received little assistance from law enforcement after he turned over documents to a newspaper earlier this year.

Ryan Braun, responding to calls for comment beyond his carefully worded statement included in Major League Baseball’s announcement of a season-ending suspension, said Thursday he was not “legally allowed to say anything yet.”

Most teams simply don’t allow their best players to ever hit the free-agent market, so the Trade Deadline has become largely a marketplace for complementary pieces. That decision comes with a downside, too, and that’s what the Royals, Mariners and Phillies — and others — are wrestling with as Wednesday approaches.