2009 MLB Preview Extravaganza, Part II (Brenner's picks)... and our first Weekly Links

AJ's PICKS (all right, let's hear from someone who kind of knows baseball. But...no, not really)

You Play to Win The Game! Divisional and Playoff picks

AL East: Yankees....................................................NL East: Mets
AL Central: Indians...............................................NL Central: Cardinals
AL West: Angels.....................................................NL West: Dodgers
AL Wild Card: Red Sox...........................................NL Wild Card: Marlins

AL Penthouse (best record): Yankees.....,...........NL Penthouse: Mets
AL Outhouse (worst record): Mariners...............NL Outhouse: Nationals

ALCS: Yankees beat Angels
NLCS: Marlins beat Dodgers

World Series: Marlins beat Yankees in 7 (That's right, folks. We're on the every-six-year-plan with the Fish, and their last title was...let's see...consulting Wikipedia...ah! Six years ago! It's their year!)

Hardware heroes

AL MVP (ranked 1 through 5):
1) Grady Sizemore, Indians. Can do it all at the plate and in the field. And just look at that puddum.
2) Josh Hamilton, Rangers
3) Evan Longoria, Rays
4) Alex Rodriguez, Yankees
5) C.C. Sabathia, Yankees

NL MVP:
1) Albert Pujols, Cardinals: Well, I paid $70 for him in our auction draft - almost 30 percent of my cap. He'd BETTER deliver.
2) Hanley Ramirez, Marlins
3) Manny Ramirez, Dodgers
4) Ryan Howard, Phillies
5) Ryan Braun, Brewers

AL Cy Young:
1) CC Sabathia, Yankees: he's a big man.
2) Ervin Santana, Angels
3) Roy Halladay, Blue Jays

NL Cy Young:
1) Tim Lincecum, Giants: could win 20 and whiff 250 this year.
2) Ubaldo Jimenez, Rockies (okay, I'm a homer)
3) Ricky Nolasco, Marlins

AL Rookie of the Year: Travis Snider, Blue Jays
NL Rookie of the Year: Cameron Maybin, Marlins

Best shot to win a Triple Crown, AL: Alex Rodriguez, Yankees
Best shot to win a Triple Crown, NL: Albert Pujols, Cardinals

Other random crap we’ll try to predict

Most underrated team: Cincinnati Reds (and, obviously, my WS pick, Florida)
Most overrated team: Oakland Athletics

Surprise player (most likely to overachieve): Yovani Gallardo, Brewers
Disappointing player (most likely to underachieve): Matt Holliday, Rockies Athletics. His career batting average outside Coors Field is .280, folks. Overrated, perhaps?

What a ripoff! (top-10 salary team to stumble): Since the $120 million Mariners are too obvious, I'll go the Chicago White Sox.
Livin’ on a budget (bottom-10 salary team to thrive): Since the $22 million Marlins or $43 million Rays are too obvious, I'll stay in the AL Central with the Kansas City Royals.

Biggest name to surface in 2009 season involving steroids (active players only): LeBron James, Caval...oops, wrong sport. How about Manny Ramirez, Dodgers? (Apr. 6 postscript: Jose Canseco apparently agrees this is possible)

WEEKLY LINKS

Story of the week: Big Ten commish stands up for his league...and the Big XII, and the Pac-10

Blog post of the week: Mark Cuban stands up for noble sportswriters and surviving newspapers

Video of the week: Not gonna YouTube this week...this airgliding video is sweeeeeeeeeet, I HUGELY recommend you watch it, you will not regret it

Audio of the week: If you haven't heard the "Pucker Pucker Pucker" man, your life is not yet complete. End of story. I might devote more space to this later this week.