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 heroesAL 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,
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):
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.
