AL Cy Young

The American League Cy Young is about to be announced in roughly 10 minutes. The serious candidates are Zach Greinke from the Royals who came back from some anxiety disorder to have a unbelievable year. Felix Hernandez of the Mariners who I don't think a lot of people realize how good he was because he plays in Seattle and CC Sabathia who won 19 games and of course helped lead the Yankees to the World Championship. The writers are only supposed to be voting on the regular season and I wouldn't expect them to be influenced by the Yankees winning and CC Sabathia being great in the postseason but who knows. I am going to pick Zach Greinke to win it. I will be back in a little while with the announcement and some reaction to it. UPDATE: Zach Greinke of the Royals won the award in a landslide. Felix Hernandez of the Mariners finished second with Justin Verlander third and CC Sabathia fourth. I think fourth is a little disappointing for CC but I am sure he doesn't mind since he has that nice shiny ring to show off. Tomorrow will be the NL Cy Young. I am glad I got this one right since yesterday I struck out with my predictions of the Rookie of the Year.

Same Old Jets

The New York Jets certainly talk a good game but they can't back it up. Rex Ryan came in as a rookie head coach with a lot of bravado and everyone was digging it in the beginning of the season and especially when the Jets got off to a 3-0 start but since then they have gone 1-5 and unless they can run the table there is almost no chance of them making the playoffs. They have a game next week at New England and they still have to play Indianapolis so them running the table looks highly unlikely. The Jets vaunted defense played great the whole second half but when they needed to make a stop and win the game they couldn't do it. Mark Sanchez has at times looked like the rookie he is but he has also done a lot of good things. It seems like the JEts just find ways to lose. They have had a chance to win every game they have played this season but lose more then they win. I don't believe in trash talking and all of that but if your going to do it you better back it up especially in this town and the Jets can't do that and until they do they will be the same old Jets. They have to regroup quickly and try to get a win in New England with a upset Patriots team who lost to the Jets in Week 2 and also had a tough loss at Indianapolis yesterday. I don't know what to say about the Jets but they better show up and play hard and at least give it a run and give their fans some hope for the future.

Me featured on another blog

Here is a link to me being featured in the Touching base blog by Jesse Spector in the NY Daily News today. I think you guys will enjoy me talking about the Yankees and getting a little hot stove action going. I want to hear your comments on this, how did I do? What did you think of this please let me know and thanks for all the support. http://www.nydailynews.com/blogs/touchingbase/2009/11/blogger-nine-innings-gary-marc.html

Rookie of the Year Awards announced

The Rookie of the Year awards were announced this afternoon and the winners are. Chris Coghlan of the Florida Marlins won it in the National League. He is a leftfielder and Oakland Athletics closer Andrew Bailey won it in the American League. I was wrong on both, I had picked Elvis Andrus to win it in the American League and Tommy Hansen in the National League. I guess you can say both were a bit of a suprise as they weren't the favorites to win the award. Elvis Andrus finished second in the AL voting and J.A. Happ finished second in the National League. Chris Coghlan had a strong second half as the Marlins leadoff hitter. He batted 321 with 9 homeruns and 31 doubles in 128 games. He also scored 84 runs and drove in 47. He was called up in May and led NL rookies in batting avg, runs, hits, total bases and on base percentage. He was the third Marlins player in 7 years to win the award. The others were Dontrelle Willis in 2003 and Hanley Ramirez in 2006. Andrew Bailey was 6-3 and had 26 saves. He led the AL rookies with a 1.84 era. He is the 8th A's player to win the award which ties them with the New York Yankees for most in the AL. Bailey made the team out of spring training and got an oppurtunity to close due to injuries and made the most of it. He was the A's lone representative in the All Star Game in July. Congratulations to both of these guys who worked hard and deserve it, it is nice to see some new stars coming up and lets hope they continue to work hard and respect the game.

Todays Awards

Today starts the week of awards in baseball. I know the gold gloves and silver sluggers were announced last week but this week we get the Rookie of the years, manager of the years, Cy Young and MVP's. Today kicks it all off with the AL and NL rookie of the years at 2:00PM. I am going with Elvis Andrus of the Texas Rangers in the AL and Tommy Hansen of the Atlanta Braves in the NL. Any other thoughts on this, predictions?? I would love to hear what everyone thinks. It is a slow time now for baseball but we will be doing these everyday and talking about the winners and then I would like to get into some hotstove action with the Yankees and Mets and in general around baseball.