Baseball

The results are in and, as many predicted, Zack Greinke has won the 2009 American League Cy Young Award .

He has also claimed:

Sporting News AL Pitcher of the Year

Bullet Logan Award—Negro Leagues

AL's Outstanding Pitcher—Player's Choice Award

KC Royals Pitcher of the Year

Cool.

What does all of this mean for me?

The latest out of the Philadelphia Phillies camp is that they want to feel out the market before they move in free agency.

That is better than the story the day before, where a source said that Mark DeRosa could land on the Phillies to fill the shoes of Pedro Feliz.

Oakland Athletics Director of Player Development Keith Lieppman, and Durham Bulls Manager Charlie Montoyo have been named the recipients of the second annual Sheldon “Chief” Bender, and Mike Coolbaugh Awards.

According to MILB.com , they will be honored along with the other award winners at the Baseball Winter Meetings in Indianapolis from Dec. 7–10.

The Bender Award is presented to an individual who has shown exceptional skills in player development.

Jason Kubel is finally where he belongs, at the top.

After a career-best season in 2009, Kubel, 27, proved to be one of baseball’s premier designated hitters, while working at a considerably lower rate than many of his contemporaries.

At this point, however, Kubel isn’t worried about getting a big payday.

It appears as though the Blue Jays aren’t winning over very many fans these days.

After the infamous Boston Red Sox ticket stunt, Jerseygate , and other numerous public relations blunders, the most recent development seems to have irked quite a few fans of both the faithful and fairweather kind.

Give Jim Hendry credit. He doesn't get them all right, but he doesn't get them all wrong, either.

On the same day that reports out of both major Chicago newspapers said Hendry will ink middling middle-reliever John Grabow to a two-year extension, he redeemed himself from that gaffe (as I saw it ), by trading reliever Aaron Heilman to the Arizona Diamondbacks.

At midnight, it begins.

Free agency basically ends everything from the 2009 season and begins the 2010 season.

For the 2009 World Series champion New York Yankees, it too begins their journey of defending their new championship that they worked hard to win.

Most people are probably wondering, where do the Yankees start in the offseason?

They have their own free agents to decide whether or not to bring back.

I still remember the first day I became a Mets fan.

It was spring of 1990 and there I was, five years old and ready to face the world of tee-ball. Where I lived in California, the teams were not green or orange, but actual baseball teams like the Yankees and the Dodgers.

As it turned out, I was destined to be on the Mets with my dad as coach. From then on, I was a Mets fan. There really are not a lot of memories from that age I can recollect, but this always stuck out in my mind