WAITING FOR WEDNESDAY, DAY 3

Word has it the Mets have Darryl Strawberry throwing out the first pitch before Wednesday night's Game 1. Good. The Mets need to pound people over the head with that 1986 championship these next few weeks. They can even break out some 2000 NL Champs against the Cardinals, for all I care. Don't think the Tigers won't be doing that with their 1984 folks. Play it up, Mets. Play it up.

Thought I'd revisit my pre-season picks, as we wait for the NLCS to get underway, and as we have a pretty clear picture of who will win what (the comeback players have already been named). I'll print what I wrote earlier in the year in italics - the playoff picks are from March, and the player award picks are from April 2 or so:

I totally blew the American League. I thought the Yankees would miss the post-season, the Indians would continue with last year's success (as would Chicago), and I debated a long time about who would win the West, and finally went with the Angels over the A's. Oops. In the NL, I got 3 of the 4 teams right, but I thought the Dodgers would dominate the West, and I was wrong about that. I also didn't think the Braves would fall so fast, although I did have them as the wild card to the division champ Mets.

NL Cy Young Award: I'm going with Tim Hudson, although I think Derek Lowe will get a few votes here (I expect a big season from him in L.A.).

Brutal year for Hudson. Lowe actually tied for the league lead in wins, after a slow start, but a bad year all around for National League pitchers. Who will win - maybe Brandon Webb?

AL Cy Young Award: Barry Zito. (Like I said, before their games on Monday...and he can't do any worse.)

I wrote that disclaimer in parentheses because in his first start of the season Zito got rocked. Zito had a good year, but Johan Santana will win this award.

NL MVP: Pretty generic, but I think it'll be Albert Pujols. I can't think of anyone else who will be that valuable to their team - I pick the Mets to do really well, but I don't think they're going to have that MVP-type standout guy. Everyone will contribute.

I was pretty right about the Mets not having the MVP-type, and I'll probably be right about Pujols - he'll probably edge out Ryan Howard.

AL MVP: I think David Ortiz gets his due this year. He keeps getting better.

I thought right - he's gotten his dues. But I think Derek Jeter deserves the MVP this year.

NL Manager of the Year: Willie Randolph will get recognized for unseating the Braves, edging out Grady Little.

Randolph would have won this year if Joe Girardi hadn't had such a successful season with the Marlins. But maybe Randolph does win becasue of the Mets' success. I was very high on the Dodgers this year, which is why I mentioned Little.

AL Manager of the Year: Might be Eric Wedge, because Guillen won it last year.

I was also high on the Indians. I'm guessing AL Manager of the Year is Jim Leyland.

NL Comeback Player of the Year: Nomar Garciaparra (if he ever gets off the DL).

Ding! Nailed it.

AL Comeback Player of the Year: Mike Lowell. I'm not sure if they even break up the Comeback Player award into AL and NL anymore, but if they do, these are my picks. If it's a Major League Comeback Player of the Year award, I'll go with Lowell, since he's a crossover between leagues anyway.

Jim Thome won the award, but I was right about Lowell having a big bounceback year.

NL Rookie of the Year: I'm not too familiar with the rookies this year, so I'm going to go with what I know, and say Brian Bannister, if he sticks around all year in the rotation and picks up 10+ wins.

I'm still not too familiar with the NL rookies. For a while it looked like the Dodgers' Ethier, but I think he fell out of the race. I'll say Ryan Zimmerman, I guess, of the Nationals.

AL Rookie of the Year: Whichever pitcher has a bigger impact on the Red Sox' staff - Jonathan Papelbon, or Craig Hansen.

I think I might have gotten this one right - Papelbon was dominant until he got hurt, and I think everyone realized how good he was.

MORE COMMENTS: Finally today, the Southern Bureau commented on the Red Sox/Yankees controversy - and check out the link he posted. I saw a Mets souvenir stand in a background shot of one of their Division Series games, and they had one of those "got postseason" shirts - I really hope the back didn't have "RIP Braves". But there's nothing wrong with taking "a little joy" out of the Yankees losing, Southern Bureau - it's when it becomes obsessive that I have a problem with it.

At least we can all agree on one thing - Dan Shaughnessy is an idiot.

Back to baseball Wednesday night - as long as I can, I'll be doing post-game updates.