For much of the season, Detroit Tigers starting pitcher Michael Fulmer has appeared to be the overwhelming favorite for the American League Rookie of the Year award. Then August rolled in, and the (late) summer of?Gary Sanchez?began.Has the?New York Yankees catcher, in just 44 games, done enough to unseat Fulmer -- not to mention the rest of 2016s rookie class? Yankees beat writer Andrew Marchand and ESPN Stats & Informations Mark Simon debate.Read their arguments -- then vote below.Marchand: Sanchezs start unmatched in historyGary Sanchez should be the Rookie of the Year. There are still some games to be played, but when you compare him against his main competition -- the Tigers outstanding rookie starting pitcher Michael Fulmer -- the Yankees catcher comes out on top.The main knock against Sanchezs candidacy is attendance. He has not been in the majors for very long, so how can you give him the Rookie of the Year award? On Thursday, Sanchez played in his 44th game this season. Some say that is a disqualifying figure.However, Fulmer has appeared in 24 games. Thats it. So if your argument is that Sanchez hasnt played enough, then the facts seem to trump that. Well, you say, Fulmer is a starting pitcher, so his impact is different. Maybe so, but it hasnt been greater than Sanchezs.Fulmer is 10-7 with a 3.03 ERA, which is very good. However, a deeper look at the numbers show he has trended in the wrong direction. In the first half, he was awesome, going 9-2 with a 2.11 ERA in 13 starts. In the second half, he is 1-5 with a 4.00 ERA in 11 starts. If you favor Fulmer over Sanchez, youre handing out the Rookie of the First Half award.Meanwhile, Sanchez might be having the greatest start to a career in the history of baseball. His 19 homers through the first 45 games of his career (43 games this year, plus two games last season) have never been matched in the history of the game. The next best home run start belongs to the Boston Braves Wally Berger, who needed 51 games to reach 19, way back in 1930.Sanchez is also exceptional on defense, with maybe baseballs best arm and a knack for pitch-calling and blocking balls. Sanchez has nearly single-handedly given the Yankees a chance to make the playoffs. He deserves the award over Fulmer or any of the other leading candidates, including Clevelands Tyler Naquin.Fulmer has had a very good year, but Sanchez has been better. And the fact he has made such an impact in so few games is a credit to him.Simon: Fulmer has been here all yearTake nothing away from what Gary Sanchez has done for the Yankees, but lets not forget that for a good chunk of the season, Tigers starter Michael Fulmer was the Gary Sanchez of pitching.Over a 14-start stretch spanning late May to mid-August, Fulmer pitched 93? innings and recorded a 1.44 ERA. He started that run by becoming the second pitcher in major league history to make four straight scoreless starts of at least six innings while allowing three hits or fewer, according to Elias Sports Bureau research. In those 93? innings pitched, he held opponents to a .176 batting average. For 2? months, he made opposing hitters look barely better than pitchers at the plate.Fulmer was a legit Cy Young contender until his recent fade (he has allowed six runs twice in his past five starts). He throws hard, and, after some early struggles, began throwing his changeup with greater frequency, which directly correlated to his run of success. You would want a Rookie of the Year to be a good learner, right?If we use Wins Above Replacement as our metric of choice, Fulmer is at 4.7 WAR, according to baseball-reference.com. Thats the same as Cole Hamels and a hair lower than Chris Sale. It ranks tied for sixth among AL pitchers. Sanchez is at 3.2 WAR.You could make the case for pro-rating Sanchez over a larger number of games, which would basically put his numbers on a Ruthian level. But that would presume he maintains his current level of production, which seems a faulty presumption. But is it faulty to presume that, had Fulmer made 30 starts instead of his 24, he would be a 6-WAR pitcher instead of a borderline 5-WAR pitcher? Maybe, maybe not, but its at least plausible.Point being: I wouldnt have a problem with Sanchez winning the AL Rookie of the Year award. But -- at the moment -- Fulmer is legitimately deserving, and he earned his way to that honor over virtually the entire season.Cheap Jerseys Paypal . 10 Texas A&Ms offence dominated as usual against SMU. Stitched Authentic Jerseys ., for the next three years with the signings on Monday of Daryl Townsend and Michael Carter. https://www.chinajerseysfreeshipping.com/ . The 28-year-old from Calgary matched his career best after missing just one shot in his two rounds of shooting in the mens 10-kilometre sprint competition. Smith finished in 23 minutes 15. China Jerseys 2020 . Still, Brewers manager Ron Roenicke thought taking him out before the fifth inning was an unusual move. "Im looking up at the board and hes got two hits given up and one run, and Im taking him out after the fourth inning," Roenicke said. Wholesale China Jerseys . They reached the 100-point plateau for the fourth time in five games, bested the visiting Trail Blazers by 34 in the paint and scored 19 of the final 25 points in regulation.The world became a strange place on Wednesday. The last thing you expected to happen came over, sat down and gave you a big fat kiss. A bit like Bugs Bunny; that wascally wabbit always comes out trumps.Rajkots events may not trouble the wider public, but from the moment the coin fell in Englands favour, India were in unfamiliar territory. At least as far as recent memory goes. Virat Kohli has been able to win seven out of seven tosses since his first match in charge at home. Only once had he chosen to field, in the rained-out draw against South Africa in Bangalore a year ago. Every other time he and his men put runs on the board and won the game.Here, Alastair Cook called heads. It came down as heads. England batted for the rest of the day. India became a set of Elmer Fudds for the rest of the day: clumsy to start with and unthreatening for large parts.The dropped catches - three in the first half-hour - should be held against them. But they cant be faulted for effort. R Ashwin did get his offbreaks to drift and dip. Ravindra Jadeja did trap the batsman in his crease. Mohammed Shami and Umesh Yadav did generate reverse swing. So what was missing? Why did they concede 311 runs and the first century scored by a visiting batsman since 2013?Scoreboard pressure. India had to make do without it.The Saurashtra Cricket Association was hosting its first Test. The schedule has been arranged in such a way that the fourth and fifth days fall on the weekend to encourage a large crowd to come over. So, measures were taken to avoid quick finishes or meandering run-fests, both of which are common when domestic teams play Ranji Trophy first-class matches here. The pitch was dressed up with patches of grass, and in between there were several bare patches. This led to some variable bounce, but crucially there was very little turn.So the three spinners - Ashwin, local boy Jadeja and Mishra - had almost nothing to work with.Since 2015, particularly at home, they have come on with a horde of close-in fielders. Slips, silly points, gullies, leg gullies, short legs. A veritable group of bandits ready to swindle the batsman of his confidence. Additionally, until now, India had batted first in six out of seven matches. That meant their bowlers were given a pitch which had been worn down by a lot of cricket, ranging from 68 to 169 overs.As a result, there had been a lot more turn to exploit. There could be awkward bounce as well. Then, factor in Ashwin and Jadejas talent for maximising natural variation. Thats a heck of a lot for a batsman to handle. The immediate thought in such a situation is: Why not get off strike? Thats easier saiid than done.dddddddddddd As former Test opener Aakash Chopra has articulated before, manoeuvring the ball into gaps on a turning pitch is very hard. Opening the face brings the slips into play. Closing the face invites the risk of being dismissed in any number of ways. Bowled by the dip, lbw while playing across the line. Caught off the leading edge.Okay, do something drastic then. Hit out. Upset their rhythm.Seems simple enough, yes. But theres a psychological deterrent - in the back of your mind, you always know a false shot might not only be the end of you but of your team too. In the final innings in Indore, New Zealand went from 80 for 2 to 138 for 9 after Ross Taylor was bowled playing an awful sweep.These are the devastating advantages of scoreboard pressure. And India had none of it in Rajkot.So Kohli, having to manufacture some, operated with in-out fields. With the lack of turn, though, Joe Root and Moeen Ali were able to nudge the ball into the gaps and keep the score ticking along. Their 179-run partnership included only 14 fours and a six - essentially 62 runs in boundaries - all the rest came via singles and twos. They still maintained a run-rate of 3.70.And when Kohli tried to bring men up to make the rotation of strike difficult, Root and Moeen deliberately went over the top and Indias captain had to go on the defensive again. It was beautifully paced cricket, with a distinct lack of frills. Only late in the day, when Root was past his hundred and Moeen was approaching his own, did they break into the toy cupboard and pull out the reverse sweeps or advance on Jadeja, he who fires them in at 90kph, and smack him into the sightscreen.In 62 overs of spin, India could manage only six maidens. Thats less than 10%.Having to bowl first, India wanted to be on the money, and preferably not the 500- or the 1000-rupee variety, which went defunct overnight and are to be replaced. There were encouraging signs. Cooks outside-edge was an affable guest star in a half-hour episode of When Shami And Umesh Bowl Well Together. Ashwin out-thought young Haseeb Hameed and Ben Duckett. India went to lunch happy despite the dropped catches.But it was England who were ahead of the game, with no scoreboard pressure on them, and faced with a pitch on which their own seamers could prove to be the danger, thanks to reverse swing and a bare patch of uneven bounce on a good length. Root and Moeen tucked into every over of spin that was bowled. One of them will return on Thursday hungry for more. ' ' '