About a week and a half ago, I made a post regarding the MVP, Cy Young, and Rookie of the Year Awards for the Senior Circuit.  A decent number of people responded, so I thought an AL version may be a good idea.  I went ahead and named two in each category: a should win, as in who really deserves the award, and a will win, as in who the writers are most likely to pick.  Once again, if you feel I am a contemptible moron, please feel free to say so!

Oh, here is the NL version if you're curious. 

MVP: Alex Rodriguez (should win), Dustin Pedroia (will win)

This choice may seem a hair out of left field.  But just look at the numbers.  A-Rod is having a remarkable silent, yet monsterously beast-ish season.  His slash line clicks in at .304/.393/.584, with 34 home runs, good enough for second in the AL.  He leads the AL in slugging percentage, and is second in OPS.  He also leads the AL in VORP and is second is EQA.  Now, the man ahead of him in many of these categories is Milton Bradley, who is overshadowed a bit by his more famous teammate Josh Hamiltion and plays on a team that was out of the race the second they broke camp with this abomination of a pitching staff.  Bradley has been the best hitter, however he's also a DH.  In my mind, a player who plays reasonably well at a position and mashes is more valuable then a guy who mashes a bit better but sits on his can for most of the game.  Therefore, my choice is A-Rod.  Of course, he has no prayer b/c he is so unclutch and therefore sent Joba and Wang to the DL and made Hughes and Kennedy ineffective and made Captain Clutch have a bad year and made Posada get hurt and made Cano stink up the joint and so on and so forth...

One other guy needs to be discussed here: Carlos Quentin.  I think he would be right in the middle of the discussion, in terms of both who should win and who will win.  The guy was in the middle of a very very good year.  He still leads the AL in yacks, despite having not played since September 1st.  He's fourth in OBP, third in OPS, and third in EQA.  I think I still would have gone w/ A-Rod over Quentin, but Quentin has ben trule wonderful this season and deserves mention here.

Now, who will win?  It seems that Pedroia has become the chic pick.  He's had a tremendous season to be sure.  He's the batting champion at this point, a stat that writers seem to like.  He's also very high in OBP and has the second highest OPS amongst all second basemen.  He's also a solid fielder, clicking in fourth in RZR with 33 OOZ plays.  Plus, he played very well in during Papi's injury and the Manny drama.  Do I think he should win? Uhh...no.  He's not even been the best hitter at his position...But, alas, I'm not the one voting.  I think Pedroia's fortitude or scrappiness or whatever will get him there with the writers.

Cy Young: Cliff Lee (both)

Lee gets a lot of pub for his high win total and high win percentage.  I think that wins are almost completely meaningless as a measure of a pitcher's value, but in his case things are a hair different.  His team is not particularly good, and yet he's having a brilliant season win-wise.  He's also not just the benefactor of good play behind him or anything like that.  He's got the lowest FIP in the AL, clocking in at 2.78, a very impressive figure considering that he has to face DH's instead of pitchers and whatnot.  He's second in the AL in BB/9, has a K/BB ratio of 5.61.  This guy is having a hell of a year, and may very well win Comeback Player of the Year too.  He's a deserving choice...I worry that K-Rod will get more votes then he deserves b/c of his record-setting year, but I have faith that the voters will make the right choice this year. 

Rookie of the Year: Evan Longoria (both)

Now, you all are probably sitting out there saying "but wait, redbirdnation8206, you wouldn't pick Quentin, and he was out for a really long time, so why are you picking a guy who hasn't played the whole season with his team? You're a contemptable hypocrite!!!"  I would say...well, it's not really the same.  Fewer rookies play well enough to deserve the award then do non-rookies going for the MVP award, if that makes any sense.  Longoria has an EQA of .311, plays a very good third base, has 22 bombs, has arguably been the best hitter on one of the best teams in the league, is second amongst all rookie position players in VORP, and his name is very similar to this person, of whom you may have heard.  What more needs to be said?  He's also "carried," whatever that means, baseball's new darling little franchise, the Rays, who as you all may have heard, did battle with the evil Dr. Stat.  Anyway, I think the writers don't seem to know of any other rookies in the American League.  I'm really exaggerating here, but I think that they'll recognize Longoria's great contributions to his team, as well as the great partial year he's had and how that partial year is still more valuable than what his rookie peers have done.  In other words, I think he'll win. 

Damn, that was a lot of words to say that Longoria should and will win.