Major League Baseball's MVP & Cy Young Winners Will Be… Part Two: The American League

Everyone on TV and sports talk radio loves to pontificate about the possible Cy Young and MVP winners in the National and American Leagues and I, predictably, am no different. I couldn't decide whether I wanted to write an article that focused on who I think should win or who I think IS going to win it. In the end, I decided focusing on the ladder, because who cares what I think-it' more fun to try and predict these things than to just ramble about players I like. Here are my Top 3 in each category for each league…

The American League MVP Award

3. Johan Santana - Minnesota Twins - REC 18-5 | ERA 2.77 | WHIP .98

I hate to say it because I don't feel like pitchers should qualify for the MVP award, but Santana has been getting so much buzz that it can't be ignored anymore. Sadly, his consideration for the MVP will probably take a lot of votes away from his deserving teammates Justin Morneau and Joe Mauer. I don't care that the playoff-bound Twins would be under .500 without Santana-pitchers already have their own award, and he's going to win that hands down.

2. David Ortiz, DH - Boston Red Sox - AVG .282 | HR 50 | RBI 130 | OBP .404

There are four reasons why David Ortiz won't win the MVP. Here they are, in order of importance: One, he's a DH (look at 2005, voters don't like giving this award to DH's-that's just a fact). Two, the Red Sox stumbled (If Boston hadn't collapsed, I for one believe that Ortiz should win the MVP but, thankfully, that's not the case). Three, his late season injury became a factor (It's sad to say that his heart scare could have a factor on something as arbitrary as an award, but it did hurt his statistics). Four, his Jeter comments (I don't want to make a big deal about this because I think that his quotes were taken out of context, but it needs to mentioned nonetheless).

1.Derek Jeter, SS - New York Yankees - AVG .339 | HR 14 | RBI 95 | OBP .414