We've already covered the MLB Executive of the Year, the Rookies of the Year, and the Cy Youngs, meaning there's only one set of BtBWAA awards left: the Most Valuable Players.
The AL MVP race is particularly interesting this year because there are legitimate arguments for many different types of players. In addition to the usual tension between sabermetric definitions of "valuable" and those based more in traditional back-of-the-baseball-card stats and intangibles, the top candidates are a group of diverse players who have different strengths and primary sources of value. As a result, this was one of the BtBWAA's closest votes this year.
Without further ado, here are the results of our AL MVP vote. As with the real vote, ballots were scored using a 14-9-8-7-6-5-4-3-2-1 system. First-place votes are in parentheses.
| 1. | Jose Bautista, Blue Jays — 133 (7) |
| 2. | Jacoby Ellsbury, Red Sox* — 112 (3) |
| 3. | Justin Verlander, Tigers — 81 (1) |
| 4. | Miguel Cabrera, Tigers — 68 |
| 5. | Dustin Pedroia, Red Sox — 55 |
Full results after the jump.
| 6. | Curtis Granderson, Yankees — 50 |
| 7. | CC Sabathia, Yankees — 35 |
| 8. | Ian Kinsler, Rangers — 28 |
| 9. | Adrian Gonzalez, Red Sox — 23 |
| 10. | Ben Zobrist, Rays — 18 |
| 11. | Alex Gordon, Royals — 16 |
| 12. | Evan Longoria, Rays — 11 |
| 13. | Jered Weaver, Angels — 6 |
| 14. | Robinson Cano, Yankees — 5 |
| 15. | Alex Avila, Tigers — 4 |
| T16. | Adrian Beltre, Rangers — 1 |
| T16. | David Ortiz, Red Sox — 1 |
| T16. | James Shields, Rays — 1 |
*—includes votes for "Tacoby Bellsbury"
I think the actual BBWAA results will end up looking pretty different than ours. Bautista doesn't seem to have gained much traction for the MVP outside the saber-sphere, and both he and Ellsbury will probably be punished by the real voters because their teams missed the postseason. I'm guessing Verlander and Cabrera will combine for more than one first-place vote in the real balloting, and I'd be shocked if Bautista and Pedroia beat Granderson and Gonzalez (given the hype around his candidacy).
If anyone cares, my ballot went: Bautista, Bellsbury (that was me), Verlander, Cabrera, Kinsler, Pedroia, Gonzalez, Longoria, Granderson, Zobrist. I kept going back and forth about the bottom of my ballot, and if I had to vote again today I might throw Sabathia or Gordon in there somewhere. For an award like this there's no single right way to fill out the second half or so of the ballot.
Later this week, we'll unveil our final award: the NL MVP.