BASEBALL'S AWARD WINNERS

The form calls to pick the Cy Young Award, MVP and Rookies of the Year recipients in each league on here, the possible final day of the major-league baseball regular season:

AL Cy Young: Johan Santana, Twins. First American League lefty to win a pitching Triple Crown -- most wins, strikeouts and lowest earned-run average -- since Hal Newhouser in 1945, who did it a wartime season.

AL MVP: Derek Jeter, Yankees. As close as Jeter and Twins catcher Joe Mauer are in the batting race -- Mauer, attempting to become the first catcher to ever win the AL batting title, is ahead of Jeter .346-.345 -- the MVP race is even tougher to call. In the end, Jeter's all-around offensive skills (2nd in the AL runs, 4th in on-base average, a 900-plus OPS and 33 steals in 38 tries) combined with his mostly capable defence at shortstop edges out Mauer, whose offensive value is mostly contained in his batting average.

AL Rookie of the Year: Justin Verlander, Tigers. Wore down in the second half. Twins' Francisco Liriano was a leading candidate before missing much of the season with arm problems.

NL Cy Young: Brandon Webb, Diamondbacks. Goes into his final start as the league leader in ERA (2.88) and WHIP (1.11 walks and hits per inning pitched). No one's noticed since he pitches out in the desert. Winning will more than make up for him unfairly losing out on Rookie of the Year to Dontrelle Willis back in '03.

NL MVP: Carlos Beltran, Mets. A friend pointed out last night that the argument for 58-homer man Ryan Howard is that the Philadelphia Phillies would have gone nowhere without him. Unfortunately for me, at the time I didn't have the numbers; Albert Pujols has accounted for 11 more runs than Howard, and his Cardinals have counted 85 fewer runs than Howard's Phillies.

Miguel Cabrera has also accounted for more runs than Howard, and his Florida Marlins has scored 108 fewer runs than the Phillies. Here's the four leading MVP candidates and their run output as a percentage of their teams' totals.

Cabrera, Marlins: 26.49% (200 of 755)

Pujols, Cards: 26.48% (206 of 778)

Beltran, Mets: 23.55% (195 of 828)

Howard, Phils: 22.48% (194 of 863)

Honestly, that might not even be a good way, let alone the best way, to figure out a player's value to his team. So why Beltran? Well, the sense here is that his defence in centre-field (the other three are all corner infielders) more than makes up for Cabrera and Pujols' greater importance to their team's offence. It wouldn't suck if Pujols won, but it will if Howard does.

NL Rookie of the Year: Hanley Ramirez, Marlins. By far.

Related:
NL MVP: Howard vs. Beltran (Sept. 10)
AL Cy Young: Halladay vs. Santana (originally posted Aug. 27)

That's all for now. Off to watch the 67's and Frontenacs. Send your thoughts to neatesager@yahoo.ca.