Awards

After making my pick for the American League Cy Young, which was an easy decision on my part, I move on to the American League Most Valuable Player, which is a bit more difficult to choose.

The 2010 Hall of Fame ballot has been hotly debated in the past few weeks, and for good reason: there's no clear-cut person, no Ricky Henderson, no Paul Molitor to draw the majority of the votes. 

While it may be boring for some, it opens a whole avenue of discourse for many others. With first timers like Barry Larkin, Edgar Martinez, and Roberto Alomar, there's bound to be a lot of votes spread around this year.

With return engagements like Bert Blyleven and Andre Dawson, there's no certainty that anyone is going to enter on their first ballot this year. 

Joe Mauer can now add American League Most Valuable Player to his already imposing resume.

Mauer received 27 out of 28 first-place votes to runaway with the award.

Detroit Tigers first baseman Miguel Cabrera received the other first-place vote but the first baseman finished fourth overall.

Mark Teixeira and Derek Jeter of the New York Yankees finished second and third, respectively.

Mauer finished with 327 total points, well ahead of Teixeira, 225, and Jeter, 193. Despite garner the other first-place vote, Cabrera, finished a distance fourth with 171 points.

Ron Gardenhire has long been considered one of baseball’s best managers.

In 2009, he proved his mettle once again by leading the Minnesota Twins to yet another division title in the American League Central.

The pennant marked his fifth division title in eight seasons as the Twins’ skipper.

Seeing how it is award season now, with the Rookie of the Year awards coming within the next hour, I thought it'd be good to look at this past decade as a whole and name my awards.

While it will be difficult to name the Rookie of the Year as a decade (you'll see what I'll do there), I'm throwing in a new category and replacing an old.

No more Most Valuable Player. We're talking Player of the Decade for each league, and let us not forget the franchise of the decade for both leagues.

Forward, march!

Of all the sights that Blue Jays fans were subjected to over 162 games this year, the one above is one that I never got sick of seeing.

For their incredible efforts this season, Adam Lind and Aaron Hill were rewarded as recipients of the American League Silver Slugger awards . The two brought strength and power back to the heart of the Blue Jays lineup in 2009, combining for 71 home runs and 222 RBIs.

The Baseball Bloggers Alliance was formed with the intention of getting a group of amateur baseball writers to vote on season awards the same way the Baseball Writers Association does.

Think of it as a second opinion.

Well the results are in.

And so the first month of the 2009 baseball season comes to a close.

The Marlins opened the season hotter than Jessica Alba and Megan Fox combined, and have sputtered a bit since while hanging onto a slim division lead. The Padres, Blue Jays, Mariners, and Pirates have all pleasantly surprised their fans than being much better than the pundits claimed.