AL MVP Named Today

The AL MVP will be announced at 2 PM. So far, the BBWAA has been doing a fairly decent job:

AL Cy Young: Cliff Lee (24 of 28 1st place votes)
AL Rookie: Evan Longoria (28 of 28)
AL Manager: Joe Maddon (27 of 28)

NL MVP: Albert Pujols (18 of 32)
NL Cy Young: Tim Lincecum (23 of 32)
NL Rookie: Geovany Soto (31 of 32)
NL Manager: Lou Piniella (15 of 32)

However:

Someone gave Dale Sveum a third-place vote for NL Manager of the Year -- for guiding the Brewers to a 7-5 record over their last 12 games.

Two voters picked Brad Lidge for NL MVP.

Ryan Howard got 12 first-place votes to Pujols's 18. It should not have been anywhere near that close. As MLB's Matthew Leach writes:

It was by some measures [Pujols's] best season. He hit .357, two points shy of his career high, and set new personal bests with a .462 on-base percentage, a 1.115 OPS and 104 walks. He slugged .653, nearly 30 points better than his career average, cranking 37 homers and 44 doubles. Pujols drove in 116 runs, scored 100 and struck out just 54 times. ... He never hit lower than .302 in any month, never had an OBP lower than .413 and never slugged below .558. He came on especially strong in the second half, batting .366 and slugging .706 after the All-Star break.

Over in the AL, Jon Lester received no Cy Young votes, while Daisuke Matsuzaka collected two second-place votes and four third-place votes. Odd.

This MLB article gives the AL MVP favourites as Francisco Rodriguez and Josh Hamilton. WTF? Frod was not even the best reliever on his own team -- forget the league. (In the Cy Young voting, many writers transferred their love of the W to the Sv and gave Frod seven second-place votes and 11 third-place votes.)