By Darryl Reina
The best teams and players are headed to the playoffs. Who will win this season's MVP, Cy Young, and Rookie Of The Year awards? Can the Twins' Joe Mauer and the Pirates' Freddy Sanchez hold off the Yankees' Derek Jeter and the Marlins' Miquel Cabrera to win this year's batting titles? Check out this week's RealGM Top 25 Player Rankings, and my choices for the MVP and Cy Young awards.
This Week (Last Week)
(Statistics through games of September 23)
1.(1.) Ryan Howard: One of the best second year player's in baseball history. The young slugger (58 HR's) is my choice for NL MVP as he helps keep the Phillies' in the wildcard hunt.
2.(2.) Albert Pujols: The Cardinals are coming off a rough weekend in Houston, but Pujols continues to produce outstanding offensive numbers.
3.(3.) Derek Jeter: Jeter is hitting .338 for the AL East champs and has an outside chance to catch Joe Mauer for the batting title. The Yankee captain is my choice for AL MVP.
4.(4.) David Ortiz: Ortiz will finish a close second to Jeter in the MVP voting.
5.(7.) Johan Santana: Johan is baseball's best pitcher and my choice for AL Cy Young.
6.(5.) Miquel Cabrera: Cabrera has raised his average this week, but will probably finish second to Freddy Sanchez for the batting title.
7.(9.) Alfonso Soriano: Baseball's first 40-40-40 man.
8.(11.) Joe Mauer: Despite cooling off a bit, Mauer has responded to lead Jeter with a very nice .344 average with just a week to go.
9.(8.) Carlos Beltran: The Mets need a healthy Beltran to advance in the upcoming playoffs.
10.(6.) Jermaine Dye: Despite a late injury-bug, Dye was the White Sox' MVP.
11.(14.) Justin Morneau
12.(12.) Miquel Tejada
13.(13.) Roy Halliday
14.(10.) Vladamir Guerrero
15.(18.) Brandon Webb (My NL Cy Young choice)
16.(17.) Chris Carpenter
17.(25.) Lance Berkman
18.(24.) Frank Thomas
19.(23.) Freddy Sanchez
20.(16.) Jon Garland
21.(15.) Alex Rodriquez
22.(19.) Ichiro Suzuki
23.(20.) Justin Verlander
24.(21.) Vernon Wells
25.(22.) David Wright
Honorable Mention: Nomar Garciaparra, Trevor Hoffman, Chase Utley, Manny Ramirez, Travis Hafner, Matt Holiday, Adrian Gonzalez, Matt Cain, Aramis Ramirez, Derek Lowe, Dan Uggla, Brian McCann, Jose Contreras, Torii Hunter, Mariano Rivera, Carlos Zambrano, Paul Konerko, Ray Durham, Carlos Delgado, Robinson Cano, Mark DeRosa, Joe Borowski, Josh Johnson, Omar Vizquel, Paul Lo Duca, Moises Alou, Dave Roberts, Jake Peavey, Dan Haren, Barry Zito, Jason Kendall, Scott Rolen, Steve Trachsel, Lyle Overbay, Chris Young, Todd Helton, Francisco Rodriquez, Roy Oswalt, John Smoltz, Billy Wagner, Chien-Ming Wang, Brad Penny, Ervin Santana, Gary Matthews, Jr., Ivan Rodriquez, Carl Crawford, Jose Reyes, Chipper Jones, Andruw Jones, Casey Blake, Grady Sizemore, Carlos Lee, Bobby Abreu, Jeremy Bonderman, Jim Thome, Michael Young, Bobby Jenks, Ryan Zimmerman, Todd Jones, Johnny Damon, Randy Johnson, Garrett Atkins, Mike Piazza, Jay Payton, and Juan Pierre.






