4) Albert Pujols

Sports Illustrated Feat.

THE MACHINE!!

Jose Alberto Pujols also known as Prince Albert, Phat Albert, and my favorite THE MACHINE! Over Albert's 12 year career he has been one of the most consistent hitters in the entire league. He is always around a .300 average, 30 plus home runs, 100 plus runs batted in, and 170 hits per year. He has won the Most Valuable Player award three times in his eleven year tenure with the Saint Louis Cardinals. He is an annual top 5 MVP candidate being in the top 5 ten of twelve times in voting including his rookie campaign finishing fourth! He won back to back Most Valuable Player awards from 2008-09. Albert has been a leading force for St. Louis winning two World Series with them. He was one of their best players ever! That is saying something too considering who has played for the Cardinals. He ranks among Stan Musial, Bob Gibson, Ozzie Smith, Mark McGwire, and Rogers Hornsby. Pujols is no slouch on the defensive end. He is a two-time Gold Glove winner. This past season he divorced his long time love of St. Louis to head to a bigger named city like Los Angeles. He struggled in his first season with the Angels. His home run power was lacking, his average was at a career low, and he was not stroking the ball like normal. He was still getting accustomed to the American League. Once he found his groove, he was back on pace to being the big time investment that the Angels were looking for. Albert shocked the baseball world when he signed his huge contract. He signed a 10 year, $240 million dollar contract. In his last season he will be 41 years young. I understand his value now and when they signed him, but to pay a player $28 and $30 million when he is 40 and 41 years old, in my mind is too much. I do not see how they expect him to still produce for that worth, at that age. He is a great player now and a year after year MVP candidate. The Angels for sure expect him to be because they have him locked up for a long, long time.

3) Justin Verlander

Ace

Justin Brooks Verlander rolls in at number three on this list of greats. Verlander is the only pitcher too make my list of Most Valuable Players. He is not on here though because he is from Detroit. Justin is the league's most elite pitcher and has been for most of his career. He was a home grown and raised Detroit Tiger. He only started two games in his "rookie year". In his second season, his official rookie year, he carried a heavy load of the Detroit Tigers pitching staff starting a tremendous thirty games for a rookie. He performed quite well, winning the Rookie of the Year award. Other than Justin's 2008 season where he lost a hefty 17 games, he has not lost more than 9 games in one season. He has been a 15 game winner five times, and a twenty game winner once. In that year where he won twenty games he won the Most Valuable Player and the Cy Young award (2011). The last pitcher to win the MVP was Dennis Eckersley in 1992. Back to Verlander's outstanding, he led the league in lowest earned run average (2.40), strikeouts (239), and wins (24). Year in and year out J.V. is out on that mound, making 30 plus starts for the Detroit Tigers. He puts his team in a situation to almost every time he is totting the rubber. I am expecting Justin to have a great year this year with the addition of Victor Martinez back in that potent offense they throw at you day after day. Martinez will help with run support for Verlander; I expect this to give Verlander at least three more wins!

The Perfect Club

 

2) Josh Hamilton

Priorities

Joshua Holt Hamilton swings his way into second place on my list of top 5 Most Valuable Players. He did not start his major league swinging right away though. He was drafted by the Tampa Bay Devil Rays in the 1999 draft. He played a couple years for their minor league team before he was in a car accident. After the accident he fell in with the wrong crowd and started doing drugs and alcohol. He was required to stay out of baseball on suspensions for a couple years before he was allowed to re-enter the baseball world via the Rule 5 Draft which allowed him to re-enter the baseball world. Hamilton was drafted by the Chicago Cubs and then immediately traded to the Cincinnati Reds for $100,000 in the 2006 draft. Hamilton was in the Reds system for one year, battling various injuries before he was traded to the Texas Rangers. Hamilton was a home run for the Rangers from the start. He came in and started producing right away. He has been an all-star in each of his six seasons in Texas. He has roamed every in of that Texas ballpark playing in all three outfield positions. In Hamilton's last three seasons in Texas, he led them to the post season three times, and the World Series two years in a row from 2010-11. They lost each of those World Series and in 2012 they lost the American League Wild Card Game. Hamilton has been near the top of the home run and runs batted in category validating himself as one of the best hitters in the game today. He had a career high year in batting average batting an amazing .359 in 2010. This past offseason Hamilton parted ways with the Texas Rangers to head to long-time Ranger rival, the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim. He received one of the largest contracts in the history of baseball from them. He will be pairing up with another man on this list, Albert Pujols. I expect Hamilton to flourish this upcoming season in this new environment with another great in Albert. 

After a bomb at Baltimore!

1) Miguel Cabrera

First one since 67'!

Jose Miguel Cabrera Torres also know as Miggy, or Miguel Cabrera is my top Most Valuable Player candidate. Miguel is consistently in the top categories that everyone knows of is the batting average, home runs, and runs batted in. He is also the top in some other statistics that get over looked and under appreciated. First of all, over the past two seasons he has only missed two games! That is insane considering there are 162 games in each season totaling 324 games. That is not even counting spring training and the postseason. You know for a fact he is not sitting out a playoff game! Spring training is another thing, but that is for the benefit of his ball club so they can see the youngsters perform and make the club. Miggy is also in the top of total bases, on base percentage, slugging percentage, and on base plus slugging percentage. Last season was Miguel's tenth season. Over the course of his career he has been an MVP candidate every season! He has been ranked in the top 27, every season he has played. Of those ten seasons, he has been voted in the top 5 six times! Cabrera is my top candidate because he is one of the best hitters, an above average fielder with a great arm, and he is a team player. Sure everyone wants to win, and wants to help their team get better. Miguel though is different; Miguel switched to a position he was unfamiliar to. He had a tremendous season at first base in Detroit for the Tigers batting a career high in batting average with a .344 average. The next offseason, the Tigers pursued Milwaukee first baseman Prince Fielder. Miggy knew that Fielder would increase his chance to win the big dance, the coveted championship, the World Series. Cabrera trained all offseason, spring season, and throughout the regular season at third base so the Tigers could bring in Prince. Miguel sacrificed himself for the greater good of the team, and that is what puts him over the top in my mind to be an annual MVP contender.

Need hitting lessons? Watch this man!

The Top 5 Baseball Players of Today

Every year at the conclusion of the season the voting for season awards take place. One of the most honorable awards is the Most Valuable Player award. This award is given to the player who performed the best for their team. The winner is usually toward the top of the list in various categories, whether it be batting average, home runs, or runs batted in. These are not the only categories that get taken into consideration when the voting takes place. If a pitcher is in contention, they are usually toward the top in earned run average, strikeouts, and innings pitched. Choosing the Most Valuable Player is not always cut and dry. There are certain aspects to every candidate's game that need to be evaluated. For example, second baseman is not expected to have as home runs or runs batted in as a first or third baseman. The second baseman would be expected to have a higher average, fielding percentage, and different hitting statistics. Sometimes fans have favoritism to their team's player, but the voters can not have favoritism. The most valuable player award is given out usually to a position player, but pitchers have won before. Twenty-one pitchers have won the Most Valuable Player award in the entire history of the Major League Baseball. Nine National League pitchers have won this award, and twelve American League pitchers have won, with only one repeat winner as a pitcher, Hal Newhouser in 1944 and 1945 for the Detroit Tigers. Year in, and year out, the Most Valuable Player award is always highly analyzed and criticized. Here are my top five players most deserving of the award annually.

MVP Award