2005 American League

Chicago White Sox won the World Series, their first since 1917.  This was on the heels of the Red Sox winning in 2004 for their first since 1918.  We are in an era of long droughts coming to an end, which is nice to see.  The White Sox, recent contenders but not a powerful team, led the AL with 99 victories.  The Angels took the West with 95 victories, and the Yankees and Red Sox each won 95 in the East, with the Yanks getting the tie-breaker to win the division.  Cleveland dogged the Chisox late in the year and won 93, while Oakland won 88 and Minnesota 83.  On the opposite end of the spectrum, Kansas City lost 106, Tampa Bay 95, Seattle 93, and Detroit 91.

Michael Young of Texas led the league with a .331 average and 221 hits.  Alex Rodriguez was second with a .321 average, and led with 48 HR, 124 runs and a 1031 OPS.  Vlad Guerrero was third in average at .317 and Johnny Damon fourth at .316.  Brian Roberts was fifth at .314.  David Ortiz was second with 47 homers and led with 148 RBI; Manny Ramirez was third with 45 homers and tied for second with 144 RBI.  Mark Teixiera also tied for second in RBI and was fourth with 43 homers.  Miguel Tejada led with 50 doubles, and Chone Figgins with 62 steals.  Travis Hafner edged A-Rod in OPS+.  

Bartolo Colon led pitchers in wins with 21.  Jon Garland and Cliff Lee tied with 18 victories.  Kevin Millwood edged Johan Santana in ERA while Santana led in strikeouts.  Millwood was 2.86, Santana 2.87, Mark Buehrle 3.12.  Santana struck out 238, Randy Johnson 211.  Francisco Rodriguez and Bob Wickman tied for the lead with 45 saves.

Win Shares leaders, players; Alex Rodriguez (New York) 37, Manny Ramirez (Boston) 34, Gary Sheffield (New York) 33, Mark Teixiera (Texas) 32, David Ortiz (Boston) 31, Brian Roberts (Baltimore) 28, Travis Hafner (Cleveland), Vladimir Guerrero (Los Angeles-Anaheim), Richie Sexson (Seattle) and Mike Young (Texas) 27, Miguel Tejada (Baltimore) and Derek Jeter (New York) 26, Johnny Damon (Boston), Jhonny Peralta and Grady Sizemore (Cleveland) and Jason Giambi and Hideki Matsui (New York) 25, Paul Konerko (Chicago), Ichiro Suzuki (Seattle) and Julio Lugo (Tampa Bay) 24.

Win Shares leaders, pitchers; Mark Buehrle (Chicago) and Johan Santana (Minnesota) 23, Jon Garland (Chicago) 21, Bartolo Colon (Los Angeles-Anaheim) 19, Jose Contreras and Freddy Garcia (Chicago) and Kenny Rogers (Texas) 18, John Lackey (LA-Anaheim) and Mariano Rivera (New York) 17, Tim Wakefield (Boston), Randy Johnson (New York) and Roy Halladay (Toronto) 16.

WARP3 scores:  players, Rodriguez 12.1, Ramirez 8.1, Sheffield 8.1, Teixiera 10.5, Ortiz 9.5, Roberts 10.3, Hafner 8.4, Guerrero 8.9, Sexson 7.7, Young 8.1, Tejada 9.5, Jeter 10.7, Damon 6.9, Peralta 10.8, Sizemore 7.8, Giambi 6.9, Matsui 8.2, Konerko 8.6, Suzuki 8.4, Lugo 8.7.   Pitchers, Buehrle 7.4, Santana 9.1, Garland 7.5, Colon 7.2, Contreras 5.9, Garcia 6.2, Rogers 7.9, Lackey 6.1, Rivera 9.0, Wakefield 6.5, Johnson 6.6, Halladay 6.9.

WAR leaders, position players:  Rodriguez 9.1, Roberts 6.7, Teixiera 6.0, Sizemore 5.8, Guerrero 5.5, Hafner 5.4, Crisp and Ortiz 5.2, Tejada 5.1, Martinez 4.9, Crawford 4.8, Chavez and Jeter 4.7, Peralta and Young 4.4.  Pitchers:  Santana 7.6, Buerhle 6.3, Lackey 5.9, Johnson 4.6, Colon 4.5, Halladay 4.4, Garcia 4.3, Towers 4.2, Sabathia and Wells 4.1, Haren and Lee 4.0, Harden, Millwood, and Rogers 3.9.

Actual award winners:

MVP (top 20):    Season Results
Rk Name     Team 1^st Place Points Max Points Share|   AB  H  HR   BA    OPS  SB|  W-L   IP  ERA   WHIP  SO SV
+--+----------------+----+-----+------+------+-----+-----+---+--+-----+-----+---+------+---+-----+-----+---+--+
  1 Alex Rodriguez    NYY   16    331    392  0.84 |  605 194 48  .321 1.031  21|                           
  2 David Ortiz       BOS   11    307    392  0.78 |  601 180 47  .300 1.001   1|                           
  3 Vladimir Guerrero LAA    1    196    392  0.50 |  520 165 32  .317  .959  13|                           
  4 Manny Ramirez     BOS    0    156    392  0.40 |  554 162 45  .292  .982   1|                           
  5 Travis Hafner     CLE    0    151    392  0.39 |  486 148 33  .305 1.003   0|                           
  6 Paul Konerko      CHW    0    128    392  0.33 |  575 163 40  .283  .909   0|                           
  7 Mark Teixeira     TEX    0    106    392  0.27 |  644 194 43  .301  .954   4|                           
  8 Gary Sheffield    NYY    0     84    392  0.21 |  584 170 34  .291  .891  10|                           
  9 Mariano Rivera    NYY    0     59    392  0.15 |                            |  7-4   78  1.38  0.87  80 43
10 Derek Jeter       NYY    0     23    392  0.06 |  654 202 19  .309  .839  14|                           
11 Michael Young     TEX    0     20    392  0.05 |  668 221 24  .331  .899   5|                           
12 Scott Podsednik   CHW    0     15    392  0.04 |  507 147  0  .290  .700  59|                           
13 Johnny Damon      BOS    0     12    392  0.03 |  624 197 10  .316  .805  18|                           
14 Hideki Matsui     NYY    0      8    392  0.02 |  629 192 23  .305  .863   2|                           
15 Richie Sexson     SEA    0      7    392  0.02 |  558 147 39  .263  .910   1|                           
15 Miguel Tejada     BAL    0      7    392  0.02 |  654 199 26  .304  .865   5|                           
17 Chone Figgins     LAA    0      6    392  0.02 |  642 186  8  .290  .749  62|                           
18 Jason Giambi      NYY    0      5    392  0.01 |  417 113 32  .271  .975   0|                           
18 Victor Martinez   CLE    0      5    392  0.01 |  547 167 20  .305  .853   0|                           
18 Brian Roberts     BAL    0      5    392  0.01 |  561 176 18  .314  .903  27|                           

Cy Young: Season Results
Rk Name     Team 1^st Place Points Max Points Share|  W-L   IP  ERA   WHIP  SO SV
+--+----------------+----+-----+------+------+-----+------+---+-----+-----+---+--+
  1 Bartolo Colon     LAA   17    118    140  0.84 | 21-8  223  3.48  1.16 157  
  2 Mariano Rivera    NYY    8     68    140  0.49 |  7-4   78  1.38  0.87  80 43
  3 Johan Santana     MIN    3     51    140  0.36 | 16-7  232  2.87  0.97 238  
  4 Cliff Lee         CLE    0      8    140  0.06 | 18-5  202  3.79  1.22 143  
  5 Mark Buehrle      CHW    0      5    140  0.04 | 16-8  237  3.12  1.18 149  
  6 Jon Garland       CHW    0      1    140  0.01 | 18-10 221  3.50  1.17 115  
  6 Kevin Millwood    CLE    0      1    140  0.01 |  9-11 192  2.86  1.22 146 

Rookie:  Season Results
Rk Name      Team 1^st Place Points Max Points Share|   AB  H  HR   BA    OPS  SB|  W-L   IP  ERA   WHIP  SO SV
+--+----------------+----+-----+------+------+-----+-----+---+--+-----+-----+---+------+---+-----+-----+---+--+
  1 Huston Street     OAK   15     97    140  0.69 |                            |  5-1   78  1.72  1.01  72 23
  2 Robinson Cano     NYY    4     57    140  0.41 |  522 155 14  .297  .778   1|                           
  3 Jonny Gomes       TBD    2     39    140  0.28 |  348  98 21  .282  .906   9|                           
  4 Tadahito Iguchi   CHW    5     30    140  0.21 |  511 142 15  .278  .780  15|                           
  5 Gustavo Chacin    TOR    2     14    140  0.10 |    7   0  0  .000  .000   0| 13-9  203  3.72  1.39 121  
  6 Joe Blanton       OAK    0      6    140  0.04 |    3   1  0  .333  .667   0| 12-12 201  3.53  1.22 116  
  6 Nick Swisher      OAK    0      6    140  0.04 |  462 109 21  .236  .768   0|                           
  8 Jesse Crain       MIN    0      2    140  0.01 |                            | 12-5   80  2.71  1.13  25  1
  9 Scott Kazmir      TBD    0      1    140  0.01 |    1   0  0  .000  .000   0| 10-9  186  3.77  1.46 174 

Manager:
Rk Name      Team 1^st Place Points Max Points Share |    W-L    Rank
+--+----------------+----+-----+------+------+------+---------+-----+
  1 Ozzie Guillen     CHW   17    105    140   0.75 |   99-63     1
  2 Eric Wedge        CLE    6     71    140   0.51 |   93-69     2
  3 Joe Torre         NYY    4     43    140   0.31 |   95-67     1
  4 Ken Macha         OAK    1     21    140   0.15 |   88-74     2
  5 Mike Scioscia     LAA    0      7    140   0.05 |   95-67     1
  6 Terry Francona    BOS    0      4    140   0.03 |   95-67     2
  7 John Gibbons      TOR    0      1    140   0.01 |   80-82     3

Top player:  Alex Rodriguez.  A-Rod did it all, as a two-way player.  He plays top-notch defense as well as hitting with the top cleanup men in the game.

#1 Alex Rodriguez, #2 Mark Teixiera, #3 Brian Roberts, #4 Derek Jeter, #5 David Ortiz, #6 Vlad Guerrero.

Top pitcher:  Johan Santana.  No real overwhelming candidate this year, but Santana was again the best.

#1 Johan Santana, #2 Mark Buehrle, #3 Bartolo Colon, #4 Randy Johnson, #5 John Lackey.

Top rookie: Huston Street was the best of a pretty strong field.  Cano, Gomes and Iguchi could each have been ROY in other years.

Top manager:  Ozzie Guillen.  Woke up a sleeping team in Chicago.

2004 National League

St. Louis led the league with 105 victories, then won the pennant playoffs as well.  Atlanta won the East with 96 wins but lost in the first round.  Los Angeles took the West with 93 victories, and Houston made it to the NLCS as a Wild Card with 92 wins.  A mid-season deal to get Carlos Beltran helped the Astros' offense a lot.  Other teams in the running were San Francisco at 91 victories, Chicago with 87, San Diego at 86, and Philadelphia at 86.  Florida slipped to 83.  Arizona collapsed and lost 111 times, while the Expos lost 95 in their last season in Montreal and Milwaukee and Colorado each lost 94.

Barry Bonds won his fourth straight MVP as he won the batting title, and led in on-base, slugging, OPS, and walks with an amazing 232.  Bonds batted .362, Todd Helton .347, Mark Loretta .335 and Adrian Beltre .334.  Beltre led in home runs with 48, followed by Adam Dunn and Albert Pujols with 46 and Bonds with 45.  Vinny Castilla led in RBI with 131, Scott Rolen was second with 124, Pujols had 123 and Beltre 121.  Scott Podsednik led with 70 steals, Albert Pujols in runs and total bases, Juan Pierre with 221 hits and Lyle Overbay with 53 doubles.  

Roger Clemens took another Cy Young as he led in winning percentage.  Roy Oswalt led in wins with 20; Clemens, Carl Pavano, and Jason Schmidt had 18 victories.  Jake Peavy posted a 2.27 ERA, Randy Johnson 2.60, Ben Sheets 2.70.  Johnson led in strikeouts with 290, Sheets had 264 and Schmidt 251.  Armando Benitez and Jason Isringhausen tied for the lead with 47 saves.

Win Shares leaders, players; Barry Bonds (San Francisco) 53, Albert Pujols (St. Louis) 40, Scott Rolen (St. Louis) 38, Adrian Beltre (Los Angeles) and Bobby Abreu (Philadelphia) 37, Jim Edmonds (St. Louis) 36, J.D. Drew (Atlanta) 34, Mark Loretta (San Diego) 33, Lance Berkman (Houston) 32, Adam Dunn (Cincinnati) and Todd Helton (Colorado) 31, Sean Casey (Cincinnati) 30, Moises Alou (Chicago) and Mike Lowell (Florida) 26, Cesar Izturis (Los Angeles), Jimmy Rollins (Philadelphia), Jason Kendall (Pittsburgh) and Brian Giles (San Diego) 25, Juan Pierre (Florida) and Jeff Kent (Houston) 24, D'Angelo Jimenez (Cincinnati), Jeff Bagwell (Houston), Jack Wilson (Pittsburgh) and Phil Nevin (San Diego) 23.

Win Shares leaders, pitchers; Randy Johnson (Arizona) 25, Carl Pavano (Florida), Roger Clemens (Houston) and Ben Sheets (Milwaukee) 20, Carlos Zambrano (Chicago) and Livan Hernandez (Montreal) 19, Roy Oswalt (Houston) 18, Brad Lidge (Houston) and Oliver Perez (San Diego) 17, Armando Benitez (Florida), Eric Gagne (Los Angeles) and Jake Peavy (San Diego) 16.

WARP3 scores:  Bonds 15.1, Pujols 10.5, Rolen 10.8, Beltre 11.5, Abreu 9.4, Edmonds 11.6, Drew 10.0, Loretta 11.7, Berkman 9.5, Dunn 6.8, Helton 12.2, Casey 5.3, Alou 6.5, Lowell 8.3, Izturis 5.1, Rollins 6.0, Kendall 8.6, Giles 6.2, Pierre 5.6, Kent 7.8, Jimenez 5.3, Bagwell 3.7, Wilson 7.7, Nevin 5.1.  Pitchers, Johnson 10.9, Pavano 8.3, Clemens 8.0, Sheets 9.0, Zambrano 8.8, Hernandez 9.5, Oswalt 8.1, Lidge 8.1, Perez 7.5, Benitez 7.6, Gagne 7.0, Peavy 7.5.

WAR leaders, position players:  Bonds 11.9, Beltre 9.9, Rolen 9.2, Drew 8.9, Pujols 8.4, Edmonds 8.2, Helton 7.4, Berkman 6.3, Alou 6.1, Loretta 6.0, A. Jones 5.9, Abreu 5.6, Wilkerson 5.3, Dunn, Giles, Patterson, and Rollins 5.2.  Pitchers:  Johnson 9.9, Sheets 8.0, Schmidt 6.6, Oswalt 6.4, Clemens 6.0, Zambrano 4.7, Hernandez and Wright 4.6, Davis and Perez 4.5, Pavano 4.4, Benson, Lidge, and Peavy 3.8, Thomson and Weaver 3.5.

Actual award winners:

MVP (top 15):     Season Results
Rk Name      Team 1^st Place Points Max Points Share|   AB  H  HR   BA    OPS  SB|  W-L   IP  ERA   WHIP  SO SV
+--+----------------+----+-----+------+------+-----+-----+---+--+-----+-----+---+------+---+-----+-----+---+--+
  1 Barry Bonds       SFG   24    407    448  0.91 |  373 135 45  .362 1.422   6|                           
  2 Adrian Beltre     LAD    6    311    448  0.69 |  598 200 48  .334 1.017   7|                           
  3 Albert Pujols     STL    1    247    448  0.55 |  592 196 46  .331 1.072   5|                           
  4 Scott Rolen       STL    1    226    448  0.50 |  500 157 34  .314 1.007   4|                           
  5 Jim Edmonds       STL    0    160    448  0.36 |  498 150 42  .301 1.061   8|                           
  6 J.D. Drew         ATL    0    114    448  0.25 |  518 158 31  .305 1.006  12|                           
  7 Lance Berkman     HOU    0    100    448  0.22 |  544 172 30  .316 1.016   9|                           
  8 Roger Clemens     HOU    0     61    448  0.14 |   72  12  0  .167  .381   0| 18-4  214  2.98  1.16 218  
  9 Mark Loretta      SDP    0     50    448  0.11 |  620 208 16  .335  .886   5|                           
10 Aramis Ramirez    CHC    0     42    448  0.09 |  547 174 36  .318  .951   0|                           
11 Eric Gagne        LAD    0     30    448  0.07 |    3   0  0  .000  .000   0|  7-3   82  2.19  0.91 114 45
12 Carlos Beltran    TOT    0     20    448  0.04 |  333  86 23  .258  .926  28|                           
13 Jeff Kent         HOU    0     18    448  0.04 |  540 156 27  .289  .880   7|                           
14 Moises Alou       CHC    0     15    448  0.03 |  601 176 39  .293  .919   3|                           
14 Steve Finley      TOT    0     15    448  0.03 | +628 170 36  .271  .823   9|                           

Cy Young:        Season Results
Rk Name      Team 1^st Place Points Max Points Share|  W-L   IP  ERA   WHIP  SO SV
+--+----------------+----+-----+------+------+-----+------+---+-----+-----+---+--+
  1 Roger Clemens     HOU   23    140    160  0.88 | 18-4  214  2.98  1.16 218  
  2 Randy Johnson     ARI    8     97    160  0.61 | 16-14 246  2.60  0.90 290  
  3 Roy Oswalt        HOU    1     19    160  0.12 | 20-10 237  3.49  1.24 206  
  4 Jason Schmidt     SFG    0     13    160  0.08 | 18-7  225  3.20  1.08 251  
  5 Carlos Zambrano   CHC    0      8    160  0.05 | 16-8  210  2.75  1.22 188  
  6 Carl Pavano       FLA    0      6    160  0.04 | 18-8  222  3.00  1.17 139  
  7 Eric Gagne        LAD    0      3    160  0.02 |  7-3   82  2.19  0.91 114 45
  8 Brad Lidge        HOU    0      1    160  0.01 |  6-5   95  1.90  0.92 157 29
  8 Ben Sheets        MIL    0      1    160  0.01 | 12-14 237  2.70  0.98 264   

Rookie:        Season Results
Rk Name     Team 1^st Place Points Max Points Share|   AB  H  HR   BA    OPS  SB|  W-L   IP  ERA   WHIP  SO SV
+--+----------------+----+-----+------+------+-----+-----+---+--+-----+-----+---+------+---+-----+-----+---+--+
  1 Jason Bay         PIT   25    146    160  0.91 |  411 116 26  .282  .907   4|                           
  2 Khalil Greene     SDP    7    108    160  0.68 |  484 132 15  .273  .795   4|                           
  3 Akinori Otsuka    SDP    0     23    160  0.14 |    1   0  0  .000  .000   0|  7-2   77  1.75  1.06  87  2
  4 Aaron Miles       COL    0      6    160  0.04 |  522 153  6  .293  .697  12|                           
  5 Matt Holliday     COL    0      3    160  0.02 |  400 116 14  .290  .837   3|                           
  6 Kazuo Matsui      NYM    0      1    160  0.01 |  460 125  7  .272  .727  14|                           
  6 Terrmel Sledge    MON    0      1    160  0.01 |  398 107 15  .269  .799   3|

Manager:
Rk Name   Team 1^st Place Points Max Points Share |    W-L    Rank
+--+----------------+----+-----+------+------+------+---------+-----+
  1 Bobby Cox         ATL   22    140    160   0.88 |   96-66     1
  2 Tony LaRussa      STL    4     62    160   0.39 |  105-57     1
  3 Jim Tracy         LAD    4     52    160   0.32 |   93-69     1
  4 Phil Garner       HOU    2     27    160   0.17 |   48-26     2
  5 Felipe Alou       SFG    0      4    160   0.02 |   91-71     2
  6 Bruce Bochy       SDP    0      3    160   0.02 |   87-75     3

Top player:  Barry Bonds.  He is indeed the dominant player of our era.

#1 Barry Bonds, #2 Adrian Beltre, #3 Jim Edmonds, #4 Scott Rolen, #5 Albert Pujols, #6 J.D. Drew.

Top pitcher:  Randy Johnson had a magnificent season pitching for a terrible team.

#1 Randy Johnson, #2 Ben Sheets, #3 Roy Oswalt, #4 Jason Schmidt, #5 Roger Clemens.

Top rookie:  Jason Bay.  A very solid rookie season.

Top manager:  Tony LaRussa, taking the Cardinals to another pennant.

2004 American League

Boston was flabbergasted.  The Red Sox finally won the World Series, their first world's championship since 1918.  It was quite the miracle comeback, too, as they had to overcome a 3-0 deficit, against the Yankees of all teams, in the ALCS.  Boston had won the Wild Card with the second-most wins in the league, 98, behind New York's 101 of course.  Minnesota took the Central with 92 wins, and Anaheim the West with a like 92, which was one ahead of Oakland's 91.  Texas won 89, and Cleveland was the only other AL team over .500, with a pedestrian 83 victories.  But that was far better than Kansas City, which lost 104, or Seattle, which lost 99.

Vlad Guerrero led the league in runs and total bases and won the MVP.  Ichiro Suzuki led in average and set a new record for hits in a season with 262.  Ichiro batted .372 with Melvin Mora second at .340 and Vlad third at .337.  Manny Ramirez led in home runs, slugging and OPS.  He had 43 homers, Paul Konerko and David Ortiz had 41 each.  Miguel Tejada led in RBI with 150, while Ortiz drove in 139 and Manny Ramirez 130.  Brian Roberts led in doubles with 50, Carl Crawford led in steals with 59 and triples with 19.  Travis Hafner topped the league in OPS+.  

Curt Schilling led the league in wins with 21, while Johan Santana ran second there with 20 and was first in ERA and strikeouts.  Santana had a 2.61 ERA, Schilling was second with a 3.26 mark.  Santana's 265 strikeouts were followed by Pedro Martinez with 227.  Santana won the Cy Young.  Mariano Rivera led in saves.

Win Shares leaders, players; Gary Sheffield (New York) 31, Miguel Tejada (Baltimore) and Alex Rodriguez (New York) 30, Vladimir Guerrero (Anaheim) and Hideki Matsui (New York) 29, Manny Ramirez (Boston) 28, Ichiro Suzuki (Seattle) 27, Johnny Damon (Boston), Derek Jeter (New York) and Hank Blalock (Texas) 26, Melvin Mora (Baltimore), David Ortiz (Boston), Mark Teixeira and Mike Young (Texas) 25, Carlos Lee (Chicago) and Carlos Guillen (Detroit) 24, Ivan Rodriguez (Detroit), Lew Ford (Minnesota) and Mark Kotsay (Oakland) 22, Jose Guillen (Anaheim), Mark Bellhorn (Boston), Aaron Rowand (Chicago), Travis Hafner (Cleveland), Carl Crawford and Julio Lugo (Tampa Bay) 21.

Win Shares leaders, pitchers; Johan Santana (Minnesota) 27, Curt Schilling (Boston) 22, Mark Buehrle (Chicago) and Brad Radke (Minnesota) 19, Jake Westbrook (Cleveland) and Ryan Drese (Texas) 17, Pedro Martinez (Boston), Joe Nathan (Minnesota), Mariano Rivera (New York), Tim Hudson (Oakland) and Ted Lilly (Toronto) 16.

WARP3 scores:  Sheffield 8.4, Tejada 11.8, A, Rodriguez 9.3, Guerrero 10.3, Matsui 7.8, Ramirez 7.8, Suzuki 9.2, Damon 8.1, Jeter 8.1, Blalock 7.6, Mora 8.0, Ortiz 7.3, Teixeira 6.5, Young 6.5, Lee 8.5, C. Guillen 10.4, I. Rodriguez 8.1, Ford 6.0 (rookie), Kotsay 8.8, J. Guillen 6.2, Bellhorn 6.0, Rowand 6.9, Hafner 7.5, Crawford 6.4, Lugo 6.7.  Pitchers, Santana 11.3, Schilling 10.2, Buehrle 7.6, Radke 7.4, Westbrook 8.1, Drese 7.2, Martinez 7.7, Nathan 7.4, Rivera 9.2, Hudson 5.9, Lilly 6.3.

WAR leaders, position players:  Suzuki 7.1, A. Rodriguez 6.8, Tejada 6.5, Guerrero 6.3, Mora 6.1, Rowand 5.9, Chavez 5.7, Guillen and Lee 5.6, Crawford and Jeter 5.1, Hafner 4.8, Huff and I. Rodriguez 4.7,  Damon and Lopez 4.6.  Pitchers:  Santana 7.7, Schilling 7.3, Martinez and Radke 5.7, Hudson 5.2, Garcia 5.0, Buehrle 4.9, Drese and Escobar 4.6, Harden 4.5, Arroyo 4.2, Rogers 4.1, Lieber and Rodriguez 4.0, Westbrook 3.9.

Actual award winners:

MVP (top 15):     Season Results
Rk Name      Team 1^st Place Points Max Points Share|   AB  H  HR   BA    OPS  SB|  W-L   IP  ERA   WHIP  SO SV
+--+----------------+----+-----+------+------+-----+-----+---+--+-----+-----+---+------+---+-----+-----+---+--+
  1 Vladimir Guerrero ANA   21    354    392  0.90 |  612 206 39  .337  .989  15|                           
  2 Gary Sheffield    NYY    5    254    392  0.65 |  573 166 36  .290  .927   5|                           
  3 Manny Ramirez     BOS    1    238    392  0.61 |  568 175 43  .308 1.009   2|                           
  4 David Ortiz       BOS    1    174    392  0.44 |  582 175 41  .301  .983   0|                           
  5 Miguel Tejada     BAL    0    123    392  0.31 |  653 203 34  .311  .894   4|                           
  6 Johan Santana     MIN    0    117    392  0.30 |    8   3  0  .375  .750   0| 20-6  228  2.61  0.92 265  
  7 Ichiro Suzuki     SEA    0     98    392  0.25 |  704 262  8  .372  .869  36|                           
  8 Michael Young     TEX    0     92    392  0.23 |  690 216 22  .313  .836  12|                           
  9 Mariano Rivera    NYY    0     61    392  0.16 |                            |  4-2   79  1.94  1.08  66 53
10 Ivan Rodriguez    DET    0     34    392  0.09 |  527 176 19  .334  .893   7|                           
11 Curt Schilling    BOS    0     14    392  0.04 |    7   1  0  .143  .286   0| 21-6  227  3.26  1.06 203  
12 Joe Nathan        MIN    0     12    392  0.03 |    1   0  0  .000  .000   0|  1-2   72  1.62  0.98  89 44
13 Derek Jeter       NYY    0     11    392  0.03 |  643 188 23  .292  .823  23|                           
14 Mark Kotsay       OAK    0      8    392  0.02 |  606 190 15  .314  .829   8|                           
14 Alex Rodriguez    NYY    0      8    392  0.02 |  601 172 36  .286  .888  28|                           

Cy Young:    Season Results
Rk Name     Team 1^st Place Points Max Points Share|  W-L   IP  ERA   WHIP  SO SV
+--+----------------+----+-----+------+------+-----+------+---+-----+-----+---+--+
  1 Johan Santana     MIN   28    140    140  1.00 | 20-6  228  2.61  0.92 265  
  2 Curt Schilling    BOS    0     82    140  0.59 | 21-6  227  3.26  1.06 203  
  3 Mariano Rivera    NYY    0     27    140  0.19 |  4-2   79  1.94  1.08  66 53
  4 Pedro Martinez    BOS    0      1    140  0.01 | 16-9  217  3.90  1.17 227  
  4 Joe Nathan        MIN    0      1    140  0.01 |  1-2   72  1.62  0.98  89 44
  4 Francisco Rodriguez  ANA    0      1    140  0.01 |  4-1   84  1.82  1.00 123 12

Rookie:      Season Results
Rk Name      Team 1^st Place Points Max Points Share|   AB  H  HR   BA    OPS  SB|  W-L   IP  ERA   WHIP  SO SV
+--+----------------+----+-----+------+------+-----+-----+---+--+-----+-----+---+------+---+-----+-----+---+--+
  1 Bobby Crosby      OAK   27    138    140  0.99 |  545 130 22  .239  .744   7|                           
  2 Shingo Takatsu    CHW    1     44    140  0.31 |                            |  6-4   62  2.31  0.98  50 19
  3 Daniel Cabrera    BAL    0     29    140  0.21 |    4   0  0  .000  .000   0| 12-8  148  5.00  1.58  76  1
  4 Zack Greinke      KCR    0     16    140  0.11 |    2   0  0  .000  .000   0|  8-11 145  3.97  1.17 100  
  5 Alexis Rios       TOR    0     12    140  0.09 |  426 122  1  .286  .720  15|                           
  6 David DeJesus     KCR    0      6    140  0.04 |  363 104  7  .287  .763   8|                           
  7 Ross Gload        CHW    0      4    140  0.03 |  234  75  7  .321  .853   0|                           
  8 John Buck         KCR    0      1    140  0.01 |  238  56 12  .235  .704   1|                           
  8 David Bush        TOR    0      1    140  0.01 |    2   0  0  .000  .000   0|  5-4   98  3.69  1.23  64  
  8 Nate Robertson    DET    0      1    140  0.01 |    3   0  0  .000  .000   0| 12-10 197  4.90  1.40 155  1

Manager:
Rk Name             Team 1^st Place Points Max Points Share |    W-L    Rank
+--+----------------+----+-----+------+------+------+---------+-----+
  1 Buck Showalter    TEX   14    101    140   0.72 |   89-73     3
  2 Ron Gardenhire    MIN   11     91    140   0.65 |   92-70     1
  3 Mike Scioscia     ANA    2     31    140   0.22 |   92-70     1
  4 Joe Torre         NYY    1     18    140   0.13 |  101-61     1
  5 Terry Francona    BOS    0      8    140   0.06 |   98-64     2
  6 Eric Wedge        CLE    0      3    140   0.02 |   80-82     3

Top player:  Vlad Guerrero was the writers' pick, and the race is close, so I will stick with that.

#1 Vlad Guerrero, #2 Miguel Tejada, #3 Ichiro Suzuki, #4 Alex Rodriguez, #5 Melvin Mora, #6 Gary Sheffield.

Top pitcher: Johan Santana, and he had a good argument for the MVP as well.

#1 Johan Santana, #2 Curt Schilling, #3 Pedro Martinez, #4 Brad Radke, #5 Mark Buerhle.

Top rookie:  Bobby Crosby, a solid shortstop for Oakland in a less than stellar field.

Top manager:  Terry Francona, finally getting Boston over the hump.