One last thought on NL CYA: I mentioned previously, but I’ll be very interested to see where Sabathia finishes in the vote. Recall that Rick Sutcliffe got traded in-season to the Cubs and pitched so great that he ended up getting the NL CYA that year (1984? without checking).

One last thought on AL CYA: Based purely on offense, Milton Bradley is doing better than ARod… but Bradley’s a DH and… well, he has the rep as a headcase. In addition, he plays for a horrible team - which won’t help him when he’s got other marks against him. But Bradley should finish no worse than top-5, and could easily be top-3.

If I had a vote, I’d go Quentin, ARod, Pedroia, Bradley, Hamilton on my AL MVP ticket. And I might put Sabathia second behind Linecum on my NL CYA ballot. I’d probably put Dice-K second, ahead of K-Rod… cuz I’m not that impressed by inflated save numbers… unless they’re accompanied by gaudy ERA and WHIP numbers (which K-Rod’s aren’t).

As for NL Cy Young, I’m with Gonzo… Linecum is more deserving than (likely winner) Webb. Webb is currently 19-6, 3.19 ERA, 160 K. Linecum is 15-3 (i.e. better winning %), 2.60 ERA and 216 K. Interesting that ERA#2 Jake Peavy (2.69) only has 9 wins and ERA#3 (Santana) only has 12 wins. Webb is all I hear about, but Linecum seems to be most deserving… and I’m not sure it’s even close.

As for AL MVP, if Chicago wins the Central (and I think they will), then I think Carlos Quentin wins it and Josh Hamilton finishes second (too many people love his story). I think Pedroia gets enough votes to be top-5, and might somehow sneak into top-3 if there’s an undercurrent of support that develops in the next four weeks (especially if he continues his recent torrid pace).

On pure numbers, ARod is probably deserving of the AL MVP - but he won’t get any first-place votes. I wouldn’t mind seeing Pedroia get it - but I’m not sure he’s deserving and ultimately I’m not sure he’ll get any first-place votes (outside of maybe Boston).