Rather than post our Turkey of the Week on Monday, as is our policy, I almost suggested we wait a day until we knew the AL MVP. However since the Baseball Writers Associate of America had done a decent job with the voting so far, we decided to remain on schedule.

Unfortunately, I now wish we'd waited, as the Oakland Athletics' Miguel Tejada was announced as the American League's Most Value Player on Tuesday. The 26-year-old, 5'9", 200 lb shortstop hit .308 with a .354 OBP and .508 SLG on 204 H, 30 2B, and 34 HR with a 38:84 BB:K and 7/9 SB% in 662 AB.

Tejada just barely made our top ten and that was through an adjustment of our preliminary VORP rankings. Alex Rodriguez deserved this MVP as he deserved the 2001 award. ARod is well on his way to challenging Bonds for most deserved MVPs not awarded. This sad state of affairs is the result of a majority of the voters believing that the success of a team impacts the value of a player. Does the Pulitzer Prize committee take into affect the circulation of a candidate's publication when they give out their awards? Rodriguez hit .300 with a .392 OBP and .623 SLG on 187 H, 27 2B, 2 3B, and 57 HR with an 87:122 BB:K and 9/13 SB% in 624 AB.

Much of the remainder of the top ten also failed to match our hopes. Below is once again a table comparing Rotohelp's picks to those actually voted in the top 10.

BBWAA				Rotohelp
1.  Miguel Tejada, SS-R		1.  Alex Rodriguez, SS-R
2.  Alex Rodriguez, SS-R	2.  Jim Thome, 1B-L
3.  Alfonso Soriano, 2B-R	3.  Jason Giambi, 1B-L
4.  Garret Anderson, OF-L	4.  Derek Lowe, RHP
5.  Jason Giambi, 1B-L		5.  Manny Ramirez, OF-R
6.  Torii Hunter, OF-R		6.  Alfonso Soriano, 2B-R
7.  Jim Thome, 1B-L		7.  Bernie Williams, OF-S
8.  Magglio Ordonez, OF-R	8.  Pedro Martinez, RHP
9.  Manny Ramirez, OF-R		9.  Miguel Tejada, SS-R
10. Bernie Williams, OF-S	10. Nomar Garciaparra, SS-R

As you can see, ARod did place second. Five voters actually made the correct choice and placed him first on their ballot. However I really don't understand the logic of the other 23 voters who all placed him on the ballot but put him anywhere from second to sixth. If the success of the team really matters sufficiently to keep him out of first, he shouldn't have been in the top ten.

The top five in our list match the preliminary VORP ranking, but we made a few more adjustments to the bottom of the AL list than we did with the NL. Pedro Martinez, Bernie Williams, and Alfonso Soriano all ranked very closely, so we felt comfortable bumping up Soriano due to the extra value of his production from second base. We also nudged Williams over Martinez because of a slight preference for an "every day" player over a pitcher. Our adjustments to the very bottom of the list were made for similar reasons. In the preliminary ranking, RHP Roy Halladay finished ninth, Zito tenth, and RHP Tim Hudson 11th. However we felt the contributions of Tejada and Garciaparra, who respectively ranked 12th and 13th in a close pack, were of greater importance to their teams.

Using our evaluation system, Garret Anderson was the least deserving player to rank in the BBWAA's top ten. However of all the players receiving votes, the three relievers were once again the most undeserving of the support they received. Of non-relievers receiving votes Eckstein, who finished just outside the top ten, and Ichiro Suzuki were the least deserving.

Looking back at our pre-season predictions as we did yesterday, we forecasted ARod to win this season, as we thought the Rangers would have a good season, so there would be nothing to stand in his way. We thought Magglio Ordonez would have a more stellar season and finish second, although he was voted in the top ten and fell just out side the group of players that deserved votes. Our projected third place finisher Jason Giambi met our expectations by earning a third place finish, but a season perceived as a slight decline for the slugger left him finishing fifth in the voting.

Of those we thought would finish in the rest of the top ten (Ichiro Suzuki, Mike Sweeney, Manny Ramirez, OF-R Juan Gonzalez, SS-R Derek Jeter, OF-L Darin Erstad, and 1B-L Carlos Delgado), Manny Ramirez deservingly finished in the top ten, but Gonzalez, Erstad, and Delgado all turned in seasons below our expectations and Jeter's star in the media dimmed sufficiently that he also thankfully received no votes.