The American League MVP award will be announced today and it could go to…

Dustin Pedroia of the Red Sox, the little second baseman who had a bunch of big hits and moved throughout the Boston batting order depending on where he was needed.

Kevin Youkilis of the Red Sox, who was a steadying force on offense and played spectacular defense. I assume the only reason Carlos Pena won the Gold Glove at first base is that Youkilis spent three dozen games filling in at third.

Francisco Rodriguez of the Angels, who set a major-league record with 62 saves and is a better MVP candidate than he was a Cy Young candidate, even though I don’t think he’d be worth a first-place vote for either.

Justin Morneau, who was probably the front-runner until his season-ending slump. That .243 average/.298 on-base percentage/.398 slugging percentage in September was the offensive equivalent of the Twins bullpen. (In July, those numbers were .360/.473/.708.)

Joe Mauer, the revisionist end-of-the-year choice as the Twins’ team MVP. A batting title and a Gold Glove and steady performace makes a good argument. not to mention that he picked up his game in the final weeks.

Carlos Quentin of the White Sox, who had 36 homers and 100 RBI until breaking his wrist and sitting out after September 1. In discussing Quentin and Morneau, what’s the difference between their two versions of not being there for the final weeks?

And what about MVP numbers for a non-contending team? Albert Pujols won the NL MVP even though the Cardinals finished 11 1/2 games out and weren’t really a serious threat. Does that have any bearing on Josh Hamilton of Texas and/or mAdonna-Rod? (Hamilton had a severe tail-off in the season half of the season and A-Rod got his love by winning in 2007.) Conventional wisdom out of the National League was that Pujols was just that much of a monster this season, playing hurt and keeping his team from being truly terrible. From a distance, I would have gone for Ryan Howard.

Today’s voting is done by two members of the Baseball Writers Association of America in each AL city, and it’s going to be interesting to see how the votes are chopped up and how writers explain their choices. Voters list their Top 10 choices and I will argue that there’s little home-town boosterism in the balloting, except that hometown writers sometimes recognize local players with votes at the bottom of the ballot.

If I voted? 1. Youkilis, 2. Quentin, 3. Mauer, 4. Pedroia, 5. K-Rod, 6. Morneau, 7. Cliff Lee, 8. Miguel Cabrera, 9.  A-Rod, 10. Joakim Soria.

If you voted?

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