We had so much fun last week, checking in with the contenders of the 2011 National League MVP, that we couldn't resist checking the pulse of the American League MVP race. Lately, the AL MVP race has garnered more attention and discourse. Across the twitterverse and other Interweb chat rooms, Jose Bautista and Justin Verlander have faced off in numerous philosophical debates regarding the intent of the MVP award being open to Pitchers and Position Players. To choose sides on that debate, I'd say that pitchers are absolutely eligible for MVP awards, but to win one they have to be so outstanding that there is no discussion. If there are two players, a pitcher and a position player, who are almost equal in value, I'll side with the position player.
There's one month left in the season, which leaves plenty of room for one of the following players to distinguish themselves and run away with the award.
Just like last week, let's take a look at MVP's for each MLB franchise:
8 hours ago