FanSided MLB 2012 Awards: AL MVP: Mike Trout

For many fans, the end-of-season player awards are one of the biggest highlights of the long MLB offseason. There’s just one problem: the most deserving players don’t always win. Though the BBWAA generally does a better job with the MVP and the Cy Young than with, say, the Hall of Fame, their picks for the coveted hardware are often questionable, if not dumbfounding.

So at FanSided, we decided to put our money where our collective mouth is. At the end of the 2012 MLB season, 52 FanSided writers representing 28 different sites from around the MLB network cast their ballots for Most Valuable Player, Cy Young, Manager of the Year, and Rookie of the Year.

We’ve already unveiled the results of our Rookies of the Year (AL, NL), Managers of the Year (AL, NL), and Cy Youngs (AL, NL). Now it’s time to turn our attention to the Most Valuable Player awards, starting today with the American League.

A couple notes on the voting: Balloting opened on October 1 (when each team had three games left to play) and closed on October 5 before the first playoff game stared. Each voter named three players on his or her ballot, with votes scored on a 14-9-8-7-6-5-4-3-2-1 basis.

Without further ado, here are the results:

Ladies and gentlemen, your 2012 American League MVP is Angels outfielder Mike Trout, who was also our unanimous pick for AL Rookie of the Year. Tigers third baseman Miguel Cabrera finishes a close second, while Adrian Beltre, Robinson Cano, and Josh Hamilton form the third tier. Justin Verlander (also our AL Cy Young), Edwin Encarnacion, Derek Jeter, Adam Jones, and Prince Fielder round out the Top 10.

Trout earned 626 out of a possible 700 points and got 36 of 50 first-place votes—the other 14 all went to Cabrera. Trout and Cabrera were both among the top three picks on 49 out of 50 ballots (one voter put Trout fifth), and they and Beltre were the only players to be named by every voter.

What do you think? Did we make the right pick?