This is the week I am going (want?) to start giving more credence to the standings of a player's team when considering the MVP barring just sick efforts by a player on a non-contender.  With the standings too close to call.  To see last week's American league results, visit  Rotojunkie.  The top three was quite a surprise. 

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Rotojunkie has taken over the dynamic feature started by Baseball Happenings that draws on the collective knowledge of the blogging community to provide intelligence on which players are currently considered the leading contenders for the big three baseball awards - MVP, Cy Young and ROY - for the American and National leagues.  This week's NL voting should be available on Friday at lunch time. 

NL Cy Young:
1. Ben Sheets Milwaukee Brewers
2. Tim Lincecum San Francisco Giants
3. Edinson Volquez Cincinnati Reds

NL MVP:
1.  Chase Utley Philadelphia Phillies
2.  Albert Pujols, St. Louis Cardinals
3.  Dan Uggla, Florida Marlins

NL ROY:
1.  Geovanny Soto Chicago Cubs
2.  Kosuke Fukudome Chicago Cubs
3.  Jair Jurrjens, Atlanta Braves

These essentially qualify as my mid-season winners.  I don't like giving Top 3 votes to non-play-off teams in CY Young and MVP voting, but Lincecum and Volquez are so much better statistically than Cole Hamels of Philadelphia, Carlos Zambrano of Chicago and Brandon Webb of Arizona that I had to put them in the top 3.  For my own cognitive dissonance, I hope this does not remain so.

MVP also is tough because there are players on sub-.500 teams leading the NL.   Chipper Jones in Atlanta and Lance Berkman in Houston are having better overall seasons than Chase Utley, but I can't look past Chippers' time off or Berkman's less challenging defensive position.

At the last minute, I dropped Reds' 1B Joey Votto and replaced him with Atlanta Braves' SP Jair Jurrjens.  With a top 10 NL ERA and eight wins so far, Jurrjens is more valuable on the open market than a 1B with an .800 OPS would be.

Rotojunkie has taken over the dynamic feature started by Baseball Happenings that draws on the collective knowledge of the blogging community to provide intelligence on which players are currently considered the leading contenders for the big three baseball awards - MVP, Cy Young and ROY - for the American and National leagues.  This week's NL voting should be available later today/early tomorrow. 

NL Cy Young:
1. Edinson Volquez Cincinnati Reds
2. Tim Lincecum San Francisco Giants
3. Ben Sheets Milwaukee Brewers

This is the first time I have left Diamondback's starter Brandon Webb entirely out of the voting.  He has not pitched well for a couple weeks while Volquez and Lincecum continue to do so.  The Wins are a big difference, but, at this point in the season, the ratios have enough innings behind them that an excellent winning record can overcome a couple Wins difference.

NL MVP:
1.  Chase Utley Philadelphia Phillies
2.  Lance Berkman Houston Astros
3.  Dan Uggla Florida Marlins

This one was more challenging than either of the other two votes because Utley has been slumping and doesn't have the 1.000+ OPS of several other hitters.  Heck, he doesn't even have the highest OPS on the Phillies. (Pat Burrell does.)  I stayed with Utley based on his season's work and his team's perch atop the NL East.

Sure, the Houston Astros wouldn't be ahead of the Reds without Lance Berkman, but finishing 6th in the NL Central rather than 5th is a difference without significance.

NL ROY:
1.  Geovanny Soto Chicago Cubs
2.  Joey Votto Cincinnati Reds
3.  Kosuke Fukudome Chicago Cubs

The NL ROY voting remains unchanged.  I gave consideration to Atlanta Braves pitcher Jair Jurrjens, but decided Fukudome's OBP is a more integral part of his team's 1st place standings than Jurrjens efforts are for his team's 4th place standings.  Unlike Berkman and the Astros, the Braves would still be ahead of the Nationals even if Jurrjens never pitched for them.

Rotojunkie  has taken over the dynamic feature started by Baseball Happenings that draws on the collective knowledge of the blogging community to provide intelligence on which players are currently considered the leading contenders for the big three baseball awards - MVP, Cy Young and ROY - for the American and National leagues.  This week's NL voting should be available later today/early tomorrow.  Here are the results from last week's AL voting . 

Here is the way I voted.  My biases for voting in the Cy Young and MVP awards lean towards those hitters and pitchers playing on contending teams.  ROY determination is not tied are strongly to his team's record, but good rookies on expected paly-off contenders will get additional consideration.

NL Cy Young:
1. Brandon Webb Arizona Diamondbacks
2. Edinson Volquez Cincinnati Reds
3. Tim Lincecum San Francisco Giants

I sat down ready to switch my 1st place vote from Webb to Volquez.  This meant ignoring Webb's 11 Wins for a 1st place team, but a closer look kept me from doing it.  Webb has pitched 15 more innings and more than half the walks.  Brandon Webb is the better pitcher.

NL MVP:
1.  Chase Utley Philadelphia Phillies
2.  Lance Berkman Houston Astros
3.  Albert Pujols St. Louis Cardinals

This was an easy choice.  Chase Utley plays for a 1st place team and the more challenging defensive position.  I don't think it is even close right now.

NL ROY:
1.  Geovanny Soto Chicago Cubs
2.  Joey Votto Cincinnati Reds
3.  Kosuke Fukudome Chicago Cubs

The Chicago Cubs, like the Tamp Bay Rays last week, get their 1st place in the standings props from the voters in Rookie-OF-The-Year.  Fukudome's OBP contribution keeps in ahead of starting pitchers like Jair Jurrjens of Atlanta, John Lannnan in Washington and Hiroki Kuroda in Los Angeles. 

I wouldn't be surprised to see Reds' 1B Joey Votto out-produce all NL rookies by season's end.  Will it be enough to take the award from Geovanny Soto though?

There has certainly been an outage of offense in the American League this season. The questions of why and for how long remain unanswered. Here is a list of the Top 3 players by position using Baseball Prospectus' VORP statistic. Note how much difference there is just between the top player and the third-best one. This would lead me to believe a Stars & Scrubs versus a balance approach may be the best fantasy strategy. Agree?

Also, note how poorly the OF VORP leaders due relative to the other position players. The top VORP is lower. This supports the contention that the OF is "shallow" relative to the other positions. However, the drop-off is not as dramatic. There could be more depth in the OF relative to other positions. This supports a strategy that focuses on acquiring the top positions player at the expense of OFs. Agree?

Finally, look at the top three DHs. This helps epxlain the drop in AL production this season. That extra hitter has struggled mightily. I bet the answer to this question goes a ways to explaining the production outage in the AL.

Baseball Happenings dynamic feature that draws on the collective knowledge of the blogging community to provide intelligence on which players are currently considered the leading contenders for the big three baseball awards - MVP, Cy Young and ROY - for the American and National leagues enters its 4th week.  The NL voting will be available here  . 

Here is the way I voted.  My biases for voting in the Cy Young and MVP awards lean towards those hitters and pitchers playing on contending teams.  ROY determination is not tied are strongly to his team's record, but good rookies on expected play-off contenders will get additional consideration.

NL Cy Young:

1.  Brandon Webb, Arizona Diamondbacks
2.  Edinson Volquez, Cincinnati Reds
3.  Carlos Zambrano, Chicago Cubs

8-0 on a 1st place team is a lock.  Coming in second is the ERA and Strikeout leader, Edinson Volquez, and closing fast is Chicago Cubs' ace Carlos Zambrano.  I'd expect Zambrano to surpass Volquez shortly, but, until then, I'll just marvel at what Volquez has accomplished.

NL MVP:
1.  Lance Berkman, Houston Astros
2.  Chase Utley, Philadelphia Phillies
3.  Hanley Ramirez, Florida Marlins

Lance Berkman leads the NL with a 1.235 OPS.  Add sixe stolen bases and you get the best hitter in the NL.  Chase Utley offers a 1.089 OPS and an NL-leading 13 HRs.  He just noses out Florida Marlins SS Hanley Ramirez as a result of those HRs.  Albert Pujols just missed with his .500 OBP, bhut I can't get too excited because of the mere 7 HRs.

NL ROY:
1.  Geovanny Soto, Chicago Cubs
2.  Kosuke Fukudome, Chicago Cubs
3.  Joey Votto, Cincinnati Reds

Chicago Cubs' catcher Geovanny Soto takes over the top spot with a 1.003 OPS.  Teammate Kosuke Fukudome falls to second because Soto's postion and SLG outpace Kosuke's excellent .481 OBP.  Reds' 1B joey Votto noses out Braves' SP Jair Jurrjens thanks to history-making 3HR/1Sb day.  He is also drawing some walks which should serve to keep his OBP respectable.  In a weaker field, Dodgers' 3B Blake DeWitt would get more props with a slash stat line of 323/398/479 - after doing worse between Hi A & AA last season!