Joey Votto hit his 35th homerun and drove in his 106th run of the year, and has clearly been one of the biggest breakouts of the year. I cannot bring myself to move him past the top 2 at his position, but he's clearly the #3, and could very well vault above that next season.
1. Albert Pujols
2. Miguel Cabrera
3. Joey Votto
4. Adrian Gonzalez
5. Ryan Howard - I think we continue to see decreased power (compared to his previous highs), but with the remaining high batting average he has shown this year.
6. Kevin Youkilis
7. Prince Fielder
8. Mark Teixeira - The batting average drop concerns me, and while I think it improves, I think there's not as much upside here as there has been in past seasons.
9. Adam Dunn
10. Paul Konerko - I don't necessarily think he can repeat what he's done this year, but I think he can still hit for a solid average and hit 25 homers and drive in 90 regardless. And with so many questions out of the rest of the players around here, he seems a better fit.
There are a lot of players that seem like they could break into this top 10 if the pieces fall into place. Justin Morneau would definitely be here if he were healthy or there at least appeared to be a timeframe for his return. Kendry Morales will be a nice sleeper for next year after missing the majority of the season due to injury. I also like both Ike Davis and Mitch Moreland as nice sleepers for this list for next season.
Curtis Granderson hit 2 homeruns last night against the Rays, and had 5 runs batted in as well. It has felt like a bit of a lost season for Granderson, but he's hitting about what we expected from him coming into the season. He has a .249 batting average, 21 homeruns, 59 runs batted in, and 12 stolen bases on the year, and I think he will do better next year in his 2nd year in the Bronx.
Gavin Floyd left his start last night after throwing just 7 pitches, and we'll have to see what happens with him tomorrow. I have to imagine that he's probably pretty unlikely to throw another pitch this season though, and can probably be dropped.
If you missed it, Geovany Soto is having season ending shoulder surgery, and is also droppable at this point as well. At this point though, if you need a catcher really bad, Brayan Pena, A.J. Pierzynski, and Matt Wieters are all hitting well in September.