This is the seventh AL voting period. The MLB Blog Poll votes on the MVP, Cy Young, and Rookie of Year candidates in each league throughout the regular baseball season. In doing so, you get a cumulative snapshot of the award winners, instead of the single vote. Previous blog poll results and voter comments can be found at the links below the fold.

A.L. MVP Voting:

1. Milton Bradley - 19%
2. Josh Hamilton - 17%
3. Carlos Quentin - 16%
4. Alex Rodriguez - 15%
5. Ian Kinsler and J.D. Drew - 9%
6. Evan Longoria - 5%
7. Joe Mauer - 4%
8. Grady Sizemore - 3%
9. Jermaine Dye - 2%
10. Justin Morneau and Cliff Lee - 1%

A.L. Cy Young Voting: 

1. Cliff Lee - 47%
2. Roy Halladay - 23%
3. Justin Duchscherer - 13%
4. John Lackey - 5%
5. Joe Saunders - 4%
6. John Danks and Scott Kazmir - 3%
7. Ervin Santana - 2%

A.L. Rookie of the Year Voting:

1. Evan Longoria - 52%
2. Jacoby Ellsbury - 26%
3. Greg Smith - 13%
4. David Murphy and Nick Blackburn - 3%
5. Armando Galarraga - 2%
6. Aaron Laffey, Jimmy Johnson, and Joba Chamberlain - 1%

Paul Sporer of Baseball by Paul:

All three of these votes were extremely difficult to decide on at this juncture.

With the MVP, A-Rod used a monster June to thrust himself back into the ring after missing some time in May. But the Texas boys, Josh Hamilton & Milton Bradley, sandwich A-Rod for first and third, respectively. Bradley and A-Rod have higher OPS totals than Wonderboy Hamilton, but they both have almost 100 fewer at-bats as well. With Texas actually OVER .500, Hamilton gets the nod because he deserves it, and not purely because of sentimentality.

With the Cy Young, Justin Duchscherer doesn't have the win total of Cliff Lee mainly because he missed a few starts, but he has decisions in all 13 of his starts (8-5) while accumulating a minuscule 1.91 ERA and 0.92 WHIP over his 85 innings. You don't need a huge strikeout rate (just 5.8) when you're only walking 2.0 per nine. Everyone keeps waiting for the wheels to fall off for Lee and it just hasn't happened. I think as the second half plays out, Roy Halladay will pass him for at least the second spot, especially if he keeps throwing complete games (six) while holding on to a sub-3.00 ERA. That's not to say the wheels will fall off for Lee, rather that Halladay will get his balanced and rotated for the stretch run.

The ROY was another remarkably difficult vote. When was the last time there were so many legitimate candidates? Longoria has been as good as advertised and that's rare in this day and age of information overload that leads to far too many overhyped prospects. He gets the nod over two otherwise deserving pitchers on contenders.

From ChicagoCubsOnline.com- Justin Duchscherer doesn't make the cut yet - needs more innings.

Cubs f/x: Longoria floats to the top, the inevitable.

A-Rod is doing the same. Kinsler is MVP candidate #3 from the Rangers. His recent play pushes him to the top. I'm going with Quentin, since I can't imagine the White Sox without his bat right now.

Evan Brunell - Fire Brand of the American League

MVP:
1. 3B Alex Rodriguez, NYY: A-Rod is a big reason why, even though the Yankees have struggled with injuries and ineffectiveness, they are still in striking distance of a playoff spot.
2. OF Milton Bradley, TEX: Bradley is simply annihilating opposing pitchers to an unbelievable tune of a 1.039 OPS.
3. RF J.D. Drew, BOS: Whoda thunk? Drew has cooled off some, but he is still hitting and tied with A-Rod and Bradley in HR.

Cy Young:
1. Cliff Lee, CLE: He’s still pitching effectively at 11-1, 2.34 and has a crucial game against John Danks and the White Sox tonight.
2. Justin Duchscherer, OAK: Dude’s got a crazy 1.91 ERA, but the only thing keeping him from the first-place spot is his 8-5 record. (Regardless of how you view the Cy Young: most valuable or best pitcher, I’m voting as how Cys are perceived in reality.)
3. Joe Saunders, LAA: It’s been said before, I’ll say again: Huge to the Angels’ ability to stay afloat until John Lackey got back.

Rookie of the Year:
1. 3B Evan Longoria, TB: He finally qualifies, and at .267/.341/.523 is incredible and clearly instrumental to how well the Rays have done.
2. SP Greg Smith, OAK: No one expected the A’s to content, and a big reason why they are is Smith.
3. CF Jacoby Ellsbury, BOS: He’s in quite the skid, so he drops to third in the rankings. He’s still got a high number of stolen bases, but his overall offensive game isn’t producing

Jason Carter - I'm not really a Rangers fan, but they've got some hitters! I probably could have gone with A-Rod in the #3 slot, but I figure he'll get enough love from other voters

MVP - Bradley still takes the cake for me, he has been unreal this season. ARod, is creeping up on him.

Cy Young - Halladay continues to dominate. It seems every night he goes out, the Jays bullpens gets a night off.

Rookie - Longoria has been incredible in such a short period of time. He would be challenging for the league lead had he been with the team out of Spring.- Mauer gets the nod for the tougher defensive position.

David Pinto, Baseball Musings: Danks gets the nod over Marcum due to fewer home runs allowed.

Jason Collette, Rotojunkie:  It has been tough not to be a homer, but Evan Longoria is clearly the best ROY candidate in the bunch. Ellsbury has been playing awful since June 1st while Longoria has been surging tremendously. I wish Justin Duchscherer pitched in a market where he got more exposure because he has been terrific this year. People laughed at me when I paid $10 for him in my local AL auction this year - he's earned 250% of that for me at this point of the season. 

Previous results

Week 1 AL Vote
Week 2 NL Vote
Week 3 AL Vote
Week 4 NL Vote
Week 5 AL Vote
Week 6 NL Vote
Week 8 NL Vote
Week 9 AL Vote
Week 10 NL Vote
Week 11 AL Vote
Week 12 NL Vote

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