FanSided's AL Player of the Year: Jacoby Ellsbury

The American League Player of the Year award was a lot closer than the NL’s finish. While Matt Kemp basically blew away all other competition, four players finished atop the AL’s list within 36 points of each other. Mr. Do-It-All, Jacoby Ellsbury, narrowly beat out Jose Bautista, Miguel Cabrera, and Pitcher of the Year Justin Verlander to claim the title of FanSided’s AL Player of the Year.

Ellsbury had an unbelievable 2011. After battling injuries last season, Ellsbury rebounded in a big way, hitting at a clip of .321/.376/.552. While Ellsbury turned in his normally impressive performance defensively and on the base paths (39 stolen bases), Boston’s center fielder discovered his power stroke in 2011. This season, Ellsbury tallied 46 doubles and 32 home runs, good for a slugging percentage higher than Albert Pujols and teammate Adrian Gonzalez.

Driving in 105 RBI’s while scoring the third most runs (119) in the league, Ellsbury proved a complete player this season. This level of completeness contributed to Ellsbury finishing 2011 with the highest fWAR (9.4) of all Major Leaguers.

Bautista came out this season and proved that 2010 was no fluke. Toronto’s slugger led the Majors in home runs for the second consecutive season. That power combined with Bautista’s league leading 132 free passes earned Bautista the Major’s highest OPS (1.056).

Along with Bautista, Cabrera was the only other player in MLB to end the season with an OPS north of 1.000. Cabrera also showed power and patience at the plate, walking over 100 times while leading the league in doubles (48) and hitting 30 home runs. By reaching 30 dingers, Cabrera has now totaled at least 30 home runs and 100 RBI’s seven of the past eight years.

Here’s a complete list of AL players receiving votes and their totals.

The way the voting is tallied is as follows: first place votes – 14 points, second place votes – 9 points, third place votes – 8 points, fourth place votes – 7 points, fifth place votes – 6 points, sixth place votes – 5 points, seventh place votes – 4 points, eighth place votes – 3 points, ninth place votes – 2 points, tenth place votes – 1 point.

1. Jacoby Ellsbury (Boston Red Sox) – 284

2. Jose Bautista (Toronto Blue Jays) – 278

3. Miguel Cabrera (Detroit Tigers) – 261

4. Justin Verlander (Detroit Tigers) – 248

5. Curtis Granderson (New York Yankees) – 195

6. Adrian Gonzalez (Boston Red Sox) – 160

7. Robinson Cano (New York Yankees) – 88

8. Dustin Pedroia (Boston Red Sox) – 78

9. Michael Young (Texas Rangers) – 50

10. Alex Avila (Detroit Tigers) – 34

11. Jered Weaver (LA Angels) – 29

12. Adrian Beltre (Texas Rangers) – 26