Vote: choose your American League first-half MVP

The All-Star break initiated baseball’s unofficial midway point. With that portion of the season now in the rear view mirror, let’s look back at some players that could possibly fit the bill as the American League’s first-half Most Valuable Player.

A lot of sites run posts declaring their own mid-season awards, explaining why this guy is their choice for a particular award, but I wanted to put a different spin on this. Why? We see a lot of those posts. What I did was nothing new or revolutionary. I want our readers to decide the winners.

I came across my list of nominees based on some of the numbers. I did not take into consideration if a player’s team was in contention for a playoff spot. I know there are those that believe that should be part of the criteria, but I personally don’t hold that to be completely true.

Here’s the five at which I finally came to grips with listing here. It wasn’t easy getting this list down to five.

And don’t forget to cast your vote located on this post’s final slide!

(Nominees are listed in alphabetical order)