30-year old lefty swinging CF Curtis Granderson finished 4th in the voting for the A.L. MVP Award today. Granderson played in 156 games for the Yankees last year and he was 153 of 583 (.262 avg, .916 OPS) with 136 runs scored, 41 homers, 119 RBIs and 25 stolen bases. Granderson has now played in 966 games in his first 8 years in the majors and he is 970 of 3,628 (.267 avg, .837 OPS) with 647 runs scored, 167 homers, 485 RBIs and 104 stolen bases. Granderson showed this year what kind of potential damage he can do with the Yankees. He could win an MVP Award in the near future as long as he keeps hitting lefties.

29-year old lefty swinging 2B Robinson Cano finished 6th in the voting for the A.L. MVP Award today. Cano played in 159 games for the Yankees last year and he was 188 of 623 (.302 avg, .882 OPS) with 104 runs scored, 28 homers, 118 RBIs and 8 stolen bases. He has now played in 1,053 games in his first 7 years with the Yankees and he is 1,263 of 4,104 (.308 avg, .843 OPS) with 613 runs scored, 144 homers, 621 RBIs and 28 stolen bases. Robinson Cano has such a sweet swing that I wouldn’t be surprised to see him eventually win a MVP Award.

31-year old switch-hitting 1B Mark Teixeira finished 19th in the voting for the A.L. MVP Award. He played in 156 games for the Yankees last year and he was 146 of 589 (.248 avg, .835 OPS) with 90 runs scored, 39 homers, 111 RBIs and 4 stolen bases. Teixeira has now played in 1,374 games in his first 9 years in the majors and he is 1,467 of 5,213 (.281 avg, .904 OPS) with 872 runs scored, 314 homers, 1,017 RBIs and 19 stolen bases. I look for Teixeira to rebound batting average wise in 2012, and he will have his usual power numbers as he is very consistent.

47-year old Joe Girardi finished 5th in the voting for the A.L. Manager of the Year Award. The Yankees won the A.L. East last year with a 97-65 (59.9%) record. Girardi now has a 462-348 (57%) record in his first five years as a major league manager. He has won the Manager of the Year Award one time (with the Marlins), but it’s going to be hard for him to win another one because the Yankees are expected to win big every year.

31-year old lefty starting pitcher C.C. Sabathia finished in 4th place in the voting for the A.L. Cy Young Award voting. Sabathia pitched in 33 games (all starts) for the Yankees last year and he was 19-8 with a 3.00 ERA and a 1.23 WHIP. He has now pitched in 355 games (all starts) in his first 11 years in the majors and he is 176-96 with a 3.51 ERA and a 1.23 WHIP. Sabathia has a real shot at joining the 300 win club if he can just stay healthy.

UPDATE: (11/21/2011) - C.C. Sabathia finished 14th in the voting for the A.L. MVP Award today.