27-year old lefty swinging 2B Robinson Cano finished in a tie with Zack Greinke of the Royals for 17th place in the voting for the A.L. MVP Award. Cano played in 161 games for the Yankees last season and he was 204 for 637 (.320 avg, .871 OPS) with 103 runs scored, 25 homers, 85 RBIs and 5 stolen bases. Cano has now played in 5 years with the Yankees and he has played in 734 games in which he is 875 for 2,855 (.306 avg, .818 OPS) with 406 runs scored, 87 homers, 394 RBIs and 17 stolen bases. Former Yankees’ Coach Don Mattingly predicted at one time that Cano will win a batting title. I agree with him about that but I don’t see him ever winning this award because he will likely always have someone on the Yanks that has a better year than him.

34-year old righty swinging 3B Alex Rodriguez finished in a tie with Chone Figgins of the Angels for 10th place in the voting for the A.L. MVP Award. A-Rod missed the first month of the season but he still played in 124 games for the Yankees in which he was 127 for 444 (.286 avg, .933 OPS) with 78 runs scored, 30 homers, 100 RBIs and 14 stolen bases. A-Rod has now played in 2,166 games in his 16-year major league career and he is 2,531 for 8,304 (.305 avg, .965 OPS) with 1,683 runs scored, 583 homers, 1,706 RBIs and 297 stolen bases. Alex Rodriguez might have a hard time winning another MVP Award after admitting this season that he used performance enhancing drugs. The baseball writers don’t forget things like that.

35-year old righty swinging shortstop Derek Jeter finished 3rd in the voting for the A.L. MVP Award. He played in 153 games for the Yankees last season and he was 212 for 634 (.334 avg, .871 OPS) with 107 runs scored, 18 homers, 66 RBIs and 30 stolen bases. Jeter has now played in 2,138 games in his 15 years in the Bronx and he is 2,747 for 8,659 (.317 avg, .847 OPS) with 1,574 runs scored, 224 homers, 1,068 RBIs and 305 stolen bases. The Captain has a few more good years in him so don’t be surprised if he can win one of these awards in the near future.

29-year old switch hitting 1B Mark Teixeira exploded on the scene for the Yankees last season as he finished 2nd in the voting for the American League MVP Award. He played in 156 games for the Yankees this year and he was 178 for 609 (.292 avg, .948 OPS) with 103 runs scored, 39 homers and 122 RBIs. In his 7 year major league career, Teixeira has now played in 1,060 games in which he is 1,167 for 4,023 (.290 avg, .923 OPS) with 669 runs scored, 242 homers and 798 RBIs. There is no reason to think that Teixeira won’t continue placing high in the voting for this award as he has an almost perfect spot in the Yankees’ batting order.

Joe Girardi finished third in the voting for Manager of the Year in the A.L. behind the two managers he knocked out of the playoffs (Mike Scioscia and Ron Gardenhire) as he complied a 103-59 (63.6%) record during the regular season. He has now led the Yankees to a 192-132 record (59.3%) during his two years as skipper of the Yankees. It will really be hard for Girardi to win this award with the Yankees who are always expected to be great because of the size of the payroll.