Caiman left both Mauer and Santana off ballot. He would be the tie breaker for AL MMP.

Player # times on ballot
Barry Bonds - 17 which means he has been on the ballot in the most seasons, breaking the tie with Aaron and Mays
Albert Pujols - 7
Jim Thome - 7
Miguel Cabrera - 6
Manny Ramirez - 6
Andruw Jones - 6
Jason Giambi - 6
David Ortiz - 5
Scott Rolen - 5
Carlos Beltran - 4
Lance Berkman - 4
Derek Jeter - 4

Congratulations to Albert Pujols. After three consecutive runner-up finishes he has his first MMP victory!

Pujols joins Bob Gibson ('68) and Mark McGwire ('98) as the only Cardinals to win the MMP so far. Though I have a feeling that will change once we cover the careers of Rogers Hornsby and Stan Musial.

Caiman left both Mauer and Santana off ballot. He would be the tie breaker for AL MMP.

I'm going to go ahead and call that one a tie. They both finished fourth, high enough that off-ballot placements shouldn't be the determining factor. They join previous ties Christy Mathewson and Ed Walsh (pitching MMP in 1908 at 2nd overall), and Phil Niekro and Gaylord Perry (pitching MMP in 1974 at 5th overall). They also join Keith Hernandez and Willie Stargell who tied for the writer's NL MVP in 1979.

This is Santana's 2nd AL MMP and pitching MMP (he also pulled off the double in 2004) and his third straight AL pitching MMP. That's quite a peak! Santana joins Dave Stieb ('82-'84) and Roger Clemens ('90-'92) in the three-in-a-row club for the AL (Robin Roberts holds the record with five in a row for the NL from '51 to '55).

Mauer joins an exclusive club of catchers. Elston Howard ('63) is the only other catcher to win an AL MMP, while Johnny Bench ('70), Gary Carter ('82) and Mike Piazza ('97) have won in the NL.

Finally, Brandon Webb is the NL pitching MMP. This is the 6th win in only 9 seasons of existence for the Diamondbacks thanks to five by Randy Johnson and this one by Webb.

Is Carew the only other Twin to win AL MMP?

I suspect that Hornsby and Musial will have far fewer MMPs than anyone is expecting. Remember, for the MMP, you have to lead BOTH leagues. That means that Musial has to contend with Ted Williams, and Hornsby has to contend with Babe Ruth. I'm sure they will make lots of NL MMPs, but full MMPs? I have my doubts as to how many. - Brock

Agree, obviously, but that WWII thing will help Stan the Man w.r.t Teddy Ballgame. Musial should be a multipleMMPMan!

Looks like Zoilo Versalles and Bert Blyleven have also won AL MMP awards as Twins

I was ready to answer your question, DL, but it looks like you got tired of waiting for me to check in today. Yes, Versalles ('65), Blyleven ('73), Carew ('77), Santana ('04 and '06) and Mauer ('06) have won AL MMPs for the Twins. However, Carew is the only Twin to win the full MMP Award.

Digging a little deeper, Frank Viola won an AL pitching MMP as a Twin ('88) and Rod Carew picked up two other AL position player MMPs ('74 and '75). Three Twins have also made run-off votes only to fall short (Camilo Pascual to Hoyt Wilhelm in '59, Bob Allison to Elston Howard in '63, and Jim Kaat to Earl Wilson in '66).

Finally, Walter Johnson should add to those franchise totals.

Hornsby's best chances vis-a-vis Ruth appear to be in '22, '24, and '25 (the first and last appear to be clear for Hornsby, '24 is more of a toss up).

Of course, that's just for MLB. Charleston and Rogan were both excellent in those three years as well.

TomH -I agree with you about multiple, but I don't think that Musial or Hornsby will get the 7 consecutive or so MMPs that they probably will get in their own leagues. Musial almost certainly will get 1943 and 44, and maybe 42. And he should get 1948. But that's the maximum, I think. And 42 is dicey. I think you're right abut Hornsby, too. Basically, Hornsby will win if Ruth gets hurt and Hornsby doesn't, unless its a few years into Gehrig's career, when he has reached his full potential. Your listed trio make very good sense, as they are early in
Gehrig's career. But neither Hornsby or Musial is going to rip off a string of seven. They will do that in the NL, but not as full MMPs. That's the point I was making. It's going to be more like 3 or 4 than the seven that you'd THINK they would pile up. - Brock

Agree, Brock!

A project I always wanted to be a part of (possibly co-honcho) is to rank the top 50 (or so) MLB seasons ever. Probably in a Survivor-like exercise where they get voted off the island until we're down to numero uno. Everything would be fair game: batter, arms, post-season, pennant race, league quality, steroids, WAR, Win Shares, whatever you think the player did to help his team.

No fair skipping ahead. The 1940s elections are 2018.