Gentlemen, start your engines

With the season's final month approaching, the AL MVP race is on

September is a great time of year to clinch the Most Valuable Player Award. Just ask Chipper Jones, Jason Giambi and Miguel Tejada, all of whom locked up their MVPs in recent seasons with clutch hitting during the last month of the campaign. The 2003 National League MVP race is typical of most such races; you have your frontrunner (Barry Bonds) and another worthy candidate still capable of changing voters' minds (Albert Pujols). The American League MVP battle, however, is a rarity. It looks like the California recall election, with only slightly fewer candidates -- but more of whom have some redeeming talent. There is no clear-cut favorite.

Carlos Delgado of Toronto, Alex Rodriguez of Texas or Garret Anderson of Anaheim would most likely wear the frontrunner tag based on statistics, but this is not the Player of the Year Award. Their teams haven't played a meaningful game for months. With that in mind, who has done the most to help his club win? In alphabetical order, here is a look at the leading candidates:

BRET BOONE, Seattle. Well, maybe he was ahead of the field earlier in the year, but Boone hasn't been the same since he took a bagel at the All-Star Home Run Derby. Even with his second-half slide, however, the Mariners second baseman might drive in more runs than any other player on a contender. He's also a sure-handed middle infielder who plays with a swagger that influences his teammates. Said one AL GM, "I love Ichiro [Suzuki], but Boone's their MVP. Ichiro gives them a lot in his own way, but they'd miss Boone's power, his production and his attitude more than what they get from Ichiro if either one went down. Give me the guy who produces runs any day over the leadoff hitter."

NOMAR GARCIAPARRA, Boston. He plays a premier defensive position (OK, he does so erratically at times), hits like a corner outfielder and could finish with the most total bases of any player on a contending club. The trouble with Nomar is that he may not even be the best hitter on his own team -- Manny Ramirez gets on base more often and hits with more power. The 30-year-old shortstop is also less productive with runners in scoring position than without, and he has a Coors-like split between his home and road numbers. Those things will be hard for voters to reconcile.

JASON GIAMBI, New York. Except for a poor April, he has been a run-producing machine in a lineup that has played without Derek Jeter, Bernie Williams and Nick Johnson at various times for long stretches. Giambi is a great example of why batting average is overrated, though it's uncertain whether the voting populace of baseball writers have caught on to such thinking yet. What's not to like about the first baseman? He has been brutal against left-handers, he has taken almost 40 percent of his at-bats as a DH (a glorified part-time job), he has fewer total bases than Rangers second baseman Michael Young, and recent MVP voters don't take kindly to Yankees candidates, presumably because of the margin of error allowed by the club's enormous payroll.

MAGGLIO ORDONEZ, Chicago. Voters love a guy who gets hot in the second half, when games mysteriously become more important (though they count just the same as they did in April). Ordonez has raised his batting average more than 30 points since the beginning of July, when he was hitting .285. He fares equally well against righties and lefties, and is a bona fide clutch hitter. If the White Sox outfielder has a big September and gets north of 100 RBIs, and if Chicago wins the AL Central, Ordonez could do what Tejada did in 2002 -- use the season's final month to open the eyes of voters and make a run at the award.

MANNY RAMIREZ, Boston. He's the cleanup hitter for what may be the greatest offensive team since the '27 Yankees, which is either good (he's Boston's premier run producer) or bad (he has had lots of help) when it comes to determining how valuable the outfielder is. Ramirez is deadly efficient at getting runners in from scoring position, especially with a man on third and less than two outs. However, he's also a poor fielder and baserunner who has taken more than 15 percent of his at-bats at DH and has benefited from hitting behind Garciaparra, another MVP candidate.

ICHIRO SUZUKI, Seattle. If you don't like to watch Suzuki play, you don't like baseball. He's a joy to behold at the plate, in the field and on the bases. The trouble with Suzuki as the potential MVP is that he is not exceptional at getting on base or hitting for power. You would expect an MVP to be especially proficient at one of those skills, if not both. (I didn't think he was the MVP when he won the award two years ago; he was the first corner outfielder to claim the honor without finishing in the top 10 in on-base percentage or slugging percentage.) Suzuki is a leadoff hitter, for instance, who doesn't see a lot of pitches, gets on base less often than Giambi, Ordonez and Ramirez, and has fewer extra-base hits than Royals shortstop Angel Berroa. He has had a very similar year at the plate as Jeter, who missed just over five weeks with a shoulder injury. Seattle's place-setter is no Rickey Henderson.

So who do I like? There's no way I'm about to throw my support to one of these candidates, or even rank them. The race is too close and too far from a conclusion to make a call now. I'm counting on September to reveal the winner.

Sports Illustrated senior writer Tom Verducci covers baseball for the magazine and is a regular contributor to SI.com. Click here to send a question to his Mailbag.