My final MVP, Cy Young ballots for each league

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• Is Buck Showalter next?
• Another hot Dodgers rookie
• More news and notes

On my own unofficial awards ballot, a pitcher gets an MVP, three players from one small-market team make the top five in MVP and an oddly obscure relief pitcher wins the deepest Rookie of the Year competition in years. Maybe that's why my real MVP ballot got lost in the mail this year, making it 20 straight years that's happened.

Without further ado, the picks:

AL MVP

Anybody who thinks pitchers shouldn't win MVP awards hasn't seen Johan Santana pitch this season. Dave Sandford/Getty Images

1. Johan Santana, Twins. Minnesota was 20 games over when Santana started. My guess is he still gets no first-place votes from writers with actual ballots. Pitchers should start their own anti-discrimination lobby.

2. Frank Thomas, A's. On a cost-basis analysis, he wins hands down. Only $500,000 guaranteed (plus $3 million in incentives) brings a monster year. He probably clinched his Hall of Fame candidacy as well.

3. Derek Jeter, Yankees. So great yet so hard to quantify, he vacillates between overrated and underrated. To the stat freaks who say he's a below-average shortstop, tell that to the coaches who've already voted him two Gold Glove awards. (He's actually great going to his right, coming in and going out and only poor to his left.) And to the folks who say he's not great at any one thing, well, he's maybe the most clutch every-day player in baseball, possibly the best baserunner and a serial collector of 200 hits. Jealousy abounds.

4. Joe Mauer, Twins. He's the first AL catcher ever to win a batting crown, which gives you an idea how easy that is.

5. Justin Morneau, Twins. The team is campaigning for him, which would be their best-case scenario, with Mauer winning the batting crown and Santana a lock to take the Cy Young. I see the .340-plus-hitting catcher who's also a defensive whiz as a little more rare. But after all his big hits (not to mention the campaign), Morneau probably has the best chance of anyone to beat the favored Jeter.

6. David Ortiz, Red Sox. Well, I followed his heed on the importance of home runs and didn't put Jeter in the top two. But his team has been out of it since Labor Day, killing the chances of the every-day player who had the best year (sorry e-mailers, DHs still count as players in my book).

7. Jermaine Dye, White Sox. A September swoon (13 for his last 62) killed him and his team.

8. Johnny Damon, Yankees. Letting him go was just one of a few mistakes by Boston's front office. The Yankees found him to be worth every penny of that $52 million.

9. Carlos Guillen, Tigers. Detroit's balance is so good, I've considered six Twins and only one Tiger. Guillen is an underrated star.

10. Jason Giambi, Yankees. The only highlight to his brutal September was the Sports Illustrated article where he's telling Joe Torre what to do. The Yankees had things clinched by September, anyway.

Just missed the Top 10: Chien-Ming Wang, Mariano Rivera, Justin Verlander, Torii Hunter, Michael Cuddyer, Joe Nathan, Jim Thome, Joe Crede, Vladimir Guerrero, Paul Konerko, Nick Swisher.

AL LVP (Least Valuable): Javy Lopez, Orioles/Red Sox. A giveaway in two places.

NL MVP

1. Ryan Howard, Phillies. His 58 home runs are the most that are likely legit since Roger Maris' 61 in '61 and impossible to ignore. Phillies fought till the end, which is good enough for me (and they outplayed the Cardinals anyway -- St. Louis is fortunate to be in that division).

2. Albert Pujols, Cardinals. His big hits helped St. Louis avoid a total embarrassment.

3. Jose Reyes, Mets. Fell short of becoming the first National League player to go 20-20-20 (19 home runs, 17 triples and 30 doubles) since Willie Mays. "He doesn't really even know what he's doing yet,'' one NL scout. "He's really going to be something.'' Actually, he already is.

4. Carlos Beltran, Mets. He avoided the injuries that wrecked his rookie year in the Big Apple until the very end. He still played a great center field and tied Todd Hundley's team single-season home run record.