NOMINEE	THE SKINNY
	Overrated	Jose Offerman, Boston	Twenty-six million dollars for a guy with no power who can't play defense and was a bust the only time he played in a large market?
	Underrated	Carlos Delgado, Toronto	Missed the first month of the season and still finished ninth in the AL in home runs (38), fifth in slugging percentage (.592), and tied for fourth in extra-base hits (82). He's also such a positive influence that the Blue Jays named him captain.
	Annoying	Whining about payroll disparity	OK, the revenue-sharing system, which is not even running at full throttle yet, needs to be tweaked to keep up with the gains in revenue among the large market teams. But too many teams are using this as a tired excuse to cover just plain lousy management (Seattle, Kansas City, Milwaukee and Toronto, you know who we're talking about). And others (Montreal, Oakland, Minnesota) ought to just relocate or keep quiet.
	Breakthrough	Kerry Wood, Chicago Cubs	His 20-strikeout, no-walk one-hitter against Houston in May was one of the most dominating games ever pitched. Rookie of the year was the toughest pitcher in the NL to hit (.196) and struck out the most batters per nine innings (12.6).
	Uplifting	The Home Run Race	The camaraderie between Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa was even better than the competition between them.
	MVP	Mark McGwire, St. Louis	The 70 home runs you know about. But McGwire also had the seventh-best slugging percentage of all time (.752), the best in 71 years; set a National League record for walks (162); led the league in on-base percentage (.470); and, above all, did it with a humility that made baseball seem once again like the national pastime.
	Storyline to Follow in 1999	Y2K? Try 3K	Three future first-ballot Hall of Famers zero in on 3,000 hits: Wade Boggs, Tony Gwynn and Cal Ripken Jr. Special mention: the arrival of J.D. Drew, who will hit at least 30 home runs batting in front of McGwire.