We are at the midway point of the 2012 MLB season and The Greek has narrowed their list of American League MVP candidates to 8. At the beginning of the year the 4 favorites in the AL were Albert Pujols, Adrian Gonzalez, Miguel Cabrera and Prince Fielder, were the favorites, but as you see from the list below Cabrera is the only one of the four still in contenttion for the honor. The updated odds at The Greek right now show that Josh Hamilton is in the lead for AL MVP Honors. Youngster Mike Trout is close behind with Robinson Cano and Miguel Cabrera rounding out the top 4. Let's take a look at the 4 favorites in a little more depth.

Josh Hamilton (+175): Last year Josh played in just 121 games and he hit 25 HR's, but in 79 games thus far he has already hit 27 HR's, which is tied for the lead league with Jose Bautista. Josh also leads the league in RBI's (75), Slugging pct. (.635) and OPS (1.016), plus he is hitting .308 on the year as well. Back in 2010, when he won the AL MVP award he lead the league in BA (.359), Slugging (.633) and OPS (1.046), plus he had 100 RBI's and 32 HR's. His average is down from that year, but the OPS and Slugging pct. numbers are fairly the same, while he will blow away the RBI and HR numbers. You can see why he is the favorite.

Mike Trout (+350): Mike Trout didn't even start the year in the Majors and here is is 2nd on the least of AL MVP candidates at the midway point of the season. Mike is what we call a stat sheet stuffer. Mike currently leads the AL in hitting (.341) and Stollen Bases (26). He's 5th on OBP (.397), 6th in Slugging (.562) and 4th in OPS (.959). Mike is also 5th in runs scored (57) and 6th in runs created (64). His HR (12) and RBI (40) numbers are is kinda low (12), but he does have 6 HR's and 14 RBI's in his last 22 games so posting 30 Hr's and 90+ RBI's are not out of the question. He deserves to be so high on this list.

Miguel Cabrera (+500): Miguel is the only one of the top 4 preseason favorites that are still on the list and with good reason. Miguel leads the AL in hits (111) and is 6th in hitting (.324). Last year Miguel was 5th in the AL MVP voting and he had 30 Hr's and 105 RBI's, plus led the league in Doubles with 48. This year he is on pave to top all 3 numbers, with 18 HR's, 71 RBI's and 28 doubles so far. He did score 111 runs in each of the last 2 years, but with just 52 thus far he will be hard pressed to match that number. Still he has good enough overall numbers to be considered as one of the favorites for the 2012 AL MVP.

Robinson Cano (+500): Robinson is really setting himself up for a strong second half. In his last 23 games he has been on a tear, hitting .368, with 9 HR's 21 RBI's and and OPS of 1.180 over that stretch. He has a .313 BA (8th) and an OPS of .953 (6th) for the year and leads the AL in total bases (192). Cano's RBI numbers are down, as he has just 51 so far, after putting up 118 and 109 in his last 2 years. He is second on the Yanks in HR's (20) and his highest home run total was in 2010 when he hit 29. He was 3rd in the AL MVP voting that year. If Robinson keeps up the pace he was on before the break then he could just walk away with the AL MVP this year.  
 

2012 American League MVP Odds, Courtesy Of The Greek

Josh Hamilton (+175)

Mike Trout (+350)

Robinson Cano (+500)

Miguel Cabrera (+500)

Mark Trumbo (+800)

David Ortiz (+1200)

Jose Bautista (+1500)

Adam Jones (+1500)

Adrian Beltre (+3000)

The Field (+500)

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