one cool thing to do in the middle of the season is to hand out the 1st half awards. I won't go into detail about the Rookie of the year award, first because it is such a meaningless award in baseball and second because I don't know much about it. who would that be? David Price and Andrew McCutchen? something like that...

AL Cy Young Award - Zack Greinke

he came back from a weird mental disease to pitch like Sandy Koufax for a few starts in a row. the best way to understand how great he was in that strech is trying to get how he's still 10-5 for a terrible Royals team and has a 2.12 ERA even though he's 2-4 with a 4-plus ERA in the past 2 months.

AL MVP Award - Joe Mauer

the Twins hometown hero has a crazy stat line in which he's chasing Ted Williams' .400 BA and has already topped his highest HR total in a season with half the at bats. odds are that he has to cool down but if he finishes with a 20+ HR, .350 BA I still say he's a monster.

NL Cy Young Award - Tim Lincecum

Dan Haren deserves serious consideration but I consider Lincecum more dominant. the reigning Cy Young Winner will single handedly keep the Gians in contention his whole career if he don't break down or don't sign iwth the Yankees and become a choking prima-donna.

NL MVP Award - Albert Pujols

that's it. one of the greatest hitters of all time.