It's hard to say if the Baseball Writers Association will ever give Alex Rodriguez the MVP award he's due, but Internet Baseball Awards electors voted Rodriguez his second Internet AL Player of the Year award in 2002 by a decisive margin; he won almost 70% of the first-place votes. He had previously won this award in 1996, while finishing second in 1998, 2000, and 2001. Miguel Tejada, who had never finished in the top twenty before, came in second as a result of his strong performance during the Athletics' 103-win season. Jason Giambi, the winner of the 2000 and 2001 Internet AL Player of the Years while with Oakland, finished third in his first year as a Yankee. Alfonso Soriano, who had a season not like any other in baseball history with its blend of strengths and weaknesses, finished a strong fourth, and had the third-highest total of first-place votes. Jim Thome, who has finished in the top fifteen seven of the last eight years, matched his highest-ever ranking with a fifth place finish. Torii Hunter's breakout season with the bat vaulted him into sixth place, while Manny Ramirez' seventh-place mark is the fifth year in a row he's finished in the top ten. Pedro Martinez, the winner of the 1999 Internet AL Player of the Year, was the highest ranking pitcher in ninth place, while the highest-rated reliever, Billy Koch, wound up in twenty-sixth place. Ichiro Suzuki, last year's BBWAA AL MVP–he finished fifth in Internet voting–wound up being twentieth in his second go-round. Derek Jeter finished outside the top fifteen for the first time since 1997. Seventeen of the top twenty players were on teams with at least a .500 record, while ten of the those seventeen made it into the playoffs.
Name 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 B P Alex Rodriguez 1615 294 127 46 53 13 9 9 7 5 2178 27059 Miguel Tejada 436 645 308 190 129 83 67 50 35 27 1970 17407 Jason Giambi 44 379 475 373 269 109 80 47 27 16 1819 13128 Alfonso Soriano 103 264 392 291 227 144 109 76 64 37 1707 11902 Jim Thome 41 326 257 195 168 108 90 68 64 35 1352 9204 Torii Hunter 27 54 112 169 197 136 109 85 83 44 1016 5706 Manny Ramirez 11 64 111 182 173 128 105 112 107 86 1079 5626 Garret Anderson 12 43 98 173 144 117 62 75 56 56 836 4640 Pedro Martinez 8 43 77 112 150 117 96 76 65 43 787 4169 Barry Zito 5 52 62 83 112 105 89 103 84 58 753 3703 Magglio Ordonez 3 24 56 75 107 96 122 123 97 78 781 3482 Eric Chavez 2 32 46 74 71 71 84 55 61 46 542 2652 Nomar Garciaparra 2 10 31 69 91 71 82 93 61 63 573 2542 Derek Lowe 7 15 40 46 67 68 77 56 61 49 486 2264 Bernie Williams 2 14 21 44 63 84 63 68 58 65 482 2065 Mike Sweeney 0 8 17 33 67 52 46 52 81 65 421 1668 David Eckstein 2 10 11 23 32 18 26 20 20 25 187 878 John Olerud 1 3 8 9 24 12 19 27 32 38 173 631 Jarrod Washburn 1 4 8 12 12 10 13 13 18 16 107 463 Ichiro Suzuki 1 1 3 9 7 15 16 24 6 19 101 394 Derek Jeter 1 3 9 7 9 5 11 15 8 7 75 353 Troy Glaus 0 4 5 15 10 10 4 3 6 6 63 334 Mark Mulder 0 1 8 12 4 6 8 6 5 8 58 279 Tim Hudson 0 0 2 8 14 11 6 6 6 7 60 272 Roy Halladay 7 0 3 2 6 5 4 7 12 13 59 271 Billy Koch 0 3 7 6 6 9 4 7 6 14 62 269 Tim Salmon 0 0 5 6 10 7 10 7 7 10 62 262 Carlos Delgado 0 3 3 7 5 6 5 7 8 16 60 233 Jacque Jones 0 3 3 7 9 2 8 3 6 7 48 224 Rafael Palmeiro 0 1 0 3 6 5 13 9 13 19 69 215 Eddie Guardado 0 0 0 5 9 6 5 8 6 4 43 179 Carlos Beltran 0 0 1 4 4 5 6 9 13 11 53 173 Eric Hinske 0 3 3 2 3 2 5 2 3 9 32 134 Johnny Damon 0 1 2 3 4 2 8 3 4 4 31 133 Tim Wakefield 3 1 0 1 5 1 0 2 3 9 25 114 Ray Durham 0 1 2 3 3 3 5 0 4 2 23 109 David Justice 1 1 3 2 2 2 3 1 0 0 15 98 Troy Percival 0 0 2 0 3 6 2 4 2 1 20 89 Corey Koskie 1 1 1 1 3 4 1 0 2 0 14 84 Jorge Posada 0 0 0 1 3 2 4 3 6 10 29 82 Paul Konerko 0 1 0 1 2 1 6 3 4 4 22 78 John Mabry 0 4 2 0 0 2 0 1 2 4 15 73 Shea Hillenbrand 0 2 1 2 3 0 1 3 0 1 13 72 Raul Ibanez 1 0 0 1 4 1 0 2 3 5 17 67 Josh Phelps 1 1 0 1 3 1 1 0 0 2 10 59 Omar Vizquel 0 3 1 0 3 0 1 0 0 1 9 58 Edgar Martinez 0 2 0 1 4 0 0 0 3 1 11 56 Doug Mientkiewicz 0 0 4 2 1 0 0 0 0 0 7 52 Darin Erstad 0 0 0 2 3 1 1 1 2 3 13 51 Ellis Burks 0 1 2 1 1 0 0 1 3 1 10 48 David Wells 0 0 1 2 2 0 2 1 0 0 8 45 Randy Winn 0 0 1 2 1 0 0 4 0 3 11 43 Mark Buehrle 0 2 0 1 1 0 1 1 0 4 10 42 Paul Byrd 0 0 0 2 1 0 3 2 1 2 11 42 Robin Ventura 0 0 0 3 3 0 0 0 1 1 8 42 J.C. Romero 0 0 0 1 1 2 1 1 2 6 14 40 Aubrey Huff 0 0 0 0 3 0 2 1 2 4 12 37 Ivan Rodriguez 0 2 0 2 0 0 0 1 0 1 6 36 Chris Woodard 1 0 0 1 0 2 1 0 0 1 6 36 Scott Hatteberg 0 0 0 1 2 0 0 3 2 2 10 34 Adam Kennedy 0 0 0 1 2 1 2 0 0 2 8 34 Scott Spiezio 0 0 2 1 1 0 0 1 0 1 6 33 Jamie Moyer 0 0 0 1 4 0 0 0 0 0 5 31 Mariano Rivera 0 0 0 1 1 3 0 0 1 1 7 31 Tony Batista 0 1 0 0 2 0 1 0 0 0 4 25 Trot Nixon 0 1 0 1 0 1 1 0 0 0 4 25 Rodrigo Lopez 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 0 0 0 3 21 Cory Lidle 0 0 0 0 0 0 2 2 2 1 7 19 Mike Mussina 0 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 0 1 4 19 Steve Karsay 0 1 0 0 0 1 1 0 0 0 3 18 Andy Pettitte 0 0 0 1 1 0 0 1 1 0 4 18 Joe Randa 0 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 2 18 Buddy Groom 0 0 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 3 17 Roger Clemens 0 0 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 2 15 Tony Fiore 0 0 1 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 2 14 Rick Reed 0 1 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 2 14 Shannon Stewart 0 0 0 1 0 0 1 0 1 1 4 14 Mike Cameron 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 1 3 12 Bobby Kielty 0 0 0 0 2 0 0 0 0 0 2 12 Kenny Rogers 0 0 0 0 0 2 0 0 0 0 2 10 Dan Wilson 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 2 10 Ben Weber 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 9 Carlos Baerga 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 8 Melvin Mora 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 7 Joel Pineiro 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 1 2 7 Kelvim Escobar 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 1 6 Robert Fick 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 1 6 David Ortiz 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 1 6 Vernon Wells 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 1 6 Mark Redman 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 1 5 Bret Boone 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 2 3 4 Carlos Lee 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 1 4 Kyle Lohse 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 1 4 Bobby Higginson 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 1 3 Jose Offerman 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 1 3 Ramon Ortiz 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 1 2 Mark Ellis 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 1 2 Kevin Appier 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 1 1 LaTroy Hawkins 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 1 1 TOTAL 2339 2339 2339 2339 2339 1677 1507 1365 1241 1089 18574 124995
Next up, NL Player of the Year.
Greg Spira is an author of Baseball Prospectus. You can contact him by clicking here.
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