Detroit Tigers slugger Miguel Cabrera and San Francisco Giants catcher Buster Posey won the American League and National League MVP awards respectively.
Cabrera was the first Triple Crown winner in 45 years. With 22 of 28 first-place votes and 362 points from the American League panel of Baseball Writers' Association of America, Cabrera beat out Los Angeles Angels rookie phenom Mike Trout. Trout had had six first-place votes and 281 points. He was voted AL Rookie of the Year earlier in the week.
"I'm very excited," Reuters quoted Cabrera as saying. "I don't have any words to explain how excited I feel. "I never expected I'm going to win because Mike Trout, he got an unbelievable season."
Cabrera believes healthy competition, like the one between Trout and him, is good for the overall growth of baseball.
"To see a player like Trout do the kind of stuff he does in the field, people talk about that," Cabrera added. "People can understand how good baseball is, how beautiful it is. Hopefully every year, players come up and do a better job. It's good for baseball."
He thanked Detroit manager Jim Leyland for his recent success with the bat. "I think Jim Leyland made a good decision moving me to third base. He said he thinks I had the ability to push and work hard, to make it a better lineup," Cabrera said. "The only thing is to try to work hard, try to get better, try to do everything to win games. I think it was the hard thing for me this year."
Meanwhile, Posey's contribution was instrumental in Giants becoming the World Series champions. In the 2011 season, Posey could not play regularly because of an ankle injury. But in his comeback season he put up some seriously creditable numbers.
"It probably took a couple of months," Posey said. "For me the toughest thing was running the bases, it aggravated my ankle a little bit and bothered me behind the plate.
"But I give tons and tons of credit to our training staff. This is an award that will be shared by everyone in our organization."
With 27 of 32 firsts and 422 points from the NL panel, he beat Ryan Braun (285 points). Posey became the first catcher since 1942 to clinch the NL batting title. He also was the runaway winner of the NL Comeback Player of the Year award.
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