2009 Major League Baseball individual awards (candidates)

Meaningful baseball for many teams in winding down. Fortunately, in Denver, there is definitely still meaningful baseball going on. For the rest of the cities, the big stories are the potential individual award winners (all photos link to the same gallery).

Cardinals 1st baseman Albert Pujols is the overwhelming favorite to win the 2009 National League MVP Award.

I've looked back through the archive from this year, and published my favorites of some of the potential candidates, from games I've seen this year. I've gathered these examples based on articles I've read on the internet.

Cardinals starting pitcher Chris Carpenter, who won the Cy Young award with the Redbirds in 2005, is a candidate for both the 2009 National League Cy Young Award and the 2009 National League Comeback player of the Year Award.

I saw far fewer American League teams this year, so not much coverage of those awards.

Seattle Mariners 1st baseman Russell Branyan hit 31 homeruns in 431 at bats in 2009 after hitting 12 and 7, respectively, in 132 and 122 at bats the prior two seasons (2008 and 2007). He is considered a candidate for the 2009 American Comeback League Player of the Year.

Ask 10 people who watch baseball which pitcher they would most like to see pitch and at least half of them would say "Tim Lincecum." The kid is so smooth in everything he does.

San Francisco Giants starting pitcher Tim Lincecum shows a unique delivery that helped him win 14 games and strike out 254 batters (as of 9/28/09) during 2009, setting him up to potentially win back-to-back National League Cy Young Awards (he won the award in 2008).

Thanks for looking.