The Hank Aaron Award

Your 2006 winners: Ryan Howard and Derek Jeter. Howard I have no problem with - it was a toss-up between he and Pujols. But Jeter? Yes, he's a great player and he deserves to be MVP, but the best hitter in the league? Really???

On his team alone, Jason Giambi and the much-maligned Alex Rodriguez had a better OPS, and in all of the American League, he was 15th in the category. He didn't even hit half as many home runs as 12 of the players ahead of him. But he had that sparkly .343 batting average, which must have swayed a bunch of New Yorkers to stuff the ballot box for him, even though he didn't even win the batting title (and someone with a higher OPS did). For a more in-depth and scathing review of this travesty, see Fire Joe Morgan.

Of course, allowing the fans to vote for an award like this isn't the stupidest thing MLB has done in the area of off-season awards. There's also this. Once again (and again), Fire Joe Morgan covers this one with more entertainment value than I can provide.

And, once again, MLB goes and makes a major announcement during the World Series, while forbidding its own clubs from doing the same...