Victor Martinez, Mike Trout, and Michael Brantley (WTF?) of the Cleveland Indians have been named the three finalists for the American League MVP.

We were also among the finalists for Gold Gloves. These Tigers were nominated at their position with two other players:

Second Base: Ian Kinsler

Catcher: Alex Avila

First Base: Miguel Cabrera

Kinsler did it with a brand new team and with different shortstops all season. He dove all over the field with his gritty style. His defense was never questioned in an iron man season where he only missed two games.

Avila did it through foul ball after foul ball to the face, amid all his injuries. He threw out more runners (36) than anyone in the American League, and he also turned the most double plays (9) while missing 40 games.

Cabrera did it at a new position from last year and finished with a .995 fielding percentage. Not to mention the injuries he took on without even stopping for more than a week:

“He is as tough as you can possibly be,” Dave Dombrowski said. “They cannot even believe once they went in there and looked at it that he could play with the ankle that he had. It’s worse than what we ever would have anticipated.”

Cabrera underwent surgery to have bone spurs in his right ankle removed Wednesday, but he also had two screws inserted to help repair a stress fracture in the navicular bone of his right foot.

“We were surprised,” Dombrowski said. “We did not know that there was (a stress fracture) in there. After he saw the doctor at the end of the year in Miami, he had mentioned something possibly with the navicular bone, but they really didn’t know and they told me they wouldn’t really know until they went in there.

“We were surprised. We did not anticipate this.”

“But there won’t be any activity as far as that foot or ankle until that three-month period for sure.”

via Dave Dombrowski: Injury worse than expected, Miguel Cabrera ‘is as tough as you can possibly be’ | MLive.com.

So, V had to carry the team while “Big Cat” was hurt. They routinely dared Martinez to swing, and when he chose to, he delivered. He batted .335, hit 32 home runs, and knocked in 103 runs. If they really want to keep it real with stats, thanks to an additional 70 walks the patient V worked, he finished with the highest On-Base+Slugging Percentage in the game, at .974. He also played first base with Cabrera hurt and occasionally catcher. That’s an MVP.