Joey Votto

There are now less than 10 games left in the marathon that is the Major League Baseball season. There were many lessons taught this year: One of which is that 2010 was the year of the pitcher, with so many pitchers throwing absolute gems.

We learned that even though its been three years, somebody can reach the 50 home run mark again (even though Jose Bautista only had 59 total HR for his career. Suspicious? Kind of. I like to give him the benefit of the doubt though).

The 2010 Major League Baseball season is quickly winding down to the final 10-plus games, and the race for postseason play—and postseason awards—is in full swing.

And with those final two weeks of races coming down to the wire, it’s time to take a quick look at the 10 biggest contenders for one of baseball’s most prestigious awards: Most Valuable Player.

So, from the likes of Cincinnati’s Joey Votto to Texas’ Josh Hamilton, who are the 10 players with the highest probability of bringing home the 2010 MVP hardware?

Joey Votto, nor any of the Cincinnati Reds, needed a hit to cut their magic number to seven on Monday afternoon as the St. Louis Cardinals were shut out by the Florida Marlins in a make-up game played due to an early August rain-out.

Lucky seven.

Starting in Feburary, when spring training begins, MLB experts and fans begin their preseason predictions by selecting Division, MVP, Cy Young, and Rookie of the Year winners.

But there are many twists and turns during an MLB season.

Most of the time these predictions go sour (unless you're me who correctly predicted all four AL playoff teams and at least two NL playoff teams—once in a while a person gets lucky with these things). 

With just over a week remaining in the season, here are five storylines MLB experts and fans didn't see coming.

 
The 2010 MLB season has been the year of the pitcher. But that doesn’t mean there haven’t been plenty of elite performances on offense.
 
Home run totals may be down across the board, but there have been plenty of players that have a legitimate argument for MVP.
 
The list is very exclusive—all of these players should receive at least a few MVP votes. Some of these players have carried their respective mediocre team for the majority of the season. Others are leading the way into the postseason.

October can't come any sooner for fans of the New York Yankees, Tampa Bay Rays, Minnesota Twins, and Texas Rangers. The American League has little to no excitement on the postseason hunt in September with teams like the Red Sox and White Sox playing for any realistic hope that just isn't there to be had. 

Ever since I first seriously considered the concept, I have taken home/road splits seriously. If you are a Boston Red Sox fan, don't talk to me about Jim Rice or Wade Boggs. Are you are a Chicago Cubs fan? Well, you probably don't want to hear what I have to say about Ron Santo and Billy Williams. And if you want to hear good things about Sandy Koufax, I suggest you look somewhere else.

One of the reasons, if not the reason, I got into baseball writing was to challenge conventional wisdom. Challenging conventional wisdom is what we learned from Bill James and from Billy Beane, and it is the reason we tend to speak unfavorably of Joe Morgan.

With the season winding down to a merciful end, the Reds are faced with a few hard questions.

The starting pitching has not been getting it done as of late, and that becomes a huge concern. In the three games thus far in the series with the Colorado Rockies, the starters are only giving an average of a little over four innings.  

That is entirely too much burden to place on any bullpen.

What appeared a few weeks ago as a two-man race for a potential Triple Crown has now become a three-man competition.

Colorado Rockies outfielder Carlos Gonzalez has been hitting the ball like he was mad at it lately. He is now comfortably ahead of Joey Votto of the Cincinnati Reds in batting average with a .340 mark. Votto is batting .321.