Errin' Awards

Q: Who should win the Hank Aaron Awards?

Let us know in the comments section below.

Diamondhacks feels that the Aaron Award, ostensibly given to each league's best hitter, ought to, as a rule, nominate players who are the best hitters on their team. Or the best hitters at their position. Are we asking too much?

Apparently.

These nominees more or less fit the bill, with a couple glaring exceptions. Paul Konerko is the White Sox' third best hitter this year. We can understand the politics of omitting Jim Thome, since he's won the Aaron Award previously, but how on earth can Konerko be on a ballot excluding Jermaine Dye? Konerko's having another fine season, but Dye is having a better one by every conceivable measure.

The other immediate laffer is, of course, Marlin third baseman Miguel Cabrera's rightful place on the ballot being usurped by Met's pretty boy David Wright. Their numbers were comparable at the All Star break, but only the silliest Flushing hipsters are still spewing April's miasma that Wright is somehow Cabrera's 2006 equal. Many of them, apparently, have mlb.com accounts.

This confusion is, again, courtesy of mlb and yet another of their oxymoronic "let the fans decide something totally beyond their ken" contrivances. It's like Fidelity declaring the best mutual fund based on the internet votes of basset hounds.

Be that as it may. Fans still have an opportunity, indeed several, to do the Wright thing - without getting Spike Lee involved.

How?

On the NL ballot, Diamondhacks humbly suggests you vote for Pujols or Howard - or write in Cabrera or Beltran. Based on park adjusted performance, they're all worthy. The important thing is not to waste your vote on a home run hitter with only four since he pooped out in the ASG HR Derby.

On the AL side, acheiving righteousness is a one-fold path.

Hint: rhymes with "Laffner".