This year’s balloting promises to be the most hotly contested MVP race in years. As the calendar turned to September, nothing remotely close to a consensus pick had emerged. MVP discussions raged on throughout the entire year. Fans and journalists were changing their minds faster than Paris Hilton changes her mind about who she marries. But as the saying goes, the real baseball season doesn’t start until September, and that’s when a few notable players finally separated themselves from the pack.

1. David Ortiz. The best season by a Red Sox lefthanded batter since a couple of guys named Williams and Ruth. You already know about the 22 homers in August and September, when the games mattered most. You already know that he slugged .843 in close-and-late situations. You already know that he hit .450 on 3-0 counts. But you might not know that his birthday, Nov 18, very nearly coincides with the announcement of the MVP award. Could this be an especially happy birthday for the Red Sox slugger?

2. Scott Podsednik. Even though this ballot was composed before the playoffs began, the White Sox’s historic championship run only confirms Podsednik’s importance to his team. The 2004 White Sox had a one-dimensional offense and finished nine games back of the first-place Twins. They hit a boatload of homeruns, thanks to a team filled with more slow-footed sluggers than an Oakland A’s spring training workout. Guess how many players on the 2004 White Sox stole more than 18 bases?

One. As in uno. Eins. Echad. Yat. Second baseman Willie Harris stole 19, but his offensive numbers were otherwise so anemic that he was limited to a part-time role in 2005.

Trading for Podsednik not only energized the White Sox lineup, but it practically overhauled the entire offense in his image. And that overhaul is now responsible for bringing World Series glory to Chicago.

3. Shannon Stewart. It was a tough year for the Twins, as they failed to make the playoffs for the first time since 2001. Between Torii Hunter going down for the season in August, and Johan Santana having an off-year, the Twins needed Stewart to step up his game and show the MVP form he had in 2003. He came through by finishing with double digits in home runs for the eighth consecutive year and nearly leading the team in runs scored. He completed his overall game by stealing more bases than he had since 2002 and finishing with a career high in outfield assists.

4. Brian Roberts. Roberts’ breakout season was one of the most inspiring stories in the American League this year. He set career highs in nearly every offensive category, played Gold Glove-caliber defense at second base, and was elected to his first All-Star Game. Before his team faded in the second half, he was looking like a runaway MVP winner. Says one AL GM, “he might be the best player in the league who weighs less than 175 pounds”.

That just about says it all.

5. Travis Hafner. Hafner came into his own as an elite player this year and nearly led a hungry young Indians team into the playoffs in the process. Along the way, he became only the sixth player in the past 20 years to lead the Indians in OPS in back-to-back seasons. The others are probable Hall of Famers Manny Ramirez, Jim Thome, Albert Belle, Carlos Baerga, and Brook Jacoby.

6. Mark Ellis. Says on-again, off-again A’s manager Ken Macha: “Without the contributions of Mark Ellis, we wouldn’t have made a playoff run this year.” Sounds like an MVP candidate to me. Ellis led the scrappy A’s in batting average, OBP, and SLG while playing stellar defense in the field. Seventeen of his 137 hits, including two home runs, came against division rivals Los Angeles, proving that he came through when the team needed him most.

7. Ichiro Suzuki. It was a disastrous year for the Mariners in many respects, but don’t blame their All-Star right fielder for that. Ichiro continued to be the best Japanese import to this country since the Sony Playstation. He laced 200 hits for the fifth straight year (only the sixth player ever to do that) and set a career high in triples while being caught stealing just eight times.

How many hits are 206 hits? That was more than the season totals of notables such as Derek Jeter, Johnny Damon and Albert Pujols. It was also more than surefire Hall of Famers Rafael Palmeiro, Sammy Sosa, and Barry Bonds combined. Thanks to 48 extra-base hits (third-most in his career, trailing only his 2001 and 2003 seasons), those 206 hits travelled a combined 29380 feet. That’s 5.56 miles worth of hits.

8. Vladimir Guerrero. It was a troubled year for Vlad. He struggled through injuries and the pressure of trying to live up to last year’s MVP form. Despite dropping 20 points in batting average and 30 points in slugging compared to last year, he still drove in 100 runs for the seventh time in eight years, brought another division title to Los Angeles, and continued to be a major threat at the plate. Commented former Devil Rays pitching coach Chuck Hernandez (newly hired by the Tigers), “Vlad is one of the five best hitters in the league. In Tampa Bay, our pitchers hated having to face him. They hated having to face anybody, really, but especially him. He swings at everything, which was tough on our young staff because they were trying to learn the strike zone.”

9. Ozzie Guillen. He might have retired in 2000, but you’d be hard-pressed to find a player or ex-player who had as much impact on the game or meant as much to his team as Ozzie Guillen did. All season long, his name and face were everywhere. He was in the papers more often than Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie. From his White Sox’s special brand of “Ozzieball” on the field, to his steady string of outrageous quotes off the field, Ozzie Guillen was a force to be reckoned with in the AL in 2005.

10. Alex Rodriguez. Nobody is disputing ARod’s talent, and by the time his career is said and done, he may very well be remembered as one of the greatest players to ever play the game. The Yankees, with plenty of offense to spare, may have won the division without Rodriguez, but they certainly wouldn’t have won without pitching — in particular, the heroic efforts of Randy Johnson, Shawn Chacon, and Aaron Small down the stretch.

Yankee fans’ worst fears about ARod were confirmed against the Angels in the ALDS. He hit just .133, pulling a disappearing act at the plate that would have made David Copperfield jealous. You can’t ignore 48 HR and 130 RBI, but until he shows that he can carry his new team, those numbers will be the mark of a great player, but not an MVP.