Miguel Cabrera voted Sporting News 2012 Player of the Year

Kicking off what should be a very active awards season for the Detroit Tigers, 3rd baseman Miguel Cabrera was voted 2012 Player of the Year by the Sporting News.

In what could be harbinger of awards to come, Cabrera beat Angels rookie center fielder Mike Trout 108 to 71 in a vote of his peers.

The voting results of 203 major league players unsurprisingly confirms the American League MVP race is a 2 man contest:

Player of the year (voting by AL and NL players)

1. Miguel Cabrera (Tigers): 108 votes

2. Mike Trout (Angels): 71 votes

3. Adrian Beltre (Rangers): 5 votes

4. R.A. Dickey (Mets): 4 votes

5. Ryan Braun (Brewers)/Andrew McCutchen (Pirates): 3 votes

7. Josh Hamilton (Rangers)/Chase Headley (Padres)/David Price (Rays)/Buster Posey (Giants): 2 votes

11. Gio Gonzalez (Nationals)/Derek Jeter (Yankees)/Craig Kimbrel (Braves): 1 vote

Cabrera won the first Triple Crown in 45 years, leading the AL with a .330 batting average, 44 home runs and 139 RBI. Cabrera also lead the AL in slugging (.606), OPS (.999) extra base hits (84) and total bases (377), ranked 2nd in hits (205) and runs (109), along with being voted to his 7th All-Star game

His MLB brethren went against a rising sabermetric tide in giving the award to a player who dominated traditional stat categories. Trout wasn't ignored by his peers, voted Sporting News 2012 AL Rookie of the Year by an overwhelming margin.

Cabrera is the fourth Tiger to be voted Sporting News Player of the Year, joining Hall of Fame pitcher Hal Newhouser (1945), 2 time Cy Young winner Denny McLain (1969) and reigning AL MVP and Cy Young Justin Verlander (2011).