It may just be me, but this season certainly has the feel of one in which the new generation of stars has finally taken over the game, not just on the field but in the people’s esteem.

A year in which the National League’s elected All-Star infield is Albert Pujols, Chase Utley, David Wright, and Jose Reyes; in which Barry Bonds and Roger Clemens are no longer the best hitter and pitcher in the league; and in which Derek Jeter is an elder statesman on his team is a great one. Baseball has been marketing players who were drafted in the 1980s as the face of the game for too long, and it’s wonderful to have finally moved on.

As you mull over who’s in the lead for the various mid-season awards,the point becomes still more clear.With the exceptions of Jeter and White Sox slugger Jim Thome, every player you could seriously consider to be among the game’s true elite right now is closer to the beginning of his career than to the end. Baseball’s new stars probably won’t end up, as Clemens and Bonds have, as among the 10 or so best players of all time; that’s fine and well. You don’t need to be legendary to be great.

NATIONAL LEAGUE

Player Above a Certain Threshold of Value Whose Value is Least Well-Represented by His Statistics
ALBERT PUJOLS, 1B, ST. LOUIS
(.316/435/.703, 29 HR, 76 RBI)

It’s a bit wordy, but it’s a more accurate description of what the Most Valuable Player award is all about than its actual name is. After all, there is no fun in simply looking at our various sophisticated batting statistics, accounting a bit for defense, and rearranging the rankings a bit. What we mean by MVP is something else entirely.

Any way you want to define it, it’s Albert Pujols, who’s simply been freakishly and indescribably great. Even having missed two weeks, he’s the obvious and only pick.The Mets’ Carlos Beltran, Jose Reyes,and David Wright may all be right behind Pujols, in something like that order; Florida’s Miguel Cabrera,St.Louis’s Scott Rolen, and Houston’s Lance Berkman deserve praise as well.

Starting Pitcher Who’s Best at Both Pitching a Lot and Pitching Well
BRANDON WEBB, RHP, ARIZONA
(9–3, 2.65 ERA, 103 K, 21 BB)

Not that anyone’s noticed; Webb is probably the least-appreciated great player in the game. But there’s more of an argument to be made for Beltran over Pujols than there is for any other pitcher over Webb,who leads the league in innings and ERA while pitching in a pretty good hitter’s park in front of a pretty unimpressive defense. If you lead in both innings and ERA, you win this award. Honorable mention for San Francisco’s Jason Schmidt, the Mets’ Tom Glavine, and Chicago’s Carlos Zambrano, who also wins the coveted “Most Terrifying Pitcher In The Game” award.

AMERICAN LEAGUE

Best Player Who Is Actually A Baseball Player And Not Some Guy Who Thinks Gloves Are For Dishwashers

DEREK JETER, SS, YANKEES

(.345/.427/.462, 112 H, 58 R)

Sometimes I think people are crazy. I have heard and read serious people making real arguments for Boston’s David Ortiz, Chicago’s Jim Thome, and Cleveland’s Travis Hafner for MVP. All of them are putting up monster numbers — Hafner, in particular, is hitting like Lou Gehrig in his prime — and all have been otherworldly in the clutch. (My favorite ballgame this year was one in which the White Sox beat the Cardinals in just under two hours despite being one-hit,as the hit was a Thome home run that traversed Lake Michigan.) Still, the three have combined for 14 games in the field, which isn’t good enough, unless one of them drives in 200 runs or hits .400.

Regular readers know I am not a believer that the Captain’s sweat can actually heal festering wounds, or that his magical fist-pump is worth more wins than Gary Sheffield and Hideki Matsui combined, but the man is hitting .345, playing a good shortstop, and has come up as big in key spots as Alex Rodriguez has not. He has seasons in which he’s a really great player, and seasons in which he plays up to his reputation; this is one of the latter.

Best Starting Pitcher Who Didn’t Spend Half The Season As A Reliever
JOHAN SANTANA, LHP, MINNESOTA
(9–5, 2.95 ERA, 138 K, 24 BB) and ROY HALLADAY, RHP, TORONTO
(12–2. 2.92 ERA, 72 K, 16 BB)

Here’s a conundrum for you: Without reference to the fact that one is an undersized Venezuelan left-hander and the other a monstrously tall American right-hander, how do you tell these two apart?

They rank 1–2 in the league in innings (they’re separated by two), 3–4 in the league in ERA (they’re separated by three-hundredths of a point), and they’ve been the two best pitchers in the league for years. End result: You can’t tell them apart.

Santana’s amazing teammate, rookie Francisco Liriano, who has more than a point of ERA on either man but has only pitched about two-thirds as much, comes really close to deserving this, and might before the year is out. Watch him in any event — he’s a left-handed Jose Contreras with breathtaking stuff, and as electric a player to watch as Jose Reyes. In everything but effectiveness, he’s the anti-Clemens. More, please.

tmarchman@nysun.com