Close calls: we've had plenty of them in this baseball season. The final playoff spots and postseason seedings came down to results of games on the final day of the regular season.In forecasting who will win the major MLB awards this year, there are plenty of close calls, too. There were a half-dozen players who could have a case for the American League MVP and nearly as many for the National League MVP. The AL Rookie of the Year might be the toughest call of all.Here, then, are our predictions for how things will shake out when voting by members of the Baseball Writers Association of America is complete. As with the ballots that will be cast we have a top 10 for the MVP awards, top five for the Cy Young awards and top three for both the Manager of the Year and Rookie of the Year. (All statistics are entering play on Sunday).AL MVP1. David Ortiz (Red Sox) 2. Mike Trout (Angels)3. Jose Altuve (Astros)4. Mookie Betts (Red Sox)5. Manny Machado (Orioles)6. Josh Donaldson (Blue Jays)7. Adrian Beltre (Rangers)8. Francisco Lindor (Indians)9. Zach Britton (Orioles)10. Robinson Cano (Mariners)This was among the tougher categories and we could see all of the top six on this list garnering at least one first-place vote. Ortiz caps an historic final season at age 40 by getting our pick because he not only lead the league in OPS (1.027) and RBI (127) and finished in the top five in batting average (.317) and top 10 in home runs (38) but no one was more valuable to a contender. Ortiz made the Red Sox the Red Sox.It would have been easy to write Mike Trout's name in at the top because he is consistently great across the board but, though it wasn't his fault, he didn't play in games where the stakes and pressure were as high as everyone else on this list. Altuve also was the most-important player on a contender, had a top-five OPS (.930) and won the batting title (.338).AL CY YOUNG1. Zach Britton (Orioles)2. Rick Porcello (Red Sox)3. Justin Verlander (Tigers)4. Corey Kluber (Indians)5. Chris Sale (White Sox)Surely this will be a controversial pick because Britton threw about 150 fewer innings than the other top contenders. However there is an argument that he was the most valuable player on contender that has a deeply flawed starting rotation. The bullpen compensated for that lack of pitching and Britton was a perfect 47-for-47 in save opportunities. In 68 appearances he allowed four earned runs for a 0.55 ERA -- which would be the lowest ever from a pitcher with at least 65 innings pitched -- and has a 0.827 WHIP. One could also say that he contributed in more wins than any one else on this ballot.Porcello's comeback story from a 9-15 season is a beauty and a 22-4 record with a 3.15 ERA would make him the pick for people who do not believe relievers should be considered for this award.AL ROOKIE OF THE YEAR1. Michael Fulmer (Tigers)2. Gary Sanchez (Yankees)3. Tyler Naquin (Indians)This one looked like a runaway for Fulmer until the last two months of the season when Sanchez came up on Aug. 3 and began doing his Babe Ruth impression, reaching the 20 home runs mark faster than anyone in history while Fulmer had a tough September.But there is no denying what Fulmer has done. He went into Detroit's rotation before the end of April and contributed for a contender for essentially the entire season, finishing 11-7 with a 3.06 ERA. Fulmer is a main reason why the Tigers season went as it did.AL MANAGER OF THE YEAR1. Terry Francona (Indians)2. Buck Showalter (Orioles)3. Jeff Banister (Rangers)Francona will win this award for the second time since heading up the Indians and, boy, does he deserve it. Cleveland lost top player Michael Brantley for the season in the early going and the injuries kept coming. Still, he guided the Tribe to their first AL Central crown in nine years with relative ease. He gets special kudos for the decision to deploy reliever Andrew Miller in untraditional spots where games seemed on the line.NL MVP1. Kris Bryant (Cubs)2. Daniel Murphy (Nationals)3. Nolan Arenado (Rockies)4. Anthony Rizzo (Cubs)5. Corey Seager (Dodgers)6. Yoenis Cespedes (Mets)7. Joey Votto (Reds)8. Max Scherzer (Nationals)9. Jon Lester (Cubs)10. Justin Turner (Dodgers)Bryant has to be the pick here, though Arenado had a fabulous season and Seager and Murphy were the best offensive players on division champions. Bryant had 39 home runs, 102 RBI and 121 runs scored for the best regular-season team in the game. He also started at four different positions and played a total of six positions during the season, which speaks to his value. At the same time he was being one of the NL's great power hitters, he was giving manager Joe Maddon's lineup flexibility so that he could tailor lineups to attack an opponents' specific weaknesses.NL CY YOUNG1. Max Scherzer (Nationals)2. Jon Lester (Cubs)3. Kyle Hendricks (Cubs)4. Jose Fernandez (Marlins)5. Jeurys Familia (Mets)Scherzer should become the sixth pitcher to win a Cy Young award in each league after going 19-7 with a 2.82 ERA and helping the Nats cruise to the NL East title. His win total was tied for the league lead, his 223.1 innings pitched was second, his 0.94 WHIP led the league and so did his 277 strikeouts. On 18 occasions he went seven innings or more while allowing two runs or less.A good debate is whether Lester or Hendricks was the better candidate from the Cubs. We went with Lester (19-5, 2.44 ERA) over Hendricks (16-8, 1.99 ERA) because of his 21 games where he allowed one run or less.NL ROOKIE OF THE YEAR1. Corey Seager (Dodgers)2. Seung Hwan Oh (Cardinals)3. Kenta Maeda (Dodgers)The only thing hard about this one was which player to pick second. Seager was at a .309 batting average with 26 home runs, 72 RBI and 105 runs scored and has a chance to be the unanimous pick for the prize. Oh places second for bailing St. Louis out as the closer after Trevor Rosenthal's shoulder injury and coming through with 19 saves in 23 chances. Maeda takes third after going 16-10 with a 3.28 RA over 173 innings.NL MANAGER OF THE YEAR1. Dave Roberts (Dodgers)2. Terry Collins (Mets)3. Joe Maddon (Cubs)Roberts kept winning despite a decimating spate of injuries that included losing ace Clayton Kershaw for nearly two months. The Dodgers had a record 28 players go to the disabled list and he had to call on 15 different starting pitchers. As a result of the health issues in the starting rotation, the Los Angeles bullpen was of enormous import; Roberts maneuvered it brilliantly as it threw more innings than any other team.