NEW YORK -- Vladimir Guerrero won the American League MVP award Tuesday, just the fifth time a player switched leagues and earned the honor in his first season with his new team.\nThe Anaheim Angels right fielder received 21 of 28 first-place votes and 354 points in balloting by the Baseball Writers' Association of America.\nNew York Yankees right fielder Gary Sheffield finished second with five first-place votes and 254 points. Boston players split the remaining two first-place votes, with left fielder Manny Ramirez finishing third with 238 points and designated hitter David Ortiz winding up fourth with 174 points.\nGuerrero was prepared for a close vote.\n"I was in no way expecting it to be the way it came out," he said through a translator during a conference call from the presidential palace in the Dominican Republic.\nGuerrero, 28, signed a $70 million, five-year contract with the Angels last January after eight seasons with the Montreal Expos. He hit .337 with 39 homers and 126 RBIs as Anaheim won the AL West, and led the league with 124 runs and 366 total bases.\nHe batted .371 in September with 10 homers and 23 RBIs, and went 14-for-30 (.467) with six homers and 11 RBIs in the last six games of the season, helping the Angels finish one game ahead of Oakland.\nAnaheim manager Mike Scioscia said Guerrero was "at times carrying our team single-handedly."\n"When he came to our team, our expectations were obviously very, very high, and he met every one of them," Scioscia said. "Not many players can do what he did the last week."\nThe only other non-rookies who became MVPs in their first AL seasons were Baltimore's Frank Robinson (1966), Chicago's Dick Allen (1972) and Detroit's Willie Hernandez (1984). In the NL, Kirk Gibson accomplished the feat with Los Angeles in 1988.\nGuerrero became the second Angels player to win, joining Don Baylor (1979). He is the fourth Dominican to be MVP, following Toronto's George Bell (1987), the Chicago Cubs' Sammy Sosa (1998) and Oakland's Miguel Tejada (2002). He became the ninth straight player from the AL West to win.\n"Vlad has got such a great temperament. For as talented as he is, he's probably the most unassuming superstar you'd ever be around," Scioscia said. "He's got probably the smallest ego of anybody that has accomplished what he has."\nGuerrero was especially happy that three of the top four finishers in the voting were Dominican.\n"It's in our blood," he said. "We grow up with baseball."
\nGuerrero gets a $500,000 bonus for winning the award, and Ramirez $100,000 for finishing third. Ortiz didn't get anything for finishing fourth, but would get $400,000 for finishing second through fifth in his contract that starts next season.\nTejada, now with Baltimore, gets a $300,000 bonus for finishing fifth, and Detroit's Ivan Rodriguez gets $100,000 for winding up 10th.\nAnaheim was swept by Boston in the first round of the playoffs, Guerrero's first time in the postseason, and he hopes to get back every year.\n"It really left a taste in my mouth," he said.
