N.L. MVP appears headed to Howard

With a week to go in the regular season, the National League Most Valuable Player award appears to be Ryan Howard’s to lose.

So say the results of an informal poll conducted by the Philadelphia Inquirer the past few days.

Twenty-four members of the Baseball Writers Association of America, at least one from each of the 16 National League cities, were asked what their ballots would look like if the votes were due this weekend.

Howard received 18 first-place votes in the survey. Albert Pujols of St. Louis received six.

The BBWAA is responsible for the official voting. Two writers from each city must be cast a ballot before the first postseason game is played next week.

Howard received high marks for his awesome second half. Entering Saturday, he ranked first in the league in homers (30), RBIs (72), runs (57), intentional walks (26), on-base percentage (.505), slugging (.799) and times on base (155), just to name a handful of categories, since the All-Star break. He was second in the league with a .358 batting average in that span.

Howard leads the majors in homers (58) and RBIs (143). His production in the second-half has fueled a Phillies rebirth and put the team in contention for its first postseason berth since 1993.

Pujols has amazing credentials. Despite missing three weeks with injury, he entered Saturday in the top five in batting average (.327), homers (46) and RBIs (129).

This is clearly a two-man race between Pujols, who’s bidding for his second straight MVP, and Howard, who could become the first Phillies MVP since Mike Schmidt in 1986.

Angels promise big moves

These are the words you love to hear if you’re a fan, and they came this week from Los Angeles Angels owner Arte Moreno, frustrated that his team will miss the playoffs:

“I’ll guarantee we’re going to do something major. We explored it before, but now we have goals we want to attain and that we will accomplish, whether through free agency or trades.”

Naturally, the speculation has already started in SoCal, with names such as Barry Zito, Manny Ramirez, Alfonso Soriano, Barry Bonds, Carlos Lee, Nomar Garciaparra, Miguel Tejada, Vernon Wells and Aramis Ramirez being bandied about.

But there’s one name being dropped that would qualify as major squared: Alex Rodriguez.

The thinking is that if the Yankees bomb out in the playoffs, with A-Rod struggling, the situation for him in New York could be so untenable they would have to trade him.

Nationals’ Johnson goes down

Washington Nationals first baseman Nick Johnson broke his right leg when he collided with right fielder Austin Kearns while chasing a fly ball.

David Wright of the Mets hit a blooper down the right-field line in the eighth inning and Johnson chased it along with Kearns and second baseman Jose Vidro.

Johnson and Kearns slid for the ball, which landed between them, and appeared to bang knees and heads. Johnson immediately rolled onto his stomach, appeared to scream in pain, took off his hat and was face-down on the outfield grass.

The oft-injured Johnson had never played more than 131 games in a season before this one. He batted .290 with 23 homers and 77 RBIs in 147 games.