Phillies' Howard, Red Sox's Pedroia deserve MVPs
Chicago Tribune
More Tylenol, please.
The regular season is over, which means it's time to pass out the hardware for performances exceptionally well done. Frankly, it's going to take an exceptional performance to get the 2008 awards correct. Statistical analysts and other second-guessers will have a field day when the Baseball Writers Association of America honors players next month, because only two winners are clear-cut.
Thank you, Geovany Soto and Cliff Lee. There's no question that the Cubs' catcher is the most deserving candidate for the National League Rookie of the Year Award. Ditto Lee for the American League Cy Young Award. Otherwise voters have a real mess on their hands, in part because of guidelines.
How do you evaluate the impact of players acquired in midseason, such as the Dodgers' Manny Ramirez or the Brewers' CC Sabathia? And what about pitchers? Shouldn't Francisco Rodriguez and Sabathia be considered for most valuable player? Would the Angels and Brewers have made it to the postseason without them? What do you do with a guy like Albert Pujols? Does he deserve the same consideration as a player from one of the NL's four playoff teams?
The reality is that the voters - groups of 28 for AL awards and 32 for NL awards - apply individual standards, which leads to fascinatingly flawed elections.
For instance, there's no question that Pujols is the best hitter in the NL. He had the most productive season, hitting .357 with 37 homers and 116 RBIs for St. Louis. He had 50 more walks than strikeouts, an amazing 104-54 given the proliferation of high-strikeout contributors. But can you say he was more valuable than lesser hitters who got their teams into the playoffs?
Ryan Howard isn't half the hitter that Pujols is. He was 60th among NL qualifiers with a .251 batting average and 14th with an .881 on-base-plus-slugging percentage. He struck out 199 times. But, to quote Hawk Harrelson, don't tell me what you hit, tell me when you hit.
Howard batted .333 with 15 homers and 42 RBIs after Aug. 21, leading the Phillies to a 24-11 finish that took them from 2<SUP>1</SUP>/<SUB>2</SUB> games behind the Mets to a three-game margin of victory. He hit .320 in 175 at-bats with runners in scoring position, as against .223 in the 435 at-bats when nobody was on second or third.
Nothing against Pujols, whose body of work screams for more than the one MVP he has won, but Howard gets my vote because his hitting won a division title for his team. Tony La Russa made that same point when he endorsed Sammy Sosa over Mark McGwire in 1998.
My 10-player NL MVP ballot would have Pujols second, followed by Sabathia, Ramirez, Soto, Lance Berkman, Chipper Jones, Prince Fielder, Brad Lidge and Mark DeRosa.
The rest of the awards:
AL MVP: Dustin Pedroia
Carlos Quentin might have been the choice, but he slammed his hand against his bat and missed the White Sox's last 26 games. Justin Morneau could have been the choice, but he finished the season in a 1-for-20 slump, hitting only .221 in the last 19 games, and Minnesota missed the playoffs. So the 5-foot-9-inch Pedroia, was the last legitimate candidate standing.
