Sure Albert Pujols won the MVP, but check Ryan Ludwick’s votes
TOWER GROVE — Wasn’t too long ago when Ryan Ludwick was viewed as an injury risk, robbed of his prime as a power-laden prospect by timing, Juan Gonzalez and a series of career-threatening surgeries. Today he was voted one of the most valuable outfielders in the game.
Next stop: arbitration.
St. Louis Cardinals’ first baseman Albert Pujols won the 2008 National League MVP (coverage at STLToday.com), the BBWAA announced this afternoon, and Pujols was the only player in the NL named on all 32 ballots. The lowest vote he received was at No. 7. Further down the results, that was the
Cardinals' OF Ryan Ludwick finishes top 20 in MVP voting.
highest vote that Ludwick received. The Cardinals’ breakout All-Star finished 16th in the vote, receiving a total of seven votes and 17 points. Only two NL outfielders were ranked ahead of him — Milwaukee’s Ryan Braun, who finished third in the voting, and Los Angeles Dodgers outfielder Manny Ramirez, whose second-half in the league was enough to finish fourth.
Ballots go to 32 writers around the National League — two per city — and each voter ranks his selections No. 1 through No. 10. Ludwick received at least one vote at seventh, eighth, ninth and 10th. Three of the seven votes he received were at No. 9.
A total of 27 players received at least one vote, from Pujols’ to Pittsburgh outfielder Nate McLouth was mentioned as 10th on one ballot.
(Colorado outfielder Matt Holliday, if you’re scoring at home, finished tied for 18th in the voting.)
The breakdown of the top 10, according to the BBWAA:
- Albert Pujols, STL … 18 1st place … 369 points … 32 ballots
- Ryan Howard, PHI … 12 1st place … 308 points … 31 ballots
- Ryan Braun, MIL … 0 1st place … 139 points … 25 ballots
- Manny Ramirez, LA … 0 1st place … 138 points … 23 ballots
- Lance Berkman, HOU … 0 1st place … 126 points … 23 ballots
- CC Sabathia, MIL … 0 1st place … 121 points … 20 ballots
- David Wright, NYM … 0 1st place … 115 points … 23 ballots
- Brad Lidge, PHI … 2 1st place … 104 points … 21 ballots
- Carlos Delgado, NYM … 0 1st place … 96 points … 18 ballots
- Aramis Ramirez, CHI … 0 1st place … 66 points … 16 ballots
And …
16. Ryan Ludwick, STL … 0 1st place … 17 points … 7 ballots
As mentioned earlier today, this is the eighth consecutive top-10 appearance in the MVP voting by Pujols. He is the 25th player in baseball history to win at least a second MVP, and he’s the fifth Rookie of the Year winner to go on and win at least two MVPs. There is also this nugget from the BBWAA’s official release on Pujols’ victory:
It marked the 16th time a Cardinals player has been honored. St. Louis’ total of MVP winners is the most in the NL and second only to the New York Yankees’ 20 in the AL.
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Derrick Goold said he was going to Mizzou for capital-J journalism, but after growing up in the Time Zone Baseball Forgot he was really drawn to MU sitting between two major-league cities. Goold joined the Post-Dispatch in 2001 after working for The Times-Picayune and Rocky Mountain News, covering sports from LSU to NHL and every level of baseball in between. 
First off — congrats to Albert. He certainly deserved it and I’m glad to see the writers come through. Despite picking the correct winner, they continue to embarrass themselves, however.
Who in their right mind casts a ballot for ten players and fails to include Howard or Braun or Berkman. I can see an argument for leaving off Manny or CC if you don’t feel like they were in the league long enough, or for leaving off a relief pitcher (Lidge) if you don’t feel like they voting for someone who only playes in 60-70 innings (all of them would be on my ballot by the way). But how in the world do you justify leaving off Howard, Braun or Berkman, or voting Pujols 7th? Some very silly voters out there.
While I agree that Pujols had a good season I just dont think that he deserved the MVP award. His team was not very good, Pujols failed time after time in clutch situations. Howard and Manny deserved it over Pujols.
Hey Wade, You might want to actually check the stats on that one. Bernie’s column from Oct. 23 breaks down the arguments, but in a nutshell:
– With runners on base AP hit .354, RH hit .309
– Runners in scoring position AP hit .339 and slugged .678; RH .320 and .589
– Runners in scoring position and 2 out AP hit .326 and slugged .791(!!!); RH .322 and .522
– “Close and Late” (which is defined as 7th inning or later and ahead by one run, tied, or behind with tying run on base, at bat or on deck) AP hit .314, slugged .600 and had an OBP of .444; RH hit .158 (!!!), slugged .337 (!!!) and had .306 OBP
– Man on third with less than two outs, Howard hit .393 but struck out 8 times in 28 at bats. The .393 looks pretty good until you see that Albert hit .538 and only struck out 2 times in 26 at bats.
Not even close.
Ryan had a great year, but this is Albert’s day.
Moose…..good points, validating Albert. Congrats to Albert!!!!
Kind of surprised by the lack of support for Lidge. Regardless of the past, he had a stellar season for the Phillies.
How about the job Hal McRae did this year?
@Moose- there are some writers who A)have an agenda of there own; B)don’t take it seriously enough. I heard Bill Conlin of the Philadelphia Daily News say once that the way he votes is to just draws names out of a hat.
I agree with Moose. Well said Moose. For those fans of other teams who have chosen to scribe your negative vibes on our celebrative victory parade here in BIRD LAND, I can only believe that your team has never won anything in your life time because it is obvious you cannot relate to the most prestigious award given to a great deserving player. Were there others deserving? Yes! That is what makes Albert Pujols selection even greater. Others were deserving, but Albert won it by a good margin over them, and that makes it even better….if your a Cardinal fan! If you can’t be happy here in BIRD LAND in this moment, go sulk somewhere else, otherwise, come join the party.
Hey, Wade, I got a real complaint (apologies to Kurt Cobain): We’re waiting for you to counter Moose’s argument. Maybe you have some other brilliant ideas, maybe that Jason Bay should have won the MVP in both leagues.
I’m happy for Pujols, but mostly I just feel relieved about this MVP vote, that I won’t have to feel outraged if Ryan Howard (nice kid and all) had gotten a second career MVP before Albert. It would just be another log on the raging California forest fire of MLB stupidity and hypocrisy. First Howard gets it over Albert in ‘06, when a few HRs and RBIs (in more ABs) were worth more than Pujols leading a team into the playoffs; imagine Albert being denied in ‘08 because the team didn’t make the playoffs, only to hand the MVP to the guy who got it in ‘06 without making the playoffs.
Hey Moose, if you look back at your stats, there is one pattern worthy of notice. While Albert had pretty good stats in all of these clutch situations, note that his batting avg in most of them were BELOW his BA for the season. With Ryan Howard, most of his clutch stats were FAR ABOVE his BA for the season. Howard tended to RISE TO THE OCCASION, where Pujols was somewhat of a disappointment.
Good clutch hitters are perceived as being better hitters in clutch situations. Albert was not. He was still pretty good, but not as good as he should have been for being a .357 hitter.
Just the same, I’m still happy for Albert. He got screwed in the past and this will take some of the sting out of that.