Debating the MVP Vote
Finally, Albert Pujols won his second National League Most Valuable Player award. He beat out Our Town’s Ryan Howard by a healthy margin.
You have seen what all the Post-Dispatch guys had to say on this topic. Here was the mixed reaction from experts outside St. Louis:
Tom Haudricourt, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: “With the Cardinals finishing fourth, I voted Pujols seventh on my ballot. I don’t consider MVP to be ‘the most outstanding player’ award and therefore don’t just go by who had the best stats. I like to credit players for lifting their teams to the post-season or at least keeping them in the race until the very end. I understand that the Cardinals would not have been even close to the wild-card berth without Pujols, but I still like players who elevate their game in crunch time and lift their teams to new heights. And I thought Ryan Ludwick had just as much to do with keeping the Cards in the hunt as Pujols did. St. Louis did stay in the wild card race until mid-September, but mainly because the Brewers and Mets were gagging at the time.”
Joe Posnanski, SI.com: “It’s funny, Pujols’ team didn’t make the playoffs this season, and because of that there seem to be some who would not vote for him as MVP. What a shame. There are even a few who would vote for Brad Lidge, who had such a nice comeback year for Philadelphia (and even retired Pujols two of the three times they faced each other). Seems a bit odd. I’ve seen that match-up. I know how it turns out.”
Phil Sheridan, Philadelphia Inquirer: “If the MVP is the player with the best all-round statistical season, a computer could figure that out. And a computer might well have spit out Pujols’ name this season. He was terrific. But Howard got hot in September, hitting 11 home runs and driving in 32 runs to carry the Phillies into the playoffs. That’s the very definition of valuable. The group-think association argument for Pujols, if I’m smart enough to get it right, is that he single-handedly kept the Cardinals in the wild-card race. That is brilliant, except it ignores the presence of Ryan Ludwick, Rick Ankiel and Troy Glaus (so much for ‘single-handedly’), and the fact that the National League wild-card race was a watered-down farce.”
Scott Miller, CBSSports.com: “Should a player’s value to his team’s playoff run factor heavily into the final voting? By all means. But should the award simply boil down to choosing a player from one of the four playoff teams in each league? Not even close. Albert Pujols’ claim to the National League award Monday was right on the money. In a perfect world, the MVP award should be one part player-of-the-year and one part importance-to-team. Pujols was the MVP in the NL because, in addition to superior numbers, he was the most consistently best player — hands down — from early April through late September.”
Rob Neyer, ESPN.com: “In Howard’s defense, he did exceptionally well — .320/.439/.589 — with runners in scoring position. Unfortunately (again) for Howard’s viability, Pujols did significantly better: .339/.523/.678. What’s more, Howard is easily neutralized; in late-and-close situations — when the enemy manager can usually summon a lefty reliever from the bullpen — he batted just .158/.306/.337 this year. Meanwhile, Pujols was his usual awesome self in those same situations.”
WHY STADIUM SHOULD LIMIT BEER SALES
Thanks, again, to Deadspin for sharing.
Shouldn’t more guys rock the midriff shirt?
MYSTERIES OF THE UNIVERSE
Questions to ponder while wondering what, if anything, the NBA will do about the awkward Mark Cuban situation:
- Should the FBI examine the bizarre actions of NFL officials at the end of the Steelers-Chargers game?
- Say, wouldn’t Jeremy Affeldt have looked good in the Cardinals bullpen?Who could have possibly guessed Steven Jackson would miss another football game?
- Will the John Greco Era finally dawn at Rams Park?
QUIPS ‘R US
Here is what some of America’s leading sports pundits have been writing:
Dan Daly, Washington Times: “Manny Ramirez merely sniffed at the guaranteed two-year, $45 million deal the Dodgers put in front of him. It must not have included bathroom privileges in the L.A. bullpen during the seventh-inning stretch.”
Greg Cote, Miami Herald: “Happy couple Chris Evert and Greg Norman have begun designing tennis courts. Wait — aren’t all tennis courts the same? Isn’t that like announcing you’re going to design bowling lanes?”
Scott Ostler, San Francisco Chronicle: “What a wonderful story, 22-year-old Peter Eastgate winning the World Series of Poker and $9.15 million. That kid is set for the rest of his life, or until his next poker game, whichever comes first.”
Bill Simmons, ESPN.com, on expanding the World Series of Poker concept: “I just want to know when ESPN is going to create the WSOP for sports figures so we can see MJ, LeBron, Mickelson and everyone else battling it out. Why do it in the secrecy of a hotel suite, fellas? Why not for a national TV audience? Couldn’t this happen after the ESPYS every July? Twenty-five entrants, $50,000 per person, a penthouse suite at the Mondrian that’s covered in cameras, unlimited open bar, Texas Hold ‘em, winner takes $700,000, second place gets $200,000, the Jimmy V Foundation gets the rest. And this wouldn’t work … why?”
MEGAPHONE
“I’m sure there are plenty of rules that guys don’t understand, but I don’t think that has any factor whatsoever to do with the outcome of this game and how they played in the overtime. I think that’s absurd. You play to win in that time, whether you think you have another overtime period or you don’t. And you play your heart out to win it in that time, and that’s how we approached it and that’s how the players approached it.”
Eagles coach Andy Reid, forgiving quarterback Donovan McNabb for not realizing that NFL games can end in a tie after one overtime period.
Apparently the Phi and Mil sportswriters didn’t bother looking at Ludwick’s numbers when Pujols didn’t play. Ludwick benefited from Pujols, not the other way around. And Ankiel??? Not even counting the fact that he was basically out during the last couple of months on the wild-card chase, look at his numbers for the year. Unless he was on one of his hot streaks no one was particularly worried about him, and he didn’t have many hot streaks. I love Ryan Howard too by the way, but Pujols was better (usually easily so) in just about every category you can bring up for discussion. How could 14 people NOT give Pujols their 1st place vote?
To the sour apples of Sheridan and Haudricourt. Yes, Ryan Howard certainly did put the Phillies into the play offs with his great September, without him it would not have happened. However, where was he in April and May and June, etc? Strike outs, men left on base, all or nothing with the home run and a batting average below the mendoza line showcased a failure to give any consistancy to leading his team. Had that consistancy been there he would not have had to have a one month season. Pujols value to his club was proven in some way each and every time he took the field and that where consistancy comes in.
Sheridan brings up the presence of Glaus, Ludwick, and Ankiel, yet conveniently forgets the presence of Rollins, Utley, and even Victorino in the Phillies lineup. If it wasn’t for the (more valuable, in my opinion) players around him Howard would never get pitches to hit and likely strike out over 250 times a season. Plus it’s not like Glaus, Ludwick, and Ankiel forced teams to pitch to Pujols. I believe it was Goold who gave us this stat: Pujols sees strikes less than 35% of the time. Not to mention it’s ludicrous to say that Howard was the sole reason the Phillies made the postseason. Not one player carries a team. Besides, I’d be more likely to say the biggest reason the Phillies made the postseason is Lidge. As for whiners like Haudricourt and Sheridan, you can’t educate the willfully ignorant. The stats for Pujols are right there for the taking and prove that he deserves this award more than Howard or anyone else. They won’t realize how great Pujols is until he’s retired and being inducted into the Hall of Fame.
Following this Rams team, by now we all know the definition of insane – doing the same thing over and over while expecting different results.
It looks like Haslett is falling right into that category as well. I’m not saying Bulger is THE reason but a big reason this team is 2 – 8. Why do you keep running him out there? It is very apparent his confidence is shot and this team needs a spark of any kind. He is obviously a shell of his former self and would greatly benefit from some time on the sideline to heal mentally.
With the injuries setting in, this offensive line will be worse than ever –if that is even possible at this point. With the Bears coming to town, Bulger better make sure his affairs are in order.
The headline today was only a partial – Cardinals look at options, as they sign with every other team in league.
Congrats to Albert, he is very deserving of the award.
I’m glad that Pujols won the MVP, I think he deserves it. But you can’t ignore the argument that an MVP should at least be able to get their team into the playoffs. Especially when the NL wildcard was so weak. Also, when Ryan Howard won MVP in 2006 didn’t Pujols make a comment about how the MVP should go to a player on a playoff team? If he did it kind of makes him look a bit hypocritical now. Just playing devils advocate though, I love Pujols and the Cards!
Your right mad, Pujols did say that, and it is only fair to bring it up…
“The headline today was only a partial – Cardinals look at options, as they sign with every other team in league.”
That is hysterical S.W.!! I guess all of the low hanging fruit has already been harvested. Time to troll for surgically repaired hurlers.
I wonder who will be this years Juan Gonzales signing?
The Rams have invested over 100 million in Steven Jackson and Mark Bulger. One won’t play and the other shouldn’t. These two are the Rams poster children for the ineptitude of the front office.
In response to Bill Simmons, “And this wouldn’t work…why?”, they already tried celebrity poker and there weren’t enough idiot losers like you to watch it.
Albert Pujols’s batting average was over 100 points better than Howard’s, just as his on base and slugging percentage was much higher. Case closed.
As for Tom Haudricourt, enjoy your second winning season since 1992, because the losses of CC Sabathia and Ben Sheets will help slide the Brewers right back down the pack in MLB. Also, don’t forget that the Cards were 3.5 games behind the Brewers on August 28, which meant that the Cards didn’t gain much while the Brewers and Mets gagged in early September.
As long as our bullpen has nowhere to go but up next year,I predict a 2009 Cards-Brewers season series with a few less shirt untuckings.
To those that think pujol’s didn’t deserve it, how many times has he pitched late innings? If you know were i’m going with this…
Apparently the PHI writer thinks Pujols only won on stats alone, which were clearly better in many ways to Howard by the way, like batting average 100 pts different. He doesn’t take into account that Pujols carried this team all year and they wouldn’t be anywhere near 10 games over .500 and in the wild card hunt late into the year. Does he really have the nerve to mention Glaus, Ludwick, Ankiel, when the Phillies have the best offense in the NL? MVP candidate Ludwick struggled when Pujols was out of the lineup, that goes with the team. Also, should Pujols really be punished because his team blew that many games and Lidge saved every game. If Lidge played for us, would he still make those claims that it’s just stats alone? Oh by the way Howard had terrible numbers in 7th inning or later, and Pujols was consistent in those innings and also all year. MVP should be a full season award, and in my mind Howard batting so poorly in the first couple months really hurt his chances, otherwise he might have won.