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Is Albert Pujols the NL MVP? (And other Cardinals stuff)
Posted Wednesday, October 1, 2008, at 4:03 PM<< Previous | Read comments | Respond | Email link | Next >>
The National League MVP race seems to be pretty wide open without a candidate who combines excellent statistics from the entire season and the ability to lead his team into the playoffs.
That leaves a door open for St. Louis Cardinals first baseman Albert Pujols, who had another one of his consistent seasons with a .357 batting average (second in the league), 37 home runs (tied for fifth), 116 RBI and 100 runs scored in 148 games.
His manager, Tony La Russa, is in his corner, despite the Cardinals' fourth-place Central Division finish.
When it comes to impact, however, Manny Ramirez's 53-game campaign to close out the season with the National League West champion Dodgers is hard to match: .396 average, 17 homers, 53 RBI and 36 runs scored.
The Boston Globe had a recent article on Ramirez as an MVP candidate.
I would buy it -- and the impact of Milwaukee pitcher CC Sabathia -- more than any of the Mets -- Carlos Delgado, David Wright or Jose Reyes.
(Sabathia's numbers after being traded to the NL, by the way: 17 games, 11-2 record, 1.65 ERA in 130 2/3 innings with 131 walks + hits, three shutouts, a league-leading 7 complete games, 128 K's and incredible nine-day finish.)
I predict the winner will be the player closest to combining a year of good numbers with a playoff berth: Ryan Howard of the Phillies.
Here are the numbers for the top candidates from www.mlb.com:
The Cardinals had a better record in 2008 (86-76) than they did in the 2006 World Series season (83-78). The Cubs improved, the Brewers finally came through in the end and the Cardinals didn't do much to improve the team this year, banking on the returns of Mark Mulder, Chris Carpenter and Adam Wainwright.
I thought, despite the swoon when the team hit the wall in September, Tony La Russa performed one of his best managing jobs.
I hope the team plans to do a whole lot more than sign Kyle Lohse, who turns 30 this month and had by far his career best season at 15-6 with a 3.78 ERA.
His previous best season four-year stretch came with the Twins a few years ago:
It's not going to happen, but how much fun would it be to see the Cardinals sign someone like Sabathia, a durable workhorse (30-plus starts and 180-plus innings every year in his career) who showed his desire to win in the last week of the season? Of course, he probably increased his value significantly with this closing stretch.
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Let's get one thing straight, the MVP should be an award for an entire season of work. To even place Sabathia and Ramirez in the conversation is an insult, and at best, assuming they would duplicate their half-season numbers during the first half! If the voters don't come down from their thrones and stop placing so much emphasis upon the post-season (which, I might add, has its own awards), we'll never return to the days such as when HOF Ernie Banks won back-to-back MVP's in '58 & '59. The writers then, did not penalize him because of what he (Banks) could not control... the rest of his team.
Another great example would have been not to give the 1972 Cy Young award to Steve Carlton, who won 27 of his team's (Phillies) 59 games!
If Ramirez and other late additions are to be considered, then why don't we go ahead and give Manny the batting title for his .396 average as well! Even if you combine his AL & NL totals, he falls short of the year compiled by Pujols!
Pujols comes out a better with his ability to make contact, and he certainly is a more accomplished fielder.
I suspect the writers will award those players they saw in the league for the full season. Pujols has at least as good of an argument as Howard, but I bet it goes: 1, Howard; 2, Pujols; 3, Wright.
Howard's power numbers are justifiably, great. However, Pujols gives his team more chances to succeed, by striking out "145 fewer" times than Howard.
Ryan Howard should win it. Ramirez second.
And since when do strikeouts determine a better hitter? Some of the great hitters of all time struck out a bunch. The ultimate stat that you have to look at is RBI and run totals.
A league MVP should not be given to the person that was most valuable to his team, but to the league. When the people vote, they should vote on who they would pick 1st if they were picking for a league team (excluding pitchers since they have the Cy Young award). Pujols all the way.
If strikeouts and low batting averages didn't matter, Dave Kingman might have picked up a couple of MVPs!
The much-traveled first baseman also wasn't exactly a media favorite off the field. He played for seven different clubs in his 16 seasons, including four in the 1977 season when he was with the Mets, Padres, Angels and Yankees (one team from each division in those days).
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Howard, in his 2006 MVP year, did strike out 181 times but he hit .313 with 58 homers and 149 RBI.
Yet one more figure: Albert drove in 116 runs, yet only had 115 at bats with runners in scoring position!
I never ceases to amaze me that Howard is getting all this MVP pub. The dude hit something like .210 the first 2 months of the season. It is not like he pulled it even to a respectable number! If I am not mistaken, his .251 would be the lowest ever batting average for an MVP if he were to win it.