The NL MVP was announce and controversy soon followed (mostly in Philadelphia).
To start, what are the requirements for the MVP:
1. Actual value of a player to his team, that is, strength of offense and defense.
2. Number of games played.
3. General character, disposition, loyalty and effort.
4. Former winners are eligible.
5. Members of the committee may vote for more than one member of a team.
Please note, there is no mention that the MVP needs to be on a playoff team.
Everyone knows I was pulling for Albert Pujols to win. Most will also know I was scared that Ryan Howard was going to win for his outstanding September.
So, with that said, I’m going to honor the late Fire Joe Morgan website and do this in their format.
MVP voting is out of whack
By Phil Sheridan
Ryan Howard was the most valuable player in the National League in 2008. That he was not voted MVP by the Baseball Writers’ Association of America says more about the association than about Howard, Albert Pujols or America.
Pujols was not an embarrassing selection, not with his excellent numbers, but was still the wrong selection. And that should embarrass the association enough to do what it should have done long ago: get out of the business of voting on baseball’s postseason awards – as well as the Hall of Fame.
The only part I can agree with is the fact that the baseball writers should not be voting for awards and hall of famers. Look at the NL Rookie of the Year voting; Edison Volquez received votes even though he lost his “rookie” classification in 2007.
If anything it should be left to the players and hall members respectively.
That won’t happen because the association is as incapable of being embarrassed as is Major League Baseball itself.
True – look at the steroid problem.
The arguments against the writers’ participation in the voting are well-established and have been covered here before. It is ethically indefensible for the journalists who cover baseball to vote for official awards that have an impact on players’ financial rewards.
I don’t think any St. Louis writer has anything to gain by voting for Albert in the MVP – it’s not like he’ll throw them a kick back or anything.
Imagine Howard’s 2009 arbitration hearing. It will be different because he finished second in this voting as opposed to first. That alone is reason enough for the association to recuse itself from this annual charade.
The arbitration hearing shouldn’t matter too much. You know his agent will use 2nd place to his advantage and throw out his R, HR, and RBI totals. The organization will use his lack of defense and strikeout totals (you can’t really knock a guy for taking second).
OK – I’m skipping forward a bit because he starts to talk about who should vote.
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.
If the BCS could only have that computer…
Seriously, you need to take more into account than stats; this I can agree with. But hitting like Richie Sexson for half a season can’t be ignored.
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.
The Cards finished fourth in their division, 151/2 games behind the Cubs. Replace Pujols with an average NL first baseman and what happens? Do they drop all the way to fifth?
Replace Pujols with a league average first baseman for the season, and the Cardinals would be lucky to have a winning records, let alone be in contention. Also, Ludwick struggled while Pujols was on the DL, and Ankiel and Glaus were both up and down all season.
Notice how he doesn’t point out that Howard was carried most of the season by Chase Utley, Pat Burrell, Shane Victorino, or Jimmy Rollins. That’s a better cast than Pujols had.
Also, their bullpen didn’t blow 30 games like the Cardinals. If the Cardinals had Brad Lidge, they would have won an additional 14 games in the 9th inning that the “closer” blew.
(Also, the Cardinals finished in 4th place because the Astros didn’t play 1 game against the Cubs – if that game would have been played, the Cards and Astros could have been tied for 3rd)
The association seamheads love to throw around stats – OPS, VORP, ASPCA – to make a case for Pujols. That’s all great. Yes, he struck out less and hit for a higher average. But Howard won actual baseball games in an honest-Abe pennant race. He had 11 more home runs than Pujols, scored five more runs than Pujols, and drove in 30 more runs than Pujols.
Pujols – 104 BB, 34 IBB
Howard – 81 BB, 17 IBB
Howard also had something like 50 more at bats with runners in scoring position, so it’s easier to get more runs and home runs then. Also, Howard is a clean up hitter behind Rollins and Utley; Pujols batted third behind a variation that included Cesar Izturis, Adam Kennedy, Skip Schumaker, and Chris Duncan, among others. So, Howard had a ton more RBIs, less than a dozen HRs more, and a couple more runs because he was pitched to more often and had more guys on base ahead of him. Doesn’t sound like it was because he was better.
And what does pet adoption have to do with baseball stats…
Notice there are no decimal points involved there, only whole numbers that made a difference in real baseball games.
Because it doesn’t matter if you get 25 hits in 100 at bats vs 34 hits. I wonder what he thinks about ERA?
That takes care of the logic. Now let’s look at the process.
Of the 32 MVP voters (two from each chapter, which means two from each NL market), only one failed to put Howard on his ballot at all. Rich Campbell of the Fredericksburg (Va.) Free Lance-Star was contacted by my astute colleague Todd Zolecki. He had no comment.
Howard’s next-lowest spot – 10th out of 10 – was on the ballot of Mark Zuckerman of the Washington Times. Zuckerman and Campbell both cover the Nationals. They both cast ballots utterly out of step with the norm, at least regarding Howard. If that’s a coincidence, I’m Red Smith.
It’s easy to pick on the Nats’ beat writers. They were no doubt numb after watching that team for a full season. But the point is that the association’s voting is rife with personal agendas, flawed logic, favor trading, and plain old sloppiness.
This can also go the opposite way. He voted for Howard and he’s the Phillies beat writer. It’s almost 2 guaranteed votes for Howard because of the writers for his team.
Three members of the association cast rookie of the year votes for Reds pitcher Edinson Volquez, who was not a rookie this year. If the howling ethical malfeasance weren’t enough to shut this farce down, that should do the trick.
Which I brought up earlier.
Ryan Howard – who has added a World Series ring to his 2005 rookie of the year and 2006 MVP trophies – will survive this voting nicely. The process that produced it should not.
Every one know that no matter how much belly aching one writer does (and a city full of fans too), the whole process will be changed. This isn’t the first problem, nor will it be the last.
Now from Tom Haudricourt of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel:
I had an MVP ballot and voted for Howard first because he almost single-handedly carried the Phillies to the playoffs by batting .352 with 11 homers and 32 RBI in September. I like to weight my voting to teams in the playoff hunt because I think that puts more pressure on players and separates the men from the boys. There’s little pressure on players having big years if their teams aren’t playing for anything at the end.
If I remember correctly, the Cardinals were in the playoff hunt almost until the end.
Plus, if Howard would have put up half way respectable stats in the first 3 months, the Phillies may have not needed him to carry them in September.
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’ll show you his votes in a minutes – I will say there was another player ahead of Pujols that didn’t make the post-season.
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.
Again, I’ll point you up the page to look at who Howard played with.
It’s a subjective vote and every writer has his own preferences. That’s why I voted for Sabathia second and Ramirez third because even though they played in the league only half a season they were primarily responsible for putting their teams in the playoffs.
Here’s the way I voted:
1. Ryan Howard, Phil
2. CC Sabathia, Mil
3. Manny Ramirez, LA
4. Carlos Delgado, NY
5. Aramis Ramirez, Chi
6. Prince Fielder, Mil
7. Albert Pujols, Stl
8. Ryan Ludwick, Stl
9. Ryan Braun, Mil
10. David Wright, NY
I voted Fielder higher than Braun because Fielder had a much better September when the Brewers were clawing to get in the playoffs. Braun was ailing, as we discovered, and did have the homer that put the Brewers in the playoffs, but I just felt Fielder did more down the stretch.
OK – Howard we’ve talked about. Sabathia had 17 starts in the NL, not enough to classify him an MVP finalist. The Dodgers finished the year 30-24 after acquiring Manny; not much of a difference maker to me (more like a D’back collapse). Delgado is in the same boat as Howard, only his team didn’t make the playoffs. Aramis Ramirez was added probably because he was a Cubs – their team really didn’t have anyone that was head and shoulders above the rest of the team. Prince had a hot month; Braun was much better for the season. Ludwick had a good season, but I don’t know about a top 10 MVP season. Braun and Wright both deserved to be higher.
Someone from Viva El Birdos put this Bill Simmons (who I normally don’t like or read) quote about the NBA MVP last year:
If you wouldn’t take player A over player B in a pickup game, then there’s no way that you could vote for player A as a more valuable player than player B.
If the Phillies had a chance to trade Ryan Howard for Albert Pujols, they’d do it in a heartbeat.
My last note is Jayson Stark of ESPN this morning said that the writers in Philly voted on a team MVP for the Phillies and guess who won:
Brad Lidge.
How can the guy that should have won the MVP not be the MVP of his own team?
(And just for everyone bring up the quote from 2006 where Pujols said that the MVP should come from a playoff team – the quote was taken out of context. He said that the day after the quote was ran; I’d assume it’s still out of context when it being shown now)
