November 18th, 2008 at 10:54 PM ^
no one on the rays were really deserving (though as a team they shoulda won...they were the shit...phuck the fillies....wow that worked out beautifully)...next up was the sox...he had a great year, 2nd in batting average, number 1 in runs scored, golden glove....but i think he's wayyyy to ugly to win
November 18th, 2008 at 11:00 PM ^
No AL player really had a banner year. If you're so upset about him winning, how about making an argument for who you think should win and why? You're like those politicians who point out all the problems with our country but don't have any ideas how to fix it.
November 18th, 2008 at 11:14 PM ^
you make a good point. I think Ordonez, Morneau, and Hamilton were all more deserving to win.
November 19th, 2008 at 12:39 AM ^
He wasn't even the best player on a sub-par team, let alone be int the conversation for MVP.
November 18th, 2008 at 11:05 PM ^
You see, baseball writers, especially the ones with MVP votes, love players who try really really hard. The thing is, most good players in the MLB don't seem like they are trying, because baseball comes easy to them. Still, every now and again, a player appears who creates a perfect storm among the scrappyphiles.
Dustin Pedroia is that perfect storm. Lets be honest, the man is not genetically gifted. He is shorter than BooBoo, and isn't exactly blessed with boyish good looks. He plays a position where teams nowadays aren't expecting much production out of, with only a few good hitters at 2b in the league nowadays. Yet the factor working most in his favor is the team he was on.
Pedroia is known kind of as a glue guy, one of the guys who keeps the clubhouse together, another think the scrappyphiles love, and in a season so rife with turmoil, his presence was viewed as one reason the team didn't absolutely collapse with the whole Manny saga and Ortiz not being himself for most of the year. He had a career year at exactly the right time, and will probably never top his totals in BA, OBP, HR's, RBI's, or R's. He had 2 win shared on the year, which was good for 5th in the AL, behind Mauer and Morneau, who are in too small a market to win it, Youkilis, who cooled off to much late to win it, and Hamilton, who also cooled off late and whose team was out of contention.
What I'm trying to get at was, he's a scrappy kid who had a career year for a big market team in a year when we had no real MVP candidates. I think Morneau or Mauer would have been better choices, as each was a better player this season than Pedroia, and the Twins were competitive the whole season, but noone should be really surprised that Pedroia was the winner.
November 19th, 2008 at 8:15 AM ^
How the heck did Albert Pujols win NL MVP? To win MVP on a 4th-place team you'd have to have numbers like...say...Ryan Howard's!
November 19th, 2008 at 9:24 AM ^
Pujols Batting Average was 18 points higher than Howards OBP. Pujols Slugging Percentage was 110 points higher than Howards, and his OBP was 123 points higher, making his OPS 233 points higher than Howards. The only categories Pujols trailed Howard in was HR's, 37 to 48, and RBI's 116 to 146. The Hr's is because Howard is just a better HR hitter and is often selling out AB's to get HR's, The RBI's is because Howard has Jimmy Rollins and Chase Utley hitting before him. If Pujols had Rollins and Utley hitting in front of him this year he probably would have broken RBI records.
Pujols also was in the top 2 or 3 in all and lead most defensive categories for first basemen. The only Defensive category Ryan Howard led the NL in was Errors, with 19 to Pujol's 6. Pujols had a much better season than Howard this year, hitting 350 from start to finish, while Howard was atrocious in the beginning of the season, not even able to hit the mendoza line through April.
Pujols dominated Howard statistically, thrashing him in epic proportions. He deserved the MVP, as without him his team would have had no shot at the playoffs at all. He is the best player in the game right now, and only 4 or 5 guys in the league are close to the all around hitter he is.
November 19th, 2008 at 12:21 PM ^
All good points. I liked Hamilton, if he wouldn't have had a fall-off after the all-star game I think he would have won it. And although I disagree with Maggs (although he's prob my favorite player) I think Miguel Cabrera should have had some recognition had it not been for being on a last place team. He had some dirty numbers.
November 19th, 2008 at 2:40 PM ^
Had Carlos Quentin not broken his wrist at the beginning of September he likely would have won the MVP.
November 19th, 2008 at 2:47 PM ^
Had I grown to 6'10" I likely would be in the NBA. We could do that all day.
November 19th, 2008 at 2:53 PM ^
For someone who just said "I liked Hamilton, if he wouldn't have had a fall-off after the all-star game I think he would have won it." That seems like a pretty unnecessary comment.
November 19th, 2008 at 3:21 PM ^
I was just saying we could go all day with that, that there are a million of those types every year, not that your comment was any less correct than mine.
November 19th, 2008 at 3:06 PM ^
Pedroia hit .326/.376/.493, and was the best defensive 2nd baseman in the league - his offensive #'s were a mirror image of Morneau's, except he played 2nd base, which is a demanding defensive position - unlike, say 1st base. He was also better than Magglio in every single meaningful offensive metric. Fuck "scrappy" - he was numerically superior to the other two, and, if you're all concerned with the guy coming from a winning team, his TEAM was better as well.
The only player for whom you can make an argument is Hamilton - who slugged 40 points higher and had an equivalent OBP. Pedroia, however, played a more valuable position, played it better, and, if you care, came from a more successful team.
November 19th, 2008 at 9:18 PM ^
Nearly 50 more Rbi's than Pedroia. They were nearly identical players, except one had 50 more RBI's. I know RBI's are a fluky stat, but 50? With relatively the same talent in front of them? Morneau had the better season but Pedroia won it because he was in Boston and noone else had a banner year.
He had a great year, I won't deny that, and its not like Morneau was robbed being that he wasn't crazy dominant, but Pedroia is a weak MVP compared to most others, and I seriously doubt he finishes in the top 20 again.
November 19th, 2008 at 9:58 PM ^
Morneau plays 1B, Pedroia plays 2B. A good hitting 2B is more rare and therefore more valuable than a good hitting 1B. Also, Pedroia came to bat this year 201 times with a runner on first, 159 with a guy on second, and 79 with a runner on third. Morneau was 290, 166, and 102. That is probably enough to get 50 extra RBI's with no extra skill.
November 20th, 2008 at 8:58 AM ^
As the poster above shows (thanks!), RBI are pretty much 100% a context-dependent stat.
It should also be said that Morneau, who spent the entire season hitting 4th, would see more RBI opportunities than Pedroia, who spend the year hitting 2nd.
November 19th, 2008 at 9:22 PM ^
how does he not win the AL MVP? Pedroia is the driving force of the Sox.