Pujols didn’t deserve MVP: Not this year

I can’t say that I was shocked to learn Albert Pujols was named National League MVP the other day. After all, baseball writers do the voting. Of all sports, baseball has been stamped with tradition much more than any of the others. And, traditionally, the only numbers of import in determining a field player’s MVP credentials are batting average, home runs and RBI’s. Let’s examine Pujols v. Ryan Howard of the Phillies, who should have won.

It’s true Pujols hit more than 100 points higher than Howard. Advantage Albert. However, it’s also true that Howard hit 11 more homeruns than Pujols and drove in 30 more runs. Those aren’t typos, folks. Actual whole numbers. To recap, in the three major offensive categories, Howard beat Pujols head to head decisively. Pujols beat Howard decisively in just one. No other numbers matter.

Please don’t tell me about OBS or slugging percentage. These are made-up stats created by numbers nerds that don’t mean anything in determining the outcome of a real ballgame. I don’t care if Howard struck out 1000 times. He drove in 30, I said, 30, more runs than Pujols. That’s value. He hit 11 more homers. More value. The fact that Pujols may have drawn an extra walk or two in late innings of games already decided doesn’t mean squat. The fact that Howard may have struck out rather than popped out likewise means nothing.

As if I needed more, it has long been a consideration of voters in MVP races where the player’s respective team finished when the voting is close. Here it’s a no-brainer.

With Pujols and a ton of impact bats around him, i.e., Glaus, Ludwick and Ankiel, the Cardinals finished fourth, ahead of only the incompetent Reds and equally distraught Pirates. Thanks to Howard, the Phillies won their division.

I can hear the argument already. Pujols shouldn’t be penalized because the Cardinals’ bullpen blew saves. Brad Lidge was the perfect closer for the Phillies. Without Howard’s power game, Lidge would have had precious few opportunities to close anything.

In addition, it’s time to ban baseball writers from voting on these post-season awards. Talk about a conflict of interest. People that cover the players all year are voting on awards that could bring players millions of dollars in bonuses. I know the writers aren’t smart enought to figure this out for themselves. So I’m pointing it out for them.

They don’t seem to care about the obvious lack of journalistic integrity involved in this process. Their egos block it out. They, and they alone, are qualified to make these judgements. That is truly how they think. At Pujols’ news conference after he had won, Hall of Fame baseball writer Rick Hummel introduced Pujols to the media. I almost fainted. I have a great deal of respect for Rick but I couldn’t believe he didn’t see that blurring the line with respect to impartiality actually obliterates the line. Even the slightest apperance a writer is involved with the team is disgraceful. But in today’s world of sportswriters, they couldn’t spell credibility and couldn’t care less if they have it.

Tags: baseball, cardinals, Pujols, rant

This entry was posted on Wednesday, November 19th, 2008 at 9:15 pm and is filed under Blog Rants, View All. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.