Albert Pujols please! The Philadelphia Phillies Brad Lidge got jobbed out of the National League Most Valuable Player Award yesterday. St. Louis Cardinals first baseman Albert Pujols had an excellent season. However, as is clearly written into the title of the award, it is for the Most Valuable Player!!! It is not for the "best offensive season," which Pujols may have had.
Problem is Pujols played for the fourth place St. Louis Cardinals, who finished 11.5 games out of first and only got there by surging to win their final six games of the season after they had been eliminated. Pujols did not lead the N.L. in runs batted in or home runs. Not since Andre Dawson in 1987 has a slugger or any player for such a non-contender won the M.V.P. The only way a player is supposed to win M.V.P. for a non-contending team is if his season is so sublime, so superior, it is impossible to ignore. When Dawson hit 49 homers for the mediocre 1987 Cubs, nobody had hit that many in the National League in ten years. We repeat Pujols didn't even lead the league this year. He was picked because voters wanted to reject the Phillies first baseman, Ryan Howard for striking out too much and hitting for too low a batting average. Reasonable objections to the Clarion Content. Furthermore, Howard had already won the award once. The Clarion Content is not lobbying for Howard from the World Champion Phillies, but rather his teammate Brad Lidge whose candidacy did not receive the serious consideration it deserved.
The reason Lidge did not get a fair hearing is because he is a pitcher. There is a certain faction of the folks who vote for baseball's post-season awards who prima facie refuse to consider pitchers for Most Valuable Player because, "they have their own award." This is a ridiculous argument. Yes, the Cy Young honors the best pitcher in the league each year, but that should have no bearing on whether or not a pitcher is the most valuable player in any given baseball season. Lidge who was 41 for 41 in save opportunities this year clearly was the most valuable player. If he alone had switched franchises and worked for the New York Metropolitans instead of the Philadelphia Phillies, the Mets would have won the N.L. East. The Phillies might have missed the playoffs instead of being the world champs. If the L.A. Dodgers had Lidge, they likely would have beaten the Phils in the N.L. playoffs.
Furthermore there is precedent for a relief pitcher winning the M.V.P., Willie Hernandez won for overpowering 1984 Tigers. Hall of Famer Rollie Fingers won three years earlier for the beer makers and Dennis Eckersley nearly ten years later for the Oakland A's "Bash Brothers' team. The 1984 Tigers who bolted out of the gate 35 wins and 5 losses and cruised to a World Series win, had Alan Trammel, Lou Whitaker and Kirk Gibson, but rather than pick the best slugger, the voters picked the most valuable player, the lower profile Hernandez. This year's Phillies were set up perfectly to follow the same scenario. Ace reliever Lidge was the essential difference between this year and last year's Phillies. The same Phillies who despite having three hitters in a row who had won the M.V.P., Howard, second sacker Chase Utley and shortstop Jimmy Rollins, couldn't get over the top until they got the closer, Brad Lidge. Brade Lidge got jobbed, he was the N.L. MVP this year.
The Red Sox diminutive second baseman Dustin Pedroia was a deserving, though not clear cut, winner in the American League.
Posts
2 comments:
Come on, Aaron. Is 2003 really so far away that you don't remember Alex Rodriguez winning the MVP for a 71-91 Rangers team?
Barry Bonds won an MVP award for a Giants team that didn't win their division in 2004. And another team that didn't make the playoffs in 1993.
Cal Ripkin's MVP was for a 67-95 team.
Obviously, you really haven't paid that much attention to MVP voting if you think Dawson was the last MVP from a crappy team. The MVP award, far from what it's name suggests, is not for a player that helps his team out, but for a spectacular season by a player.
You're worried about relief pitchers not being considered for the MVP, but you make no mention of Joey Devine who had a .59 ERA and a .832 WHIP?
Let me repeat that: .59 ERA. That's the lowest ERA of any player since 1912,and less than a third of your buddy Lidge's 1.92 ERA. K-Rod, also in the AL, got 62 saves: 20 more than Lidge. (Lidge also didn't have the lead in saves for the NL, either, that went to Jose Valverde of the Astros)
And yet you're fine with Dustin Pedroia, an offensive player with a fine season, but nothing for the history books. Why such concern for fairness for pitchers in the National League, but not for the AL?
In any event, you owe me ten bucks. The MVP is a hitter's award, and hitters win it, rightly.
I.MoRock-
I guess the crux of my argument rests on the difference between National League and American League baseball. The American League with the Designated Hitter is surely a hitters league. The National League without it and rather with the pitcher batting and lots of situational substitution is different baseball. Relievers are far more important in the N.L. simply because the pitcher's spot in the batting order is guaranteed to come up every three innings.
Dawson was the last MVP from a crappy N.L. team and he deserved to win. The kicker in his story that isn't often mentioned/recalled is that he was a free agent after the 1986 season. It was the first year that the owners implemented the "Collusion" policy. Dawson got no offers for months. He finally told the Cubs he would signed for whatever they filled in on the blank for a one year contract and prove he deserved to get paid. A proud dude. Asshole, cheapskate Cubs signed him, literally filling in the blank contract he gave them for $500k, a $1.3mil cut from what he was making with the Expos the year before. Did Dawson pout? Nope he went out and kicked ass. (Sentimental points with the MVP voters.) And don't forget he had a gun from the outfield, he was an excellent defensive player. He had 150 career outfield assists and 12 that year, 8th in the league. And by that point in his career he was known for having a great arm and so people rarely tested him.
Of course, we both know A-Rod has never deserved an MVP award in his life. He has been a locker room cancer his whole career. Just because they gave him one for an awful Rangers team doesn't make it right.
Cal Ripken's MVP is like one of those lifetime Oscars where they finally give somebody who has done six better movies, but never won, the Best Actor for some much more average role. Al Pacino wins Best Actor for "Scent of a Woman" but not “The Godfather” or “Scarface.”
Bonds 2004 Giants were 91 and 71 and finished 2 games out, not 11.5 like Puljos Cards this year.
This Joey Devine played for the non-contending A's, got 6 wins and 1 save. It is not only about how many runs you allow, it is also about when you allow them. Lidge pitched in 1.5 times as many innings as Devine, had 41 saves and 2 wins. A combined total 6 times greater than Devine's total. He didn't blow a single save all season in pressure packed game, after pressure packed game. Remember the Phillies didn't clinch until the final weekend of the year.
Jose Valverde, again is a guy who played for a non-contender, and for me you just have to have a sick season if you don't play for a team that is in contention most of the season, preferably a "playoff qualifier." (Lame ass wild card, I wanted to be able to write “division winner.”)
I would have been okay with K-Rod winning the A.L. MVP. I think the voters discounted his record a little bit because the Angels cruised, winning the division by so much it seemed like it was over in mid-August.
The primary reason I was okay with Pedroia was the shocking shit that happened to the rest of the Red Sox. Truly, I would have voted Youkilis 1st, Rodriguez 2nd and Pedroia 3rd if I were voting in the A.L. Again, Youkilis is a superb defensive player at both corner positions. For the Red Sox to make the playoffs when they traded Manny at the halfway point, and Ortiz only played in 109 games and Lowell 113, somebody on the Sox offense had to be the MVP. Youkilis with 115 RBI and 91 runs scored, just barely out run produced Pedroia's 118 runs scored and 83 RBI. I'd give the nod to Youkilis, like I said, because I love his D, too. 'Course Pedroia is no slouch in the that department either, which is why I'm fine that it went down the way it did. Pedroia gets points for being at a normally less of an offensive production position, though those distinctions are fading.
Anyway, I may owe you $10, but I stand by my position that Brad Lidge got screwed. Switch him and Billy Wagner, only(!), and the Mets make the playoffs while the World Champion Phillies stay home.
Post a Comment