Is Everybody Crazy?
Midway through September, the baseball season is drawing to close. With that comes the discussion of division leaders, wild card races… and awards. Ah, yes… awards. Where the MLB arbitrarily gives Derek Jeter a gold glove for leaping to his right and tossing to first, despite his top 5 error ranking or his sub-.980 fielding percentage. Awards, where Francisco Rodriguez might get a Cy Young because of total fortune (an article I’ll be sure to write later). Awards, where Albert Pujols suddenly becomes the star of a Twilight Zone episode. Albert is by far the best player in the NL, if not in the league… and for some godawful reason, he’s barely even being discussed in the MVP race.
What is the deal, people? Why has everyone forgotten Albert Pujols? IS EVERYBODY CRAZY?
First of all, let me spell out Pujols’ season to date. In 136 games, Albert has a .357/.461/.645 line. That’s an OPS of 1.106. He reached base safely in his first 42 games of the season. He’s second in average, on base, hits, doubles, total bases and walks. His OPS+ is 189, thirteen points higher than Chipper Jones who has only played 119 games.
Pujols is basically in the top 5 in every category–except for home runs and RBI. And those two stats, for some strange reason, are a part of the holy trinity of baseball statistics. This isn’t really the place to discuss the fallacies of HRs or RBI (especially RBI), but if you’re interested in why those stats are so fundamentally flawed, I strongly recommend heading over to Baseball Prospectus and checking out their articles section. Additionally, they explain it to an incredibly detailed degree in their book Baseball Between the Numbers.
But back to the MVP race. Pujols is clearly in the top 3, if not the clear-cut candidate for #1. But who are the writers–the voters, really–talking about? Chase Utley of the Phillies is a popular candidate. .289/.377/.533 and a 132 OPS+. Sure he’s having a fairly good year, but his numbers are nowhere near Pujols’; Albert’s OBP is nearly 100 points higher than Utley’s! He doesn’t even have as many HRs and RBI, posting a 31 and 95 spot compared to Albert’s 33 and 101. However, because Utley had a great start to the year, he’s still in the race. Another choice is Manny Ramirez, which would just be absurd (though not as bad as Utley). He has 34 HR and 112 RBI, so of course he’s a great choice, right? Well, let’s not forget his pathetic foot-dragging in his final days with Boston, and his sudden surge in a pathetic NL West.
The pattern is consistent. Braun, Howard, Jones… they all have pretty nice stats, but the fact of the matter remains: Pujols is having a career year, and is leaps and bounds ahead of anyone else.The statistics are there, readily available, and prove it. Sure, there are some murmurings of Pujols. The voters and the media are not crazy. And if they have sense, they’ll vote Pujols for NL MVP. And hopefully, they’ll vote Quentin over Pedroia, too… but that’s for another time.
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Comments
And once Howard is mentioned, its essential to mention the best 1B in the NL East this season. In June, people were discussing whether the Mets should release Carlos Delgado. Now he has 36 homeruns, and 105 RBI. The Mets surge after firing Willie Randolph can be placed on his turnaround. Albert Pujols has had a great season, but he’s had a great season on a 4th place team. The Hank Aaron Award is an annual award in Major League Baseball awarded to the top hitter in each league. MVP is for the Most Valuable.
Haha. You’ve got to be kidding me. Delgado has a good month or two and still is way behind the leaders in HR and RBI and all of a sudden he should be MVP? I also think it is a bit presumptuous to talk about any Mets turnaround considering the current situation, especially since they can’t seem to play a game without the pen giving up runs, even when they win.
Part of my point is that HRs and RBI are not a great way to judge a player’s value. If you guys really want to know why I can make a separate post about it
I understand that point, Jon. But there is something to be said for a player (Howard) who is right now carrying his team to the playoffs. That gives him value, wouldn’t you say?
Delgado isn’t far from Howard in HR, is ahead in BA, and doesn’t have a ridiculous number of Ks. Plus at .5 games behind the Phillies, with the same number of losses, killing off the Mets seems unfair.
Howard isn’t carrying the Phillies to the playoffs. Earlier this season Chase Utley was the MVP frontrunner, and Jason Werth is having a superb second half, plus Lidge has been perfect. Therefore Delgado is in fact more VALUABLE to the Mets than Howard is to the Phillies.
As for Pujols, debating his value is difficult. Without him, the Cardinals would still likely be the 4th place team they are now.
Vote Lance Berkman!
here’s the real point. yes, howard and delgado have had great seasons, but who would the mets and phillies ideally have play first base? ALBERT PUJOLS. both of those teams( and in fact any team in the entire league) would be better off with Pujols on their team this year, and that (for me at least) points to pujols as the clear cut MVP. it’ s a miracle that the cardinals are in fourth place and that miracle’s name is albert pujols.
I think you may be a little crazy for not mentioning Ryan Howard in the race. He is Buster Olney’s new pick, and it’s easy to see why. Leading the majors in home runs and RBI, and hitting around .400 in September, just in time to carry the Phillies to the playoffs, he needs to at the very least be in the conversation.