(Oh, please, Bud Selig, don't keep us in suspense any longer. It's not like we've moved on to basketball, hockey and football, we've put our lives on hold to learn this year's MVPs.)Baseball finally gets around to handing out the most valuable player awards today and tomorrow, beginning with the National League honour. It's worth reiterating that Ryan Howard is totally not deserving of the award, despite his major league-high 58 homers and 149 runs batted in.
(Someone will try to bring it into the argument that Howard was paid only $355,000, less than the Blue Jays paid backup shortstop John McDonald, but that's neither here nor there.)
The Win Shares calculated by Hardball Times find Howard to be about the sixth- or seventh-best player in the NL. Much of his value is concentrated is one area -- home runs -- and players of that nature are the most likely to be overrated by fans and the media. Both the Cardinals' Albert Pujols and the Mets' Carlos Beltran are choices I can live with as a baseball geek.
Oh, and if someone drags out the argument that the Phillies would have been "noplace" without Howard, print this out and have it ready. All of the leading MVP candidates -- and at least one guy, Colorado outfielder Matt Holliday, who's not even in the discussion -- drove in and/or scored a greater sharer of their teams' runs than Howard.
Albert Pujols, Cardinals: 26.5% (207 of 781)
Miguel Cabrera, Marlins: 26.4% (200 of 758)
Lance Berkman, Astros: 25.3% (186 of 735)
Matt Holliday, Rockies: 24.5% (199 of 813)
Carlos Beltran, Mets: 24.2% (202 of 834)
Ryan Howard, Phils: 22.5% (195 of 865)
Of course, Holliday enjoyed the Coors Field effect (which was much less this year than in the past), but even a guy who's mostly unknown to fans east of Chicago accounted for more runs than Ryan Howard. And when did anyone mention Holliday as a MVP candidate?
Howard wouldn't be the worst MVP pick ever or even recently (Dennis Eckersley in 1992 comes to mind), but he'd be a bad one for this year. Nothing against him, though since he'll likely win one before his days are through.
(UPDATE: Howard won. Whatever.)
Related:
Baseball's Award Winners (Oct. 1)
NL MVP: Howard vs. Beltran (Sept. 10)
That's all for now. Send your thoughts to neatesager@yahoo.ca.
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1 comment:
I never thought of salary being a consideration for MVP. But why not? If a guy like Howard makes that type of money, his value to the team increases even more.
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