Who gets your vote for AL MVP?

[Sean Mota]

I think it is clear that Bonds will be voted the MVP of the NL but who is going to be the MVP forn the AL?

 

[John Corn]

I think this may be AROD's year. There are no strong "traditional" candidates and he came on strong towards the end of the season which is the part voters are most likely to remember. And its not like he had a bad year by any stretch of the imagination.

I'm no fan of the Yankees (To say the least), but Posada put up dang good stats for a catcher. Who was better in the AL this year? Or in the NL for that matter.


Arod - 298/47/118 with 17 sb's and 124 runs.
Pro: great stats
Con: Played for a terrible team.

Delgado - .302/42/145 with 117 runs
pro: great stats, arguably better than arod
con: played for a non-playoff team

Posada - .281/30/101 with 83 runs and 2 sb's.
pro: played for playoff team
cons: good stats, not MVP stats
Yankees could survive without him

Soriano - .290/38/91 with 114 runs and 35 sb's
pro: played for a playoff team
cons: not MVP stats
Yankees could survive without him

Nomar - .301/28/105 with 120 runs and 19 sb's
pro: played for playoff team
cons: slumped in september
stats are not spectacular
Sox' lineup is not reliant on him

Manny - .325/37/104 with 117 runs
pro: played on playoff team
con: Sox' lineup is not reliant on him

Carlos Beltran - .306/26/100 with 102 runs and 42 sb's
pro: helped lead royals to huge improvement over 2002
con: royals didnt make playoffs.

other candidates that you can make a case for include:

Vernon Wells - .317/33/117 with 118 runs
pro: Jays' most consistent hitter
Breakout season
con: didnt play on contender

Carlos Lee - .291/31/113 with 118 runs
pro: arguably sox best hitter
con: not on playoff team

Frank Thomas - .267/42/105 with 87 runs
pro: big part of sox offense
con: not MVP stats
not on playoff team

Magglio Ordonez - .317/29/99 with 95 runs
pro: power numbers not great
sox' most consistent hitter
con: not on playoff team

Miguel Tejada - .278/27/106 with 98 runs
pro: great 2nd half
played on playoff team
con: terrible 1st half
not necessarily team mvp (chavez?foulke?hudson?)

others (that i'm too lazy to post stats for) include:

Shannon Stewart (led twins to playoffs)
Bret Boone
Edgar Martinez
Bill Mueller
Roy Halladay (many argue pitchers shouldnt win)
Pedro martinex (ditto)
Eric Chavez
Tim Hudson
Keith Foulke
Hideki Matsui

 

[Sean Mota]

John,

I agree with you regarding A-Rod (the stats) but MVP. Let's look at the definition of MVP - Most Valuable Player. If that is the definition of the award then we should have someone like David Ortiz who hit after hit made a big different to his team down the stretch. Anyway, A-Rod won the award and in my opinion it's wrong. The award he should get is Oustanding Player of the year or something like that based on the stats. Not MVP. The case for Bonds is also made that you took him out of the SF lineup and maybe SF does not make it to the playoffs. I can say the same about David Ortiz or Jorge Posada. Let's give credit where credit is due. MLB and writers are wrong on this one.