It's been clear to all that, up until the All Star Break, David Ortiz was the front runner in regards to the AL MVP. It's not looking so good now. Why is that? Is David's performance falling off that much? No. He is still playing like an MVP. So who is stealing Big Papi's MVP award?
Here are the suspects:
The Writers: These are the people who vote for the MVP. They stole David's MVP last year and gave it to A-Fraud. He has further proven himself to be a fraud this year and (hopefully) is not being considered for the 2006 AL MVP. The writers have also broadcast a strong bias against voting for a designated hitter for this award. There is no A-Fraud for them to give it to this year, but there is Mauer (C-Twins) and Jeter (SS-Yankees). Perhaps they have their sights set on stealing David's MVP for the second year in a row.
Manny Ramirez: There are two ways that Papi's Pal could be purloining his place of prominence. First, Manny was on fire during the Red Sox crash and burn at the hands of the Yankees. I've always felt that the league MVP needs to be the team MVP as well. If Manny is competing with Papi for the team MVP he may steal some MVP votes from him. The second way that Manny could steal the award is by way of his hammy. Manny suddenly had a cramp in his hammy after he made it known that he was upset with the game scorer when a hit he had was scored an error. He had to be talked into playing the next game, then left the game after that early with a "cramp." With Manny out of the lineup, Tito has been batting Kevin Youkilis behind Ortiz. Since then, Ortiz has received two intentional walks. Without Manny behind him, nobody pitches to David. Manny may be unintentionally taking the MVP from his teammate.
Derek Jeter: There are musings that Jeter may be the writers' favorite for the non DH MVP. He's had a decent year and with the player to his right committing error after error, he's shining on that infield. Here's the problem that I have with the Jeter for MVP campaign. I don't see how a Yankee can ever be MVP. The MVP of the league needs to be the MVP of his team. When you are shuffled in a lineup with Damon, Giambi, Matsui, Sheffield, A-Fraud, Williams, Cano, Posada, Abreu and Rivera how can you possibly be the MVP of that group?! They have proven that they can cruise without two of their best players. However, as the writers have proven: they don't care. Jeter may end up stealing Papi's MVP.
Joe Mauer: While Big Papi leads the majors in RBI and Home Runs (two of the three aspects of baseball's "Triple Crown.") Mr. Mauer holds the other for the American League: batting average. Normally, this wouldn't be a concern. The MVP rarely has the best batting average. Here's the catch. Mauer is a catcher and catchers hardly ever win the batting title, let alone lead the entire majors in this category. This wouldn't be an issue if Mauer were a short stop or center fielder, positions known for their hitting ability. So, combine the fact that a catcher has the best batting average with the writers who will vote for a relief pitcher before they'll vote for a DH and you have an equation that robs David of his second deserved MVP.
The Red Sox Bullpen: "Wait a minute, Marc. How can the Red Sox pitching be stealing David's MVP? They aren't the one's pitching to him!" True enough. However, all too often, the writers won't vote for a player on a team that doesn't make the playoffs. How can the MVP of the league not be good enough to elevate his team to the post season? I bet the writers who can't stomach voting for a DH are praying the Sox continue to falter so that they have a different excuse other than "Well, he doesn't play the field." So, hear me know and believe me later: If the Red Sox pitching doesn't shape up and if the Sox don't get to play October ball (Come on, don't we all want to hear more of "the Hunt for Red Soxtober"?) then David Ortiz will not be awarded the AL MVP and for the second time in two years it will have been stolen from him. Just as it was stolen from Pujols by Bonds all those years before.
Verdict: If Big Papi doesn't get the big award we can blame the pitching. Not only are they sinking the Sox season, they are taking David's hopes of an MVP honor down with them.
Mark my words, this will prove to be more than just my opinion!
4 comments:
Here's an even better idea. Why doesn't Ortiz make himself a good firstbaseman instead! Huh, then they good move Youk to third for the soon to be departed Lowell, resign Loretta and put Pedroiya at SS. Then they can pick up a big bat in the off-season and have at it. Why not? Because Ortiz only cares about being a better hitter, not a better fielder, so he won't. Would I vote for a DH, probably? But would I factor in the fact that he faces practically no where and tear so his stats should be 15% better than other players who face injuries and wear and tear that he never does...probably. Now I, as a Mets fan, would give up any--any--Mets player to get Ortiz (Wright, Beltran, you name him) so I think he's tops and easily the most clutch hitter in baseball, now if we just dedicate himself to fielding he could contribute all the way around. As he is, he's half the man he could be. Mudflaps D Always Looking to Disagree!
Uh, Mudflaps, by this logic, shouldn't all DHs' numbers be 15% better than people in the field? The Red Sox aren't some kind of special team that gets a DH. I know you are a Mets fan, but it's the whole American League that gets a DH. It may be hard to believe, but every team has someone batting in the place of the pitcher. That's 14 DH's! There are 8 players who have over 300 AB this year at DH (signifying that they are the teams regular DH), Let's see how they are doing: Hafner is second best. (He's so much of a DH that Yahoo baseball won't even allow him to be played at first, unlike David...)
Hafner has 9 fewer RBI, 3 fewer runs, 2 fewer hits, 7 fewer home runs, yet 6 more strike outs. He's the only one even close.
Thome (another current career DH) has 29 fewer RBI, 3 fewer runs, 17 fewer hits, 10 fewer homer runs, yet 21 more strike outs.
Here's the average for the next 5 DH's (Hafner, Thome, Gomes, Giambi, & Thomas):
stat 5 DH ......... Ortiz
Runs 75 ........... 97
Hits 105 ......... 136
HR 32 .......... 46
RBI 88 .......... 120
SO 99 ........... 99
OBP .396 ........ .401
SLG .564 ........ .633
AVG .269 ........ .287
TB 232 ......... 300
BB 79 ........... 90
So what does it say that he is 15% better than the other people who don't play the field?
Nobody get's hurt while batting? Nixon, two years in a row sustained an injury with a bat in his hand. Lowell injured at bat. Kapler injured running the bases. (This is just one team, mind you...) Sorry Mudflaps. Jealous as you may be that Ortiz is on the Sox, don't try to take his greatness away from him just because he plays the position he's been hired to play.
Just in case you are wondering, here are the percentages that Ortiz is over the other 5 DHs:
Runs 30%
Hits 30%
HR 44%
RBI 36%
SO 0%
OBP 1%
SLG 12%
AVG 7%
TB 30%
BB 14%
To answer your question, and then to thwart your convoluted logic: yes. If a DH is up for MVP they should be 15% (to pick a random, but you-get-the-idea kind of a number) than other candidates who play the field. So, if other DH's were making a run at the MVP (which I don't think they're are ... but they may be) than I would have the same standard for them: ~15%. If Ortiz is doing this, them more power to him and keep him in the running. Now obviously some uncoordinated Red Sox players have gotten hurt batting, but it seems that at least 1/2 the errors come while fielding (probably 30-40% while baserunning, but that's just b/c most baseball players are out of shape compared to NFL or NBA players - a blog for another time). Am I making all these numbers up? Yes! But being a bball fan for 15 years qualifies me to do that based on my selective memory projected into quantifiable figures;) So, based on your last post, Ortiz is definitely the MVDH. Is he the MVP? We'll see. Should he get his lazy butt in gear and learn 1b better the RS have more flexibility. Of course.
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