2008 SBN Baseball Awards: Most Valuable Player
by Ian Casselberry
on Nov 6, 2008 10:00 PM EST
in News
3 comments
This week, we've been posting the results for each of Major League Baseball's regular season awards, as voted upon by the SB Nation baseball bloggers. On Monday, the Manager of the Year awards went to the Rays' Joe Maddon and the Cubs' Lou Piniella. Yesterday, the Rookie of the Year winners were the Rays' Evan Longoria and the Cubs' Geovany Soto. And yesterday, the Cy Young Awards went to the Indians' Cliff Lee and the Giants' Tim Lincecum.
But today is the big one, the award that compels fans to chant three letters when their team's best player is putting together a fabulous season. M-V-P! M-V-P! M-V-P! Heads turn when one of these guys enters a room because they're the best in their sport during that particular year. Unfortunately, this year's voting probably isn't quite as interesting to Detroit Tigers fans as last year's, when Magglio Ordonez ran a valiant second-place campaign.
Nonetheless, we present the 2008 SBN Most Valuable Player winner for the American League:
| American League | 1st | 2nd | 3rd | 4th | 5th | 6th | 7th | 8th | 9th | 10th | Points |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Dustin Pedroia | 5 | 3 | 4 | 2 | 1 | - | - | 2 | - | - | 155 |
| Joe Mauer | 2 | 3 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 | - | - | 109 |
| Grady Sizemore | 5 | 2 | - | - | 1 | 1 | - | 1 | 2 | - | 106 |
| Kevin Youkilis | 2 | - | 2 | 3 | 1 | 4 | - | 1 | 2 | - | 98 |
| Alex Rodriguez | 2 | 1 | 4 | - | 4 | - | - | - | 1 | 1 | 96 |
| Josh Hamilton | 1 | 1 | - | 3 | 3 | 1 | 1 | - | 1 | - | 73 |
| Justin Morneau | 1 | 3 | 1 | 1 | - | 1 | - | - | - | 2 | 63 |
| Carlos Quentin | - | - | 2 | 2 | - | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | - | 58 |
| Carlos Pena | - | 1 | - | - | - | 3 | 1 | 1 | - | - | 31 |
| Cliff Lee | - | 1 | - | - | 2 | - | - | 1 | - | - | 24 |
| Milton Bradley | - | - | - | 1 | - | - | 1 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 23 |
| Aubrey Huff | - | - | - | 1 | - | 1 | - | 1 | - | 2 | 17 |
| Roy Halladay | - | - | 1 | - | - | - | - | 1 | 1 | - | 13 |
| Miguel Cabrera | - | - | - | - | - | - | 2 | 1 | - | 1 | 12 |
| Evan Longoria | - | - | - | - | 1 | - | - | - | 1 | 2 | 10 |
| B. J. Upton | - | 1 | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | 9 |
| Ian Kinsler | - | - | - | - | - | - | 1 | - | 2 | - | 8 |
| Francisco Rodriguez | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | 1 | 1 | - | 5 |
| Alexei Ramirez | - | - | - | - | - | - | 1 | - | - | - | 4 |
| Brian Roberts | - | - | - | - | - | - | 1 | - | - | - | 4 |
| Vladimir Guerrero | - | - | - | - | - | - | 1 | - | - | - | 4 |
| Jim Thome | - | - | - | - | - | - | 1 | - | - | - | 4 |
| Nick Markakis | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | 2 | 2 |
| Joe Nathan | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | 1 | 1 |
| Jermaine Dye | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | 1 | 1 |
I'm glad to see the voting was so close, because I was having a really hard time filling out my ballot. Pedroia, Youkilis, Sizemore... ? Youkilis, Mauer, Pedroia... ? Morneau, Sizemore, Youkilis... ? I'm not so sure I ultimately settled on my choice so much as I just had to make a decision before sending the e-mail in.
Here's how I voted:
- Dustin Pedroia
- Justin Morneau
- Grady Sizemore
- Kevin Youkilis
- Carlos Pena
- Joe Mauer
- Carlos Quentin
- Alex Rodriguez
- Josh Hamilton
- Miguel Cabrera
I'm glad to see that three other voters placed Cabrera higher on their ballot than I did. Maybe I should've done the same, as Cabrera won the AL home run title. But as a Tigers fan, you know all too well that those home runs and RBIs weren't resulting in many wins for his team. Besides, if Carlos Quentin hadn't broken his wrist, would he have finished ahead of Cabrera in the home run race?
The National League ballot can be seen after the jump.
| National League | 1st | 2nd | 3rd | 4th | 5th | 6th | 7th | 8th | 9th | 10th | Points |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Albert Pujols | 13 | 4 | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | 218 |
| Lance Berkman | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 1 | 1 | 4 | - | 1 | - | 113 |
| Hanley Ramirez | - | 4 | 1 | 3 | 2 | - | 1 | 1 | 1 | - | 86 |
| David Wright | - | 1 | 3 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 2 | 3 | - | 1 | 95 |
| Chipper Jones | - | 1 | 3 | 3 | 1 | 5 | - | - | - | - | 85 |
| Ryan Howard | 3 | 1 | 1 | 1 | - | - | 1 | - | - | 1 | 71 |
| Chase Utley | - | 1 | 1 | 1 | 4 | 2 | 2 | - | 2 | 1 | 71 |
| Ryan Braun | - | - | 1 | 3 | - | 2 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 51 |
| Carlos Beltran | - | - | 3 | - | - | - | - | 3 | 1 | 1 | 36 |
| Manny Ramirez | - | 1 | - | 1 | 1 | - | 1 | - | - | 1 | 27 |
| Matt Holliday | - | - | - | - | 1 | 2 | - | - | 4 | - | 24 |
| CC Sabathia | - | 2 | - | - | - | - | 1 | - | - | 1 | 23 |
| Carlos Delgado | - | - | - | - | 2 | 1 | - | 1 | 1 | - | 21 |
| Aramis Ramirez | - | - | - | - | 2 | 1 | - | - | 1 | 2 | 19 |
| Ryan Ludwick | - | - | - | - | - | - | 1 | 3 | 2 | 2 | 17 |
| Jose Reyes | - | - | - | - | 1 | - | 2 | 1 | - | - | 8 |
| Brad Lidge | - | - | - | 1 | - | - | - | - | - | - | 8 |
| Carlos Lee | - | - | - | - | - | - | 1 | - | 1 | - | 6 |
| Pat Burrell | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | 1 | - | 1 | 4 |
| Brian McCann | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | 1 | - | 1 | 4 |
| Prince Fielder | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | 1 | - | 1 | 4 |
| Stephen Drew | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | 1 | - | - | 3 |
| Geovany Soto | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | 2 | 2 |
| Tim Lincecum | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | 1 | - | 2 |
| Brian Giles | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | 1 | 1 |
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How was Brad Lidge not higher? The guy’s incredible. And I’d put Miguel in the top seven. Imagine how bad the end would have been without him…
Detroit Tigers
Grosse Ile Red Devils Baseball
by Tony K on
Nov 6, 2008 11:03 PM EST
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Pedoria?
I’m usually with you on most things baseball but I don’t see how Dustin Pedroia was the American League MVP. Please share. I would have gone with Mauer.
Check out www.spotstarters.com for more news on the Detroit Tigers.
by spotstarters on
Nov 7, 2008 10:44 AM EST
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Well...
This will sound like something of a copout, but I wasn’t married to that choice. As I said, I was changing my mind with the direction of the wind.
But I thought Pedroia’s offensive stats – .326/.376/.493, 17 HR, 43 RBI, 20 SBs – were impressive, along with a good glove at second base. He also led the AL in Runs Scored (118 – ahead of, believe it or not, Curtis Granderson), and tied for the AL lead in hits (213 – with Ichiro).
Granted, those numbers aren’t at nearly as much of a premium as they would be at catcher. (However, I don’t how many second baseman in the AL you can call “great,” either.)
I also thought Pedroia stayed consistent enough to keep the Red Sox going when other players like Ortiz and Lowell struggled a bit.
by Ian Casselberry on
Nov 7, 2008 11:39 AM EST
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