Who SHOULD Win the NL/AL MVP, But Won't

With the Major League Baseball season coming to a conclusion Sunday night (excluding the Tigers/White Sox makeup game), two things are being talked about amongst the fans and sports writers: playoffs and awards.

Though there's nothing more exciting than playoffs, in my opinion, but I'm going to be taking some time to discuss the latter of the two—more specifically, the Most Valuable Player award. 

Much has been debated about the MVP award in the past, like whether or not it should go to the all-around best hitter or the person most valuable to their team's success, and without a doubt, this season in particular has drawn more dissection of the term "Most Valuable Player" than any other.

In my opinion, the award is what its letters stand for: the award for the player whose performance has been the most crucial to his team's success. With that said, I present you the two players who should be awarded the MVP, but will most likely be snubbed.

The National League

In the National League, three players stand out in my mind: the Cardinals' Albert Pujols, the Dodgers' Manny Ramirez, and the Phillies' Ryan Howard.

I'll just simply start out by saying who will probably win the award, and it will be Pujols, based completely on his numbers. Should he win the award though?

The fact of the matter is, the Cardinals couldn't keep up with both the Chicago Cubs and Milwaukee Brewers (and even the Houston Astros down the stretch), and it goes to show a powerful hitter can only take you so far (i.e. Josh Hamilton and the always disappointing Rangers).

He was a dominating hitter, but whether or not that player's team makes the playoffs should be taken into consideration.

With that said, the Dodgers are in the playoffs, and if you look at Manny's stats since the big three-team deal at the trade deadline, you'll see he's been one of the best, if not the best, in the National League. Look at his team, too—they acquired his bat and ran away with the division.

Is that being valuable? Definitely. Unfortunately for Dodger fans, the one thing that's going to knock Manny out of the MVP race (and rightfully so) is the fact that he only played half a season in the NL.

Much like CC Sabathia won't be winning the National League Cy Young award, Manny will have to wait to play a full year in the league before he can rightfully win the award that his numbers show he deserves.

That leaves one man: Ryan Howard. Howard is the only player to have a combination of what both Pujols and Ramirez have on their side, and it's what makes Howard my pick for the "should be MVP" award.

Though Howard only batted .251 (which would be the lowest batting average of any MVP award winner), Howard led the majors in home runs with 48 (11 more than Pujols), and RBI (30 more than Pujols).

Unlike Pujols, Howard's bat was able to surge his team past the division-leading Mets and make them the odds-on favorite to contend with the Chicago Cubs for that NL pennant.

He wasn't nearly as dominating for his team as Ramirez was for Los Angeles, who also deserves credit for surging his team past the division-leading Diamondbacks, but Howard consistently slugged home runs and drove in RBI throughout the entire MLB season, not just half.

So without a doubt in my mind, the "should be" winner of the NL MVP is Ryan Howard.

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