As most people would agree, handing out awards at the end of the season is an inexact science. The arguments on both sides, though, make this such an interesting topic of debate. Seriously, what baseball fan does not love to go back and forth, arguing their respective picks at the local watering hole or screaming at the talking heads on Baseball Tonight?
In my opinion, choosing award selections is one of the most enjoyable parts of writing about baseball (click here to compare my mid-season award picks). And I invite you to disagree with my selections for this year’s hardware in each league by leaving a comment below.
American League
Most Valuable Player:
As I am sure you are aware by now, 2008 is a weird year for MVP candidates in the American League, as two of the strongest five potentially playoff-bound teams—the Los Angeles Angels and Tampa Bay Rays—do not have a legitimate candidate. When Jason Bartlett, with his sub-.700 OPS, gets elected by local writers as the MVP of the champions of baseball’s most competitive division, clearly this is not the average year. To make matters more difficult, one of the other teams, the Chicago White Sox, lost their best bet when outfielder Carlos Quentin went down with a season-ending injury a few weeks back.
The Boston Red Sox and Minnesota Twins, though, have four players with the potential of getting elected by the voters.
Justin Morneau is a name commonly being thrown around in the discussion. Most of the voters have already turned in their ballots, meaning that his chances of winning will not be affected if Chicago manages to play its way into the postseason later this week. And, in his favor, voters are infatuated with one statistic above all others—RBIs—and he is second in the league with 129. Hey, this is why he won the award back in 2006, when there were several stronger options, including his teammate, Joe Mauer. He has been the key cog in a Twins’ offense that has been tremendous with runners in scoring position (even if some pundits dismiss it as a statistical fluke), hitting .302/.375/.502, with 21 homers. But I still do not think that he deserves the award this year, as Mauer once again has been more valuable to his team and he does not even rank in the top 30 in the league in OPS.
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