The National League MVP

The National League MVP is becoming one of the biggest debates around sports, and I want to throw my hat in the ring. So the big candidates for this award are in no particular order:

Albert Pujols
David Wright
Lance Berkman
Jose Reyes
Carlos Delgado
CC Sabathia
Ryan Howard

Now I know that someone out there is going to kill me for having three Mets on my list but it is hard to ignore one over the other, and I will explain why later. Let’s first start by making a case for each person on this list.

Albert Pujols is leading the league or close to the top of the list in almost all hitting categories. His basic stats look likes this as of 9/12, .360 average, 91 runs, 100 RBI’s, 33 HR’s and he plays gold glove winning first base. He is probably the favorite right now to win the award if you go by stats alone, but his team is sitting in fourth place in the division and 4.5 games out of the wild card spot with a bunch of teams to jump. Does making the playoffs matter in this debate, I guess we will have to find out.

David Wright is having another stellar year. He is the top RBI man on the Mets with 109 RBI’s; he has 104 runs scored, 28 HR’s, and a .296 batting average. If his average was up a little more, he would be easily comparable stats wise to Albert Pujols right now. He also won his first gold glove award playing third base last year, and looks to add more hardware this year. He makes the easy plays look difficult at times, but he makes the spectacular plays look routine constantly.

Lance Berkman is single handedly trying to carry the Astros, a team left for dead a few weeks ago, to a wild card birth. He is batting .328 with 110 runs scored, 28 HR’s, and 100 RBI’s. His team is currently sitting only 3 games back of the wild card leading Brewers, and is on a massive hot streak as of late.

Jose Reyes is the biggest catalyst for any team in the MLB. As he goes so go the Mets. He is leading the league in hits with 184 hits, he has 100 runs scored, 13 HR’s and 56 RBI’s out of the lead off spot, and is batting a respectable .300. His biggest asset is his speed with his 18 triples and 46 steals this year; he is a catcher’s nightmare. He also plays very good defense at shortstop and has a cannon for an arm. He is one of three candidates from the Mets, which might hurt his chances, as well as being a speed and finesse guy instead of power.

The third Met candidate being mentioned is the most surprising of the bunch. Carlos Delgado who half way through the year was looking like a guy who could be designated for assignment, has found his stroke that he left in Toronto. I would venture a guess that no one has been hotter then Carlos Delgado over the last month and with his resurgence has come a Mets team that has made up a handful of games since his resurgence. The Mets went from a team looking like it couldn’t recover from their historic collapse last year, to a team in charge of their division. While his power numbers are impressive, his batting average is a measly .264 after his horrible start to the season.

CC Sabathia is 9-0 with a 1.59 ERA and 6 complete games for the Brewers since coming over in a trade from Cleveland. He is the main reason that the Brewers are leading the wild card right now. The only down side to his candidacy is that he has only been with the Brewers for half a year, and this award take into account an entire year.

The enigma that is Ryan Howard is hard to explain. He leads the league in HR’s with 43, and also leads in RBI’s with 129. But he is batting a lowly .243 with 189 strikeouts. He is the most confusing hitter in the game because he looks so dominant in one at bat, and then looks lost the next. His power numbers are amazing and he will likely hit 50 Hr’s and top 150 RBI’s but unless he can get his average up considerably, he will have a hard time convincing the voters of his worth.

So there is everything I can say about why they could win the award, and now is the easy part, picking why they won’t win the award. Now my picks are based solely on what is happening right now, and I reserve the right to change my opinion as the last few games tick away.

The first 3 people to get eliminated as of right now are Jose Reyes, Carlos Delgado, and David Wright. All 3 are having great years, and without them the Mets would be lost. But that is the main reason that neither can win the NL MVP. It is impossible to pick who would be the Mets MVP so I can’t pick one of them to win the NL MVP. If I had to pick the player in the best position to go on a tear and take the team and league MVP, it would be David Wright, he is probably the leading candidate based on his complete set of stats, and so if he gets on a hot streak, he could steal the show from everyone else.

The next person eliminated is CC Sabathia. He is a pitcher, and I think pitchers should not be eligible for the MVP but that is just my opinion. His stats are amazing and I think he presents a strong case for Cy Young but I would not give him the MVP for half a season.

Ryan Howard is also out because I just don’t see him being able to get his team to the playoffs and without that and with his horrendous amount of strikeouts and his low batting average, I don’t see voters giving him the nod either.

So it is down to Berkman and Pujols, two of the premier first basemen in the league. Their stats are close enough to throw out the window right now, so I think it comes down to which team has a better record, and right now it is Lance Berkman and the Houston Astros.

So my NL MVP on 9/12/2008 is Lance Berkman.

BUT my NL MVP at the end of the year is David Wright (come on I am a homer)