Baseball Musings: Pedroia MVP

November 18, 2008

Pedroia MVP

Dustin Pedroia wins the AL Most Valuable Player Award fairly easily, capturing 16 first place votes to Justin Morneau's seven. Pedroia was left off one ballot, however. He did not receive a vote lower than fourth. Teammates of the 1-2 finishers, Kevin Youkilis and Joe Mauer finished third and fourth. Each picked up two first place votes and Francisco Rodriguez took the other, finishing sixth behind Carlos Quentin. Mauer actually picked up the most second place votes, but his ballot placements were more spread out than Morneau and Youkilis, dropping Joe to fourth.

Pedroia is a perfectly good pick, but I still don't understand valuing Morneau over Mauer. Roy Halladay did not receive a single vote. Probably the strangest vote was a fifth place to Jason Bartlett, although during the season I did hear someone argue he was the Rays MVP.

Posted by David Pinto at 02:02 PM | Awards | TrackBack (0)

Comments

Actually, I believe the Tampa chapter of the BBWAA voted Bartlett as the Rays MVP at/near the end of the season.

Posted by: Aaron at November 18, 2008 02:20 PM

OK, how does someone leave Pedroia off entirely, especially with no one else voting him lower than fourth? Was that writer sloppy or stupid?

Posted by: rbj at November 18, 2008 02:33 PM

Or drunk

Posted by: Bandit at November 18, 2008 02:45 PM

Well, at least I predicted better on this one than on the NL. Really, though, it was pretty easy. Pedroia is the scrappy little guy beloved by writers because, let's face it, most writers were scrappy little guys who always got picked last for the team.

Posted by: Casey Abell at November 18, 2008 02:53 PM

a wicked good choice !

Posted by: Leco at November 18, 2008 02:57 PM

Chicks dig the RBI...

Posted by: tanikaze at November 18, 2008 03:01 PM

[i]OK, how does someone leave Pedroia off entirely, especially with no one else voting him lower than fourth? Was that writer sloppy or stupid?[/i]

Presumably because they didn't want Pedroia to win.

But...

OK, how does someone leave Mauer off entirely. Were those writers sloppy or stupid?

Posted by: jurgen at November 18, 2008 03:06 PM

I'd love to see someone really justify a vote for Morneau higher than 4th, because I don't see any legitimate argument that he was more valuable than Mauer or Pedroia or Youkilis.

Posted by: Lyford at November 18, 2008 03:47 PM

So now they give MVPs out to little guys who figure out how to bounce lazy fly balls off the Green Monster all season.

Posted by: Joe at November 18, 2008 04:11 PM

I can kinda live with Pedroia, who I like a lot and want to support for MVP, being a Boston fan. But Mauer, Sizemore, and A-Rod are pretty much the only legitimate position players who should win. I'm half tempted to vote a protest against the jobbing that Pedro Martinez got in 1999 by voting for Halladay, who was otherworldy.

Morneau at #2 is a bad joke. Not as bad a joke as Howard at #2, but still a bad joke. Not even close to being the most valuable player on his own team.

Posted by: NBarnes at November 18, 2008 04:36 PM

what that fuck on earth is wrong with baseball writers or voters i was shocked bartlett got a fifth place vote are they drunkkkkkkkk!!!!!!!!!!!

Posted by: lenito at November 18, 2008 05:54 PM

what that fuck on earth is wrong with baseball writers or voters i was shocked bartlett got a fifth place vote are they drunkkkkkkkk!!!!!!!!!!!

Posted by: lenito at November 18, 2008 05:54 PM

Pedroia had a great year - but he wasn't more valuable to them than Youkilis - just for Youk's versatility and .950+ OPS.

Posted by: bandit at November 18, 2008 05:55 PM

I'm fine with Pedroia - especially since his WARP1 was the highest among non-pitchers in the AL (as suggested by the guys over at BP, the three most valuable players should be Lee, Rivera & Halladay).
Also, I do think Sizemore's value has been significantly diminished through mismanagement: Grady batting lead-off? C'mon!

Posted by: heinzzwei at November 18, 2008 07:14 PM

Leaving Pedroia off-what's new! In 1947 for his second triple crown, Ted W got left off 1-10 by a Boston writer and lost MVP by one point when even a 10th place vote would have given Ted the MVP over DiMag.
In 1955 a NL writer voted 1st & 2nd place votes both for Campenella when the writer meant his 2nd place vote for Snider and cost Duke the MVP.
In 1962 one NL writer for NL MVP gave his 4/5/6 place votes to career AL men Mantle, Kaline, & Runnels.
(Source of above info-NY writer Dick Young)

Posted by: Bob S at November 18, 2008 07:47 PM

In 1947 for his second triple crown, Ted W got left off 1-10 by a Boston writer and lost MVP by one point when even a 10th place vote would have given Ted the MVP over DiMag.

Have you got a citation for that? It my understanding that that story is urban legend, that there was never an MVP award which Williams lost because a Boston writer left him off the ballot entirely. I could be wrong, but I seem to remember that being debunked...

Posted by: Lyford at November 18, 2008 07:59 PM

To follow up, here's a piece (by Glen Stout, in the Sporting News in 1993) addressing the 1947 MVP ballot.

To sum up:

1) DiMaggio did win the MVP award by one point over Williams.

2) DiMaggio got eight first place votes to Williams' three.

3) Williams was left off of one ballot entirely - DiMaggio was left off of three ballots entirely.

4) Boston writer Mel Webb of the Globe was the alleged Boston writer who left Williams off, but he was not an MVP voter in 1947.

5) The three Boston voters for the MVP award were considered to be "among Williams' most vociferous supporters in the Boston press."

So it looks pretty debunked to me...

Posted by: Lyford at November 18, 2008 09:50 PM

How does a triple crown winner, only a few ever attained that mark, get left off a 1-10 MVP vote, espec when there were only 8 teams in the AL in 1947.

Posted by: Bill at November 18, 2008 10:21 PM

Excellent question. But there seem to have been a LOT of questionable (at best) votes cast in that race...

Posted by: Lyford at November 18, 2008 10:56 PM

For Lyford above, I did not say Mel Webb & I was well aware of Webb's denial. I said one Boston writer. His no vote for Ted's Triple was pure spite. To show how questionable that is, for Triples since, the Mick was unanimous MVP in '56, F. Robby was unanimous in '66, & Yaz would have been unanimous in '67, but one Minn writer for first spot had the immortal Cesar Tovar .267/6/47 to Yaz's .326/44/121. Not giving a single vote for a Triple Crown & the double vote for Campenella in '55 cost Ted & Duke resp the MVP. My point is that some writers are completely unqualified to vote for awards & don't respect the responsibility. I'll also take Dick Young for '40s/50s/60s/70s baseball reporting over Glen Stout anytime. I read Sporting News from cover to cover from 1939 till they stopped concentrating on baseball.

Posted by: Bob S at November 19, 2008 09:42 AM

Even writer Dick Young became a spiteful old man in his 1970s newspaper squabbles with then Met Tom Seaver. That tirade caused Seaver to ask to be traded from NY.

Posted by: Bob S at November 19, 2008 10:09 AM

To show how viscious Boston sports writers of the '40s were, the late Col Dave Egan wrote a column wanting to strike a medal for "Baseball Contribution" and present it to the Boston cabbie who broke Casey Stengel's leg back when Stengel was the Braves mgr.
Ted Williams called Boston writers "Knights of the Keyboard" on record & a lot worse in his clubhouse tirades. Ted brought a lot of grief on himself in those days.

Posted by: Bob S at November 19, 2008 10:40 AM

I did not say Mel Webb

I know that.

I said one Boston writer.

Right. And Stout's article, which appears to be very well researched, says that's not true. Follow the link and read up. Yes, there was one ballot which left off Williams. It did not come from a Boston writer. And there were three ballots which left off DiMaggio.

Posted by: Lyford at November 19, 2008 01:50 PM

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