In only his Sophomore season, DP was awarded the Silver Slugger, AL MVP and Gold Glove for a kid who has been constantly under-appreciated for his entire baseball career. Unitl Now. Nice consolation prize for comming up a bit short in the ALCS. Congrats DP Oh and FYI, Kevin Youkilis came in 3rd in the MVP voting.
Congrats to Pedroia, but I thought Hamilton would/should have won. His numbers were much better. I think playing for a bad team cost him the award.
The MVP is about more than numbers unless we're talking record-breaking out-of-this-world type numbers. But yeah, being on a bad team cost him. It ain't like Hamilton was second in voting or something either, he was 7th.
First congrats to Pedroia I'm happy for him. And Youk too, finishing 3rd is nothing to be upset about. As for Hamilton he put up all of his numbers in the 1st half and was almost a non factor in the 2nd half. He should get votes but he probably wouldn't have been in my top 5 or 6.
The MVP is a popularity contest IMO. Morneau was second by reputation. Hamilton, even with a mediocre second half, had better numbers albeit slighty. Take Albert Pujols for example, both times he has won the MVP he hasn't lead the league in any of the Triple Crown categories. The first time he won it, Andruw Jones lead the NL in RBI's and HR's, as did Ryan Howard this year. Not taking anything away from Pedroia as he had a great season, I think it just shows there was no stand out player in the AL this year. The post season superlatives have become somewhat of a farce. I think Greg Maddux won his 18th Gold Glove. I bet there were voters who didn't see a single start by Maddux this year much less check out his fielding stats this season.
Less than 2 full years isn't really a long time to make a big deal about being underappreciated IMO. I mean, if you compare him to the perceived benevolence of Derek Jeter, then yea I agree. But otherwise, i don't see it as a big deal.
HardKore, I agree with you that there was no clear MVP favorite in the AL although if Quentin didn't break his own wrist he would have won. And sadly yes Bartlett did get 6 votes according to ESPN. Ibanez and Ichiro both got a vote too which is also laughable and that writer(s) should have his voting rights taken away.
Dust-in Ped-rioa, Dust-in Ped-rioa, Dust-in Ped-rioa he's the MVP Dust-in Ped-rioa, Dust-in Ped-rioa, Dust-in Ped-rioa he's alright with me. - Little Mike was singing that one day on mike and mike in the morning then realized the guy wasn't jewish.
Crazy. Im assuming they werent first place votes. Sometimes those writers get a little crazy with their 3rd, 4th, and 5th place votes. Like I said, these superlatives have become a farce. I forgot about Quentin, he did have an amazing season till that injury.
Ignorance is bliss. I didn't know one's baseball career started in the Majors. The last guy I'd compare Pedroia to, is Derek Jeter.
Yes. Yes he did. Youkilis did too, comming in third in MVP votes. 2 homegrown young Red Sox comming in 1st and 3rd in MVP voting and one of which comming off of a ROY performance. Pretty impressive.
Yeah absolutely. I'm not sure which I'm more shocked about: Pedroia actually winning or Youk coming in 3rd. When these guys were in the minors I thought both guys would be at least average MLB players but for them to turn into these types of players is amazing. I mean seriously in 2004 did anyone think Youkilis was going to be this good? Even Pedroia at the end of '06 and the first month of '07? I don't even think the Red Sox FO thought they'd be this good either.
It basically does. And he was rookie of the year last year. Hard for me to think a guy is under appreciated when he is ROY and MVP in his first 2 years.
I think we all knew Youk could hit, just not with the power he has developed. He has gone from a Casey Kotchman type of average hitter to a Morneau type with power too. Been fun watching "the greek god of walks".. Pedroia has been nothing but productive. We all knew he was going to move to 2nd but even then I think we doubted he could be this good a hitter at the MLB level. I always thought he would be great in the field he was 2003 NCAA Defensive player of the year, but his hitting has been great. He is a great teammate also, everyone says that about him.
Pedroia is a stud. He deserved the MVP after considering how many hats the guy wore for the Red Sox throughout the season. If I recall correctly, at one point he was hitting cleanup for a stretch and turned into a run producing machine.
congrats to Pedroia for a well deserved award! I've always liked him and even though some Red Sox fans thought he wouldn't amount to anything, I still thought he'd be special.
Yeah but you thought Jeff Francoeur was going to be good too and look what happened. Can we really trust your opinion?
Interesting point here... the definition of MVP needs to be determined because there's inconsistency in the voting. Is it the guy who puts up the huge numbers, or the guy who was most valuable on a winning team? The reason I ask, is because the voters obviously got one wrong this year. They played the valuable card with Pedroia, so how valuable was Pujols on an 85 win team. Pujols put up the monster numbers, while over in the AL, Hamilton outpaced Pedroia in that category. There's definitely a disconnect in the whole process, which in baseball, doesn't surprise me.
Francoeur is gonna be good. He had a bad season, but he's a hard worker and will fix his game and be back with a redeeming 2009!
Patsy you really think the voters are inconsistent? I mean in 99 Pedro lost the MVP award because a NY writer refused to give him a single vote and said he doesn't believe a pitcher should win the MVP when the year before he voted for 2 pitchers! The voting is a joke and the writers really have no business voting. It should be up to players, coaches and front offices. Because let's face it most writers still think batting average, saves and wins are important.
