It’s not too early to ask who should win the National League Most Valuable Player award, just because it’s going to take awhile to convince some people Barry Bonds is the only possible choice.
There will be a movement to give the award to Scott Rolen, Adrian Beltre or maybe even Albert Pujols, all of whom are having wonderful seasons that pale in comparison to Bonds.
Maybe I shouldn’t believe the voters will look at Bonds, see his sourpuss attitude and the six NL MVP awards he already has won, then give it to a fresh face like Rolen, who leads the NL with 110 RBIs and plays for the St. Louis Cardinals, the best team in baseball this season.
The truth is Rolen and the others don’t even come close.
All of them have great numbers and have what voters love–they are playing on first-place teams. But with Bonds, we’re talking about just another season that may be the greatest by any player ever.
And he turned 40 on July 24.
If the NL could play collectively, they’d have let Bonds hit the ball more often in the first half so he wouldn’t be so fresh for the second half. As it is heading into Tuesday’s games, he has walked 176 times so far and only has 286 official at-bats. It’s a virtual certainty he’ll break his record of 198 walks set last season.
By comparison, Beltre has walked just 36 times and has 456 at-bats. Even then, he only has four more homers than Bonds with 39.
Sometimes, just because I’m a stat geek, I’ll look up Bonds’ career numbers and just kind of look at them in disbelief. I was taking a peek the other day when it dawned on me that this year was the best season of his career.
He’s hitting .371, which would be a career high. He has an on-base percentage of .612, which is nearly 200 points better than Rolen’s .415 and light years ahead of Colorado’s Todd Helton’s second-best .458.
Whether or not San Francisco gets into the playoffs shouldn’t matter whatsoever. The definition of the MVP doesn’t say the player has to be on a playoff team. I’m satisfied that the Giants will have been competitive all season, and only because of Bonds.
The second-best position player on the Giants has probably been Marquis Grissom, who’s hitting .275 with 17 homers and
67 RBIs. Or it could be A.J. Pierzynski, who’s hitting .299 with 10 homers and 68 RBIs.
Bonds should win his fourth straight and seventh overall MVP award, and it should be unanimous. Because no player has been more important to his team. Not this year, and maybe not any year. Ever.
Looking at the American League
I’m going to need more time for the AL MVP winner, but it looks like the top candidates have made themselves known.
They are, in no particular order: the New York Yankees’ Gary Sheffield and Alex Rodriguez, Boston’s Manny Ramirez and David Ortiz, Anaheim’s Vladimir Guerrero and Cleveland’s Travis Hafner.
If Baltimore was having a decent year, Miguel Tejada might be in the mix. But the Orioles are below .500, and there are enough players on good teams having great years to knock him out of contention.
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Who should win the National League
MVP award?
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What would be the dream trade you would make for a Chicago team?
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