Although I believe Pujols is clearly the NL MVP, I think the passing of
Bobby Bonds could, ironically, actually hurt Pujols' chances of winning the
award. (Please note I also believe Bonds' passing, however, is a much more
serious and significant loss than any individual award for any player, let
alone a Cardinal).
First, there will probably be an upswell of sympathy for Barry Bonds.
Certainly the pain of losing your father, particularly to a long and painful
illness, is tragic and no one deserves that experience, but I would not be
surprised to hear sports pundits talking about Barry "bravely continuing on"
through the season. And while, yes, I admire the fact Bonds has been able
to stay focused and continually produce despite his father's illness and
death, I am not convinced that makes him worthy of the MVP this year.
Second, the west coast pundits will very loudly point out the difference in
games played between Bonds and Pujols and argue that when compared in a
games played to performance ratio, Bond's should win. This could sway
enough other writers to pull votes away from Albert.
Third, similarly, the west coast pundits will vote overwhelmingly in favor
of Bonds (even normally middle of the road guys like Jim Rome are already
coming out in favor of Bonds with a month to go in the season). Likewise,
given the nationwide attention paid to Bonds, there will certainly be a
number of east coast pundits who vote for Bonds, as well. Pujols will get
heavy support from NL Central cities who, after all, have seen the guy
regularly.... but is that enough to carry the award for him?
I hope I am wrong about this, but I don't have much faith in media voters.
Albert is clearly a better third year player than any person currently
playing was at his experience level and you could make a solid argument he's
had the best first three years in professional baseball history... but he's
a small market guy and even the widespread respect the Cardinals get from
knowledgable baseball types may not overcome the west/east coast bias.
"Jeff Fawcett" <jefffawcett DeleteThis @yahoo.com> wrote in message
news:69e602b6.0308151156.28151f9a@posting.google.com...
> unfortunately the biggest factor in Pujols' favor is the failing
> health of Bobby Bonds (one of my favorites growing up). Barry is
> taking a minimum of a week off to be with him and won't play nearly as
> many games as Pujols this season - he's already played 18 less. He'll
> win still another SLG and OBP title but won't have the big counting
> stats. Pujols looks to be the favorite in my mind.
>
> The guy who deserves more pub is Javy Lopez. He's just shy of enough
> ABs to qualify on the % stats list but he's at .324, 33, 81 while
> playing easily the most demanding position. His OBP is actually higher
> than Sheffield's, 3rd in the league (I don't count any player on the
> Rockies). >> Stay informed about: Pujols MVP 
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