Pujols for MVP...

so says Joe Morgan



By Joe Morgan
ESPN Insider
Archive
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The All-Star break is almost here, so let's take a look at some awards races and the top teams in Major League Baseball at midseason.

Midseason National League MVP
While Derrek Lee has had an amazing first half of the season for the Cubs, Albert Pujols is my choice for midseason MVP.

Lee is a threat to win the Triple Crown this season (league-leading .377 average, second-best 25 HRs, third-best 67 RBI). But Pujols is also in the top three in the Triple Crown departments (.343-22-69). The other important factor for me that tips the MVP scale to Pujols is that the St. Louis Cardinals have the best record in the National League. Lee's Chicago Cubs are in third place the NL Central and trail the Cardinals by 13 games.

In my evaluation of the MVP, the team's success is a factor. All things being equal, if two MVP candidates are having comparable seasons, the MVP should go to the player on the better team.

Catching the Cardinals is probably asking too much of the Cubs, but if Chicago makes a second-half run and wins the wild card -- and Lee's success at the plate continues -- he'd get more MVP consideration from me. Of course, it also depends on what Pujols does.

With Pujols' track record of having superb overall seasons, we can be almost certain that he'll have a strong second half. Lee's track record is good but not nearly as impressive. Lee is a better defensive first baseman than Pujols, though, so that would work in his favor if the MVP race stays close.

Despite posting MVP-type numbers in his young career, Pujols hasn't won an MVP yet in his four big-league seasons because Barry Bonds has been better and has won four straight MVPs. With the Cardinals so far out in front at the halfway point, the midseason MVP should come from St. Louis -- unless the Cards have no clear standout. In this case, they do.

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who cares what joe morgan says? Besides, what's with all these Pujols threads. Enough!

i care what Joe Morgan has to say :smoker2:

Cus he's the man Vault.

Does this deserver any consideration A. Jones (45) HR's!!!

Andruw Jones by a mile!

http://www.americanchronicle.com/articles/yb/138242493

Wednesday, November 25, 2009 11:05:14 AM
The Man pours on the praise for Pujols

By Rick Hummel, St. Louis Post-Dispatch

Nov. 25--The inevitable comparisons will continue between Cardinals star of the present Albert Pujols and Cardinals star of the past Stan Musial. But, as Pujols caught Musial Tuesday at three National League Most Valuable Player awards apiece, he surpassed The Man in one sub-category.
Pujols was a unanimous selection for this year's MVP, garnering all the first-place votes (32), something Musial wasn't able to do, even in 1948 when he had what he considers his best season and one of the best by any hitter in the 20th century.
Musial, who fell one homer short of the Triple Crown in a .376 year that featured 39 homers and 131 runs batted in, also led the league in doubles, triples, hits and runs scored that season while striking out only 34 times. Probably because his team finished 6 1/2 games behind the pennant-winning Boston Braves, he was awarded just 18 of the 24 first-place votes available then, with Braves pitcher Johnny Sain (24-15 with a 2.61 earned-run average) getting five first-place votes and Boston shortstop Alvin Dark the other one.
But Musial was pleased Tuesday when he heard of Pujols' latest accomplishment. "I'm very happy for him," said Musial, in an e-mail sent to the Post-Dispatch by "Stan the Man Inc.," which handles his business affairs.
"Albert is very deserving."
Musial's last MVP award, in 1948, came when he was 27 years old. Pujols is 29, but Musial said he could see more MVPs in Pujols' future.
"If he continues to stay healthy, I don't see any reason why he can't win another one," said Musial, 89, who called Pujols to congratulate him.
Musial, who said that the best players he ever competed against were Willie Mays and Ted Williams, suggested Pujols might well rank with anybody he has seen.
Though it was a different era, when the talent level could have been higher because there were half as many teams, Mays won just one MVP award and Williams two. And now Pujols, by winning one more before his career is over, could rank second all-time if he can get to a fourth before Alex Rodriguez does with the New York Yankees.
Asked what it meant to be at his current haul of three MVPs, Pujols said at a press conference Tuesday at Busch Stadium, "It's pretty special to have accomplished that in just the nine years of my career. All the glory goes to God because, without him, I wouldn't be standing up here.
"When you go down to spring training, you don't go down thinking, 'I'm going to be the MVP this year.' You go down there to be ready for April and to help this organization get to the World Series. And that's something I've done for 10 years, even though I was in the minor leagues for one year.
"At the end, you get these rewards, like an MVP. It's probably going to take a couple of days to say, 'Wow, I'm in the same place with Stan Musial, Alex Rodriguez, George Brett and Ted Williams, the greatest players to play the game.' It's pretty special to be mentioned in the same league with those guys."
If one didn't know that the MVP awards are voted on before postseason play starts, the list of winners in the last quarter century certainly would offer ample evidence.
When Pujols was named the NL's Most Valuable Player Tuesday and Minnesota's Joe Mauer the American League MVP the day before, it marked the 21st consecutive year that neither league's MVP came from a World Series champion team.
The last MVPs in each league to play on a World Series champion no doubt would surprise you.
Kirk Gibson, who hit a dramatic pinch homer when he barely could limp to the plate, sparked the Los Angeles Dodgers past Oakland in the 1988 Series. Gibson, who surprisingly beat out Pittsburgh's Andy Van Slyke and New York's Darryl Strawberry for the MVP that year, was the last National MVP to play on a World Series champion.
In the American League, it goes back to 1984 when lefthanded reliever Willie Hernandez was the MVP as a member of the Detroit Tigers team that beat San Diego in a five-game World Series.
Pujols became the 10th player in major-league history to win three or more MVPs. Of the seven players eligible for the Hall of Fame who have won the MVP three times, all are in the Hall.
Musial, asked if he thought Pujols would end up there, too, had a simple answer: "Yes."