September Post-Season Awards, Revised
by Asher B. Chancey, BaseballEvolution.com
September 5, 2008

Okay, so I didn't mean this to be a daily feature.

As you'll recall, yesterday I decided to do a little experiment to see how much of my perception of the persons most deserving of post-season hardware changes from shortly before the end of the season to after the season. Well, less than 24 hours after my article, in which I announced that Carlos Quentin was my pick for American League Most Valuable Player, the Chicago White Sox announced that Carlos will miss the next two-to-three weeks with a broken wrist which will require the placement of a pin to hold him together.

Not only is it difficult to imagine voting for a guy for MVP when he has played on 130-something games, but it is also difficult to imagine voting for a guy, in a clear-winner-less season such as this, that plays on a non-playoff bound team. Further, it is difficult to imagine the White Sox mustering a charge down the stretch without their biggest bopper. Unless he enjoys a miraculous recovery, Quentin is probably out.

According to what I wrote yesterday, this means that Josh Hamilton and Alex Rodriguez, two far from perfect candidates, will have to duke it out. But between yesterday and today, I managed to noticed that the league leader in hits, runs, and batting average are all the same person, and that he plays second base on a likely playoff-bound team, and that he has been on fire since that playoff-bound team traded Manny Ramirez to the Los Angeles Dodgers.

I am talking, of course, about Dustin Pedroia, whom I think is my new favorite MVP candidate. True, if he won he'd be the smallest MVP since television sets went to color, and this would be a situation in which we were talking more about a subjective than an objective choice. But I think Pedroia fits the mold – teams faces struggles from unexpected nemesis, team trades angsty superstar over contract disputes, teams deals with injuries to heroes of recent World Series teams past, spunky player sparks team and leads them into playoffs. In a year in which the league's best offensive players don't appear headed to the playoffs, Pedroia is probably a rock solid choice.

Of course, the Red Sox will probably announce tomorrow that Pedroia is out for the year after a hen pecked off his nose. But we'll deal with that issue tomorrow.