By Keith Glab,
This month, we are fortunate enough to have two boneheaded
writers cry about David Ortiz’s unjust treatment in the AL MVP voting:
Ian O’Connor: Undeserved MVP can’t hide Rodriguez’s
glaring blemish (USA Today)
Ryne Sandberg (sorry Scott): Designated
Loser? (Yahoo! Sports)
We’ll
begin with the more egregious O’Connor article.
Amidst contradicting himself with every new paragraph begun, he does
seem pretty steadfast about the following:
“David Ortiz should have won the
award, even if he doesn’t play the field.
You didn’t need to weigh the numbers to know Ortiz made more dramatic
contributions to the Red Sox than Rodriguez made to the Yanks. Two out of every three nights, Ortiz was
sending some late-season, late-game ball to the moon. That was good enough for me.”
Well,
it’s not good enough for me, Ian. I do
need to weigh the numbers. Even if it is
super obvious that Ortiz has the edge in clutch hitting, shouldn’t we see just
how big that edge is? I mean, we are
taking other factors into account, yes?
It’s not all about who created the most drama, is it?
AB/RBI/OPS:
|
2005 Situation |
Ortiz |
A-Rod |
|
Runners On |
289/119/1.006 |
305/103/.957 |
|
RISP |
162/92/1.043 |
186/77/.894 |
|
Men on 2 out |
95/42/1.096 |
130/51/.976 |
|
September |
103/29/1.095 |
104/24/.987 |
|
Vs. NYY/BOS |
71/19/.940 |
70/11/.934 |
|
|
|
|
All of this confirms that Ortiz was the better clutch
hitter, but it also shows that A-Rod was no slouch. In fact, most of the advantage is negated by
the fact that
Just in passing, I’d like to note thtat
A-Rod had better numbers than Ortiz in the following categories: BA, OBP, SLG,
SB, R, H, TB, SB, GIDP.
Ortiz had better numbers in RBI, 2B, BB and K.
At this point, you’d have to say that it’s a pretty tight
MVP race, although I would give a slight edge to A-Rod. But we have yet to consider their positional
values, and this is where we bring in Mr. Sandberg. After the token commentary regarding Ortiz
and clutch hitting, Sandberg had this to say:
“Although I'm not a fan of the DH, Ortiz deserved to win the
award. There's no doubt in my mind he would have won it if he played the field.
Ortiz could be a serviceable first baseman, but the Red Sox had other options
there, which probably cost him the MVP.
If
Ortiz can't win it after leading the AL in RBIs (148), ranking second in home
runs (47), walks (102) and slugging percentage (.604) and getting consistent
clutch hits, then no DH has a chance.”
Well, the DH might
have a better chance if he led the league in more than one category! Ryno fails to
mention that Ortiz was 2nd in home runs and SLG to… that’s right,
A-Rod, the guy who won the award.
I am not biased
against the DH. I have Frank Thomas and
Edgar Martinez ranked higher on my top 100 list than most sane people
would. Ortiz was not being penalized for
being a DH, but rather, a 1B/DH. Whether
he took the field or not was irrelevant.
A bad fielding 1B has just as much value as a DH, but both have less
value than a 3B. This is why we consider
Mike Schmidt and Eddie Matthews superior players to Willie McCovey
and Harry Heilmann.
This is why Tejada won the award in 2002 over the superior hitting
Jason Giambi, who played more games in the field than
at DH that year. And why Ivan Rodriguez
won it in 1999 over the superior hitting Manny Ramirez, who played just two
games at DH (as well as the overlooked superseason of
Pedro Martinez, but that’s a topic for another day). A good hitting 3B is more valuable than a
good hitting 1B or DH. This is basic
stuff, people.
“When I won the
NL MVP in 1984, I hit .314 with 19 home runs and 84 RBIs, but I knew I didn't
win it because I had the best year statistically. In fact, if you look at the
numbers, Gary Carter (.294, 27 HR, 106 RBIs) and Chili Davis (.315, 21, 81) also had great years, but I got big hits and drove in
runs in big games for a winning Chicago
Cubs team.”
No Ryne,
you won because people realized that when one of the best fielding 2B of
all-time is putting up comparable numbers to an error-prone outfielder, that
the 2B might be a little more valuable! (Carter wasn’t considered because he
was on the losing Expos). Do you
seriously think, Ryne Sandberg,
that you would be in the Hall of Fame today if you played 1B or DH? Do you think anyone would remember all those
big RBI?
Sorry Ryne,
I love ya, but you just make me so mad
sometimes. Not as mad as Idiot O’Connor,
however:
“So what if there isn’t a New Yorker
worth his or her Derek Jeter jersey who would declare Rodriguez the most
valuable Yankee, not as long as Jeter slips into his Mr. October cape, and not
as long as Mariano Rivera busts through the bullpen door to a Metallica beat.”
Well this is why random New Yorkers
don’t get to vote on postseason awards.
What Jeter does in the postseason is quite irrelevant, as the awards are
voted on before the postseason begins.
And if all A-Rod needs to match Rivera’s mystique is to have some corny
theme song play when he steps to the plate, then by all means, play it.
O’Connor hoes on to diminish A-Rod’s
value because he didn’t win a World Series this year. Well, I know that not too many people outside
of the
So I’ll listen to a well thought out
argument on why Ortiz’s small edge in clutch hitting makes him a better choice
than A-Rod for MVP. But if you rant and
rave and go off on tangents about postseason history and marketability, or cry
conspiracy and cite examples that don’t prove your point, you’ll don the
Baseball Evolution Monthly Boner Award.