MVP tragedy! Bonds wins over Pujols!

I dont get it with the sportswriters first they overlook Carlos Delgado, who had a monster year for Toronto this year,and gave it to A-rod , who had a good year , but not his best, and not as good as Delgado's, now they overlook Albert Pujols, the St.Louis phenom who led the league in batting, was second in RBIs and 3rd in HRs.

Bonds: .341 with 45 homers and 90 RBI

Pujols: 359 with 43 homers and 124 RBI

IMO Bonds got the "big star" advantage, as well as the sympathy vote, due to the passing of his former all-star father Bobby this season.

Another crappy choice. Pujols pretty much lit up the league all season long where Bonds had a decent year, but not one of his best.

I seldom post on these threads, but this is such a ripoff. I think Barry is great and loved his dad too, but he didn't deserve to win.

Those are amazing numbers when compared with his BOB's.

Bonds desereved it! His team won the division and Pujols team did not make the playoffs. Bonds had a better on base percentage and slugging percentage and more walks than Pujols. Pujols had more RBIs only because anytime there was a guy on base with Bonds coming to the plate he was walked. Hard to drive in rune when you are intentionally walked.

I really thought Pujols should get it.

Was it close?

There is more to baseball than a few points of batting average. And RBI are a very poor measure of individual performance.

While Pujols certainly had a monster season, so did Barry Bonds. And I've never seen any baseball player in my lifetime that scares opposing teams as much as Barry Bonds does these days. The opposing teams look for any excuse they can get to avoid pitching to him.

:wow:

--Peter

You win by putting runs on the board. RBI guys do just that. Sure OBP is an important measure too, but without the RBI its tough to win.

What about "Runs scored"? Those are essentially the same as RBI, but are rarely even mentioned.

Both RBI and Runs scored are of little use as individual stats, because they are so extremely dependent upon what your teammates do. And, in Bonds' case, as dennis4868 mentioned above, it is also dependent upon what your opponents do.

--Peter

A player can get on base, draw a walk etc, but you aint gonna score unless someone drives you in. And those are the guys that make the game exciting. The ones that put the runs on the board and win games.

The guys who drive 'em in need the guys on base to do so. And vice versa. If either part is missing, the runs don't get scored, and you lose games. It doesn't make any sense to value RBI more than R, or vice versa (not that anyone seems to do the reverse).

Since MVP is an individual award, it should, in my opinion, be based on stats that are the best measures of an individual's ability: the best such stats are On-Base Pct. and Slugging Pct., but others include HR and batting average. I don't particularly like using batting average, but at least it is an individual stat.

--Peter

So what did you think of A-Rod winning the AL?

Btw, I checked my Bill James collection and it starts with the 1980 Abstract...

No opinion on the AL race as I'm not familiar with the details. Sounds like either Delgado or ARod would have been a good choice. (For purely personal reasons, I kind of wish Delgado had gotten it, because I saw him play in the minor leagues back when he was a catcher for the AA Knoxville BlueJays back in the early 1990s.)

Ashamed to admit the only Bill James book I own is his 'Hall of Fame' book. But in college in the 1980s I did read a lot of the Abstracts, though they belonged to a friend of mine.

--Peter

He managed to hit like that while going through absolute heartbreak, watching his father die of cancer. I'm not a huge Bonds fan, but I'm glad he got it.

"Cloud covering special day for Bonds
By Tim Kawakami
Mercury News Staff Columnist

(*Pending further chemical scrutiny.)"

http://www.bayarea.com/mld/mercurynews/sports/7292227.htm



Bonds rookie card and Bonds now

007 with spikes,he is the best player since his Godfather played the game,just because he dosen't kiss ass like Sousa and A-Rod people tend to be turned off by his action.

The sports press is just getting ready to slap the label of "greatest of all time" on Barry. They are itching to do it too. I dunno why though, he's lacking jewelry on his fingers so to speak.

The whole discussion of Barry or Pujols getting the award is the age old discussion of what exactly is the MVP award. Is it an award given to the best player in the league, or is it an award given to the player who was more valuable to his team than any other player is to their team? The second option is hopelessly subjective, so I usually fall on the side of best player in the league, which has stats to point out who that is.

Managers change their covenantal wisdom when Bonds comes up to bat. In key situations the opposing team doesn’t even give him a chance to hit the ball. Bonds played 27 less games meaning 200 less at bats and was intentionaly walked how many times? This is a no- contest MVP for Bonds. You should have looked at all the stats silly rabit.

Bonds
YEAR G AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI BB SO SB CS BA OBP SLG OPS
2003 130 390 111 133 22 1 45 90 148 58 7 0 .341 .529 .749 1.278

Pujols
YEAR G AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI BB SO SB CS BA OBP SLG OPS
2003 157 591 137 212 51 1 43 124 79 65 5 1 .359 .439 .667 1.106