Baseball Thread No. 17: Let's Get Dizzy, Mr. Dean

Agreed. Coming up HUGE in the clutch in September will make the difference in the MVP race every time.

Last week, maybe it's Pujols. Today, I'd vote Howard. Tomorrow? We'll see.

 

right.

 

By the way, St. Louis was officially eliminated from the NL Central race last night.

 

Sweet! I'll be able to plan my summer 2009 vacation almost a year in advance ...

 

Did you have to change your shorts after you read that one?

 

SportsJournalists.com 2009 Outing dates to be determined soon after that, I imagine.

 

I didn't think he was a worthy candidate last week. But...yeah. He might be the guy, 200 Ks and .250 BA and all.

BTW, the world's biggest joke of an MVP candidate, Carlos Delgado, is 0-for-8 with four Ks in the last two losses. Quick! Someone fire Jerry Manuel!! While the season is still salvagable!

 

On Sept. 16, 2009, the Phillies will win thanks to a Howard home run and the Mets will lose to the (Nationals, Marlins, it doesn't matter) to officially put Philly back in first place.

 

I, too, now believe that Ryan Howard is the NL MVP. Batting average and strikeouts aside, he owns September and he wins games. Delgado doesn't. Pujols has the better season but, if you believe the MVP has to come from a winner, Howard is the man.

 

Well, I DON'T believe that winning-team crap. No single hitter takes a 70-win team to a 90-win team.

But Howard is piling up hits late in games that take his team from tie or deficit to the lead/win.

 

Ya know, looking at the schedule there's a very realistic possibility that the wild card winner will come out of the NL East but it won't be the Mets or Phillies.

It'll be the Marlins. They're five back, tied with St. Louis and behind Milwaukee, Houston and New York.

But...

They've got two left at home with the tanking Astros and three with the Phillies, which could be the series that dooms them, but if they can take two from Philly they're still in it.

Then they go on the road for one at Cincy, three at Washington - who apparently only beat the Mets - and three at Shea to close the season.

 

Dismissing Delgado because of a couple of bad games down the stretch is ridiculous, but I think Howard's recent surge is making that a moot point. He looks like the favorite at the moment, and he is clearly a better choice than Delgado.

They are very similar candidates. Both are on teams fighting for a playoff spot, probably up to the final days of the season. Both have hit for low averages this season, in part because they were terrible early on. Neither is an asset defensively.

Right now, Howard clearly looks like the better candidate of the two. Part of that is the way he is crushing the ball when the Phillies need him most, but it is also his overall numbers for the season. Howard leads the NL in homers (45) and RBI (136). Nobody is really close in either category. Delgado doesn't even lead his own team in RBI (Wright has more).