Dustin Pedroia wins AL MVP

I don't have a problem with writers voting for these awards.

I do have a problem with writers who don't actively cover baseball (full-time) voting for these awards (as was the case with at least two of the three writers who voted for the ineligible Volquez for NL ROY.) If you can't be bothered to pay attention to a player's eligibility for an award, you definitely deserve to have your vote taken away.

And I also have a problem with the idiotic votes cast by some writers with clearly personal agendas (such as the vote for Jim Deshaies for HOF, or specifially voting to "punish" players who aren't "worthy" of the first ballot, which is a complete crock of shit and nowhere mentioned in the HOF voting criteria.)

 

Really?

Really, you don't?

Hoo, boy.

 

Pedroia, who played 31 games during 2006, is the fourth player in history to win the Most Valuable Player award in his second full season, joining Paul Waner (1927), Cal Ripken (1983) and Ryan Howard (2006).

Waner is the only person to win the award in his true second season. Ripken played 23 games in 1981 before winning the Rookie of the Year the next season, and Howard played 19 games during the 2004 season before grabbing the Rookie of the Year in 2005.

Fred Lynn was named Rookie of the Year and MVP in 1975, but played 15 games in 1974, and Vida Blue won in his first full season, playing only 18 games over two seasons before 1971 -- taking the Cy Young, too. Willie Mays won the Rookie of the Year in 1951 then played only 32 games in 1952 and missed the next season before winning the MVP in 1954.

Ichiro won the Rookie of the Year and MVP awards in 2001.

 

Good stuff, Mikey.

From a post I made in September that's relevant to this thread, on the shortest MVPs:

Pedroia, of course, is 5-9.

 

Pedroia is listed as 5'9".

Supposedly he's really either 5'6" or 5'7".

 

They're like ads on the sports front. They help make sure we're still employed, but they still make our lives more difficult and annoying. Necessary evils. Damn if I'm not going to bitch about them.

 

Underwhelming is an understatement.

 

I've stood next to him. I'm 5'8". I'd guess he is 5'6"; no chance in hell he's 5'9".

He looks even smaller in person. I don't know how he hits those high pitches as consistantly as he does.

 

What?

 

Rhody, leaving the eventual MVP OFF the ballot is indefensible. I heard him on 'EEI yesterday, he stated that as recent as September he had Pedroia as MVP on his ballot, so in the final 3 weeks of the season Pedroia fell that far off his list? I think Evan Grant just screwed up and left him off by mistake, maybe he intended to put Pedroia near the bottom and overlooked it.

Out of the 28 voters, 16 had him 1st, no one below 4th.....

 

That really is ridiculous. He had him as the MVP in September, then dropped him completely out of his top 10? Let's not forget that Pedroia was outstanding late in the season. He certainly didn't do anything in September to reduce his value.

 

I really don't mean to be a prick about it. But it IS indefensible. And there needs to be some sort of accountability, just because there are a lot of people who care about this stuff.