The NL MVP Race

If you say the NL MVP should go to anyone other than Albert Pujols you have taken one too many hits of the hookah pipe. Still, I find it a bit distasteful too only review some of the award races, and since I’ve already gone over the NL Cy Young and the AL Cy Young, I thought it prudent to continue my way around the big time baseball awards for 2009.

With that, here is my top-10 ballot for NL MVP. It’s a tough call choosing just 10 guys, but at least I know the difference between BABIP and batters eye, whereas I would posit the position that well over half the people who vote for the award think those two terms come from the proposed healthcare initiative in Congress.

One final note. I do NOT believe that pitchers should be eligible for the MVP. They have their own award, so leave this one to the hitter’s fellas.

10 – Derrek Lee
Not much went right for the Cubs this season, but after a brutal start (.189 with one homer in April), Lee rebounded to hit .306 with 35 homers, 111 RBI and 91 runs scored.

9 – Mark Reynolds
Yes he set a major league record with 223 strikeouts, an unmitigated disaster, but at the same time he socked 44 long balls, knocked in 102 runs, finished just two runs shy of scoring 100 times and stole 24 bases. That’s a terrific season even if you hit just .260.

8 – Matt Kemp
Though he slumped in the end hitting just .224 over his last 30 games, Kemp was the main man in a lineup that missed Manny Ramirez for 50-games. Kemp hit .297 with 26 homers, 101 RBI, 97 runs and even stole 34 bases. Just imagine how good his numbers might have been if he didn’t have 250 of his at-bats in the seventh and eight holes.

7 – Ryan Howard
For the fourth straight year he had at least 45-homers and 135-RBI (he had 45 and 141). Even though he also posted 180-Ks for the fourth straight year, he managed to tie his career best of 105 runs while posting a .931 OPS for the Fighting Phils.

6 – Pablo Sandoval
Pablo for President. Sandoval finished second in the league with a .330 batting average, hit 25 homers, knocked in 90 runs and had a .943 OPS that was seventh in the Senior Circuit, and he did all this in a lineup of hitters that couldn’t hit .300 in a high school game (OK, maybe college).

5 – Ryan Braun
His numbers (.320-32-114-113-20) are better than the man ahead of him on the list, but Braun is a middling defender who only impacts the game on one side of the field. Still, few do it better with a bat in their hands.

4 – Troy Tulowitzki
Undoubtedly the major reason the Rockies turned their season around, Tulo hit .226 with five home runs the first two months (46 games) before going bonkers at the dish leading to a .297-32-92-101-20 line. Those are tremendous numbers for anyone, let alone when they belong to the man that just might be the best defensive shortstop in the National League.

3 – Prince Fielder
Prince socked 46 long balls, knocked in major league best 141 runs (tied with Howard) and managed to hit .299 with 110 walks leading to a .412 OBP the fifth best mark in the NL. He was also one of two men to top a grand in OPS with his mark of 1.014

2 – Hanley Ramirez
Didn’t match his previous totals in the steal department (27) but he led the NL in average (.342), had a higher OPS (.954) and Ryan Braun (.937), scored 101 times while knocking in 106 and also socked 24 long balls. Another tremendous season it was for the Marlins’ shortstop.

1 – Albert Pujols
Duh.

Pujols led the majors with 47 homers and an OPS of 1.101 OPS, and he also knocked in 135, scored 124 times, stole 16 bases for good measure led the NL in OBP (.443) and the majors in SLG (.658). The man is flat out historic.

By Ray Flowers

Players That Are Hot

I’m tired. I had a long day filled with lots of work from writing, editing and posting of football, baseball and hockey stories, including a bunch of rather fantastic hockey articles at Fanball as well. And yes, before you ask, some of them were written by yours truly.

Joey Votto continues to bash pitchers with alacrity over the final month of the season. Votto went 4-for-5 on Wednesday night as he pushed his average up to almost .370 on the month. Votto is now hitting .308 with 22 homers and 74 RBI in a mere 433 ABs on the season. If we push those numbers out to 550 ABs we end up with a .308-28-94 line, and that would obviously suggest that a potential .300-30-100 season could be in the way in 2010 from this sweet swinging lefty.

Votto’s teammate, Homer Bailey, seems to have finally, f-i-n-a-l-l-y figured things out at the big league level. Though he has a 5.02 ERA on the year, he has finally started to throw strikes and the results have been pretty striking. After allowing two runs in six innings against the Pirates Bailey has now allowed three or fewer earned runs in each of his last seven starts while posting a 1.99 ERA. It’s a small sample size for sure, but keep his name in mind in the late rounds in 2010 as a selection of Bailey could result in a nice return.

Welcome back to hitting right-handed Carlos Guillen. Guillen went deep from both sides of the plate on Wednesday night in just his second game since returning to action from that injured shoulder, and this was just the second game that he has even attempted to hit right-handed in. This was the fourth time in his career that he had gone deep from both sides of the dish in the same game.

What is it about the second half and Adam LaRoche? You think it’s frustrating as a fantasy owner – can you just imagine just how hard it is on LaRoche when he knows, he literally knows, he is gonna stink for about two plus months before turning into a dominating force at the dish. LaRoche is hitting .355 with 36 RBI in 47 games since returning to Atlanta. Any doubt where he wants to sign when his contract is up after the season? Jeez, this is another first baseman isn’t it? I’m telling you, they are just everywhere

Another youngster, Bud Norris, has looked pretty solid this season for the Astros even if it hasn’t always been a smooth ride. He tossed six scoreless innings at the Cards on Wednesday to lower his ERA to just barely over 1.50 in his last four starts. With 54 Ks in 55.2 innings he has shown the ability to put hitters away, and as they say, you can’t teach stuff, and he’s got that in spades. A bright future this kid has (channeling my inner Yoda).

I thought that David Ortiz was washed up? He may be hitting only .234 but he has 25 homers and 88 RBI, so he has still been fairly productive despite an OPS below .800. OK, he is only sort of washed up.

Nick Punto hitting .327 in September as the Twins try and clay there way to the playoffs. Just saying.

How stupid do the Red Sox feel right now? John Smoltz worked another night of magic for the Redbirds allowing just two runs over six innings against the Astros. In six starts with Cardinals his ERA is 3.18 and his WHIP 1.00. With the Red Sox try on an 8.32 ERA and a 1.70 WHIP. Guess he was tipping those pitches eh? Either that or he and/or Dave Duncan made a deal with Lucifer that involved someone giving over their soul.

We got ourselves quite the race for the NL RBI crown. Here is how things stand after action on Wednesday night:

Prince Fielder – 131
Ryan Howard – 130
Albert Pujols – 129

They all play first base by the way, further proof of just how loaded that position is in the game today. No idea how the situation resolves itself, but can you really bet against Mr. Pujols when it has anything to do with baseball?

By Ray Flowers

The Case for Jim Thome

Late last week I touched on how I thought it was time that we gave Ken Griffey Jr. more respect than we have of late given the latest performance enhancing drug scandal surrounding Sammy Sosa (you can read all of my thoughts in Death of the Hero?). In that piece I also mentioned, briefly, the name of today’s discussion and that is Jim Thome, who, remarkably unnoticed, has gone about producing one of the most impressive power hitting careers in the history of baseball.

That last statement isn’t hyperbolic in nature by the way. Consider the following data points with Thome.

(1) In his last 12 seasons of at least 400 at-bats, he had only 193 in an injury plagued 2005 campaign, Thome has hit at least 30 home runs.

(2) In those 12 seasons, Thome has knocked in at least 85 runs, and 11 times he has posted at least 90 RBI.

Let’s put those numbers in context.

Thome has 12 seasons of 30 home runs and 85 RBI. That just so happens to be the third most such seasons in baseball history behind only Hank Aaron (14), Mike Schmidt (13) and Babe Ruth (13). Moreover, his total of twelve 30-HR seasons is tied for the fourth most in history (Aaron leads the way here as well with 15).

(3) Thome has averaged, per 162 games in his career, a .278-40-112-107 line. Think about it this way – do you know how many seasons matching all four of those numbers that Albert Pujols has produced in his astounding career? Four. And remember, that is Thome’s average over his career per 162 games.

(4) Thome has always been a remarkable on base machine with a .406 career OBP. Amongst hitters who have accrued at least 3,000 plate appearances in their career that number places Thome in 46th place all-time. By the by, his OBP has been at least .385 in 12 of the past 14 seasons. Ryan Howard has only two seasons above .360 in his career.

(5) Thome is the proud owner of a .559 SLG in his career. Amongst hitters who have accrued at least 3,000 plate appearances in their career that number places Thome in 19th place all-time. Justin Morneau has only one season that high, and it was exactly .559 in 2006.

(6) Thome’s career OPS is a superlative .965, the 18th best mark in league annals for a batter with at least 3,000 plate appearances. Fellow teammate and slugger Jermaine Dye has only one full season where his mark has bettered that when it was 1.006 in 2006.

So when we add that all up, here is what we come up with.

Thome is eighth on my all-time “clean” home run list (you can find the list at the link at the start of the piece), 46th in OBP, 19th in SLG and 18th in OPS. Toss in his 1,459 runs scored that are 73rd all-time and his 1,527 RBI that are 46th all-time, and this is what we have.

Thome is one of just 11 players in baseball history to hit 400 home runs, knock in 1,500 runs, score 1,400 times and post an OPS of at least .950.

Given all that, does Thome deserve to make the Hall of Fame? Being that his power seems nothing more than corn-fed from growing up in the heartland of American (he was born in Illinois), you seriously have to consider the man for enshrinement in the Hall. The biggest negative is the fact that he has functioned as a DH late in his career though in 2,216 career games he has appeared at first base 1,101 times and third base 492 times, so it’s not like he has been a DH only weapon for the majority of his career (to compare Reggie Jackson, who cannot match Thome’s lifetime numbers, is in the Hall despite 630 games at DH versus Thome’s total of 633). If the voters can look past his merely average batting average of .278, and consider that his name has never been linked to performance enhancing drugs, then I think this lefty swinging slugger has a great shot at having a plaque one day in Cooperstown.

By Ray Flowers