Its a Major Award!

There is always a lot of debate on who the MVP is or should be.  It’s funny that some writers will discredit a player because his team blows. If anything that should make it harder to put up the type of numbers required to have an MVP season.  Anyway, this week I’m giving out my MVP award for the Phillies.

Last year, I gave it to Wilson Valdez because I take the MVP at face value. It’s the player who is most valuable to his team. Last season, Valdez was the glue that held the Phillies together for most of the year. He put up numbers far beyond what he is probably capable to do on a regular basis and played stellar defense. I still feel the Phillies would have missed the playoffs without Valdez last year. My Valdez MVP story was such a good idea that fat slob Bill Conlin stole it and did the same article in the Daily News.

This year, much like last year there is no clear cut team MVP. A case can be made for several players. In fact, it is much easier to say they each won it for a month or two.

Month            Player              Avg                HR                  RBI                 SB

April              Polanco             .398                 2                     19                    3

May              Ibanez                .315                 7                     19                    0

June             Howard              .269                 5                     22                    1

July              Ibanez                .284                 7                      25                    0

August          Victorino            .316                 6                      16                    2

September    Pence               .310                 3                      17                    1

But the Wriz doesn’t take the easy way out I’mma make a decision in a minute but how about this fun fact. John Mayberry Jr hit .275 with 15 homers, 49 RBI’s and 8 steals. Jayson Werth went .233, 20, 58 and 19. Werth had 558 AB’s. Mayberry had less than half that at 262. In the immortal words of CJ Hood how about a slow clap for Young John Mayberry.

Even with his September struggles, the Flyin Hawaiian easily wins the team MVP. His numbers in the dog days of summer were just ridiculous. Besides August, he also hit .364 in July and scored 25 runs in June. For the season, he went .280 17 HR, 61 RBI, 19 SB and 16 triples and played his usual gold glove caliber defense.

As for the team Cy Young, you can make a case for either Halladay or Lee. Hamels might have been right there too had he not had the DL stint. Their numbers are so close it’s almost impossible to choose.

                      G  GS W     L      GS       IP         H      ER HR  BB  K          ERAWHIP

Roy Halladay	32	32	19	6		25		233.2	208	61	10	35	220			1.04	2.35
Cliff Lee	32	32	17	8		25		232.2	197	62	18	42	238			1.03	2.40

But Big Roy’s W/L gets him the nod. The Philly chapter of the Baseball writers gave the nod to Cliff. I wonder if this cost Halladay Cy Young votes? It’ll be interesting to see.

See ya at the Ballpark (for RED OCTOBER!!!!)!

Jay Wrizight

jaywrizight@yahoo.com