You've Got To Be Kidding Me...

During a time when Major League Baseball is trying to escape the steroid era and get back to what baseball should be, the experts reward a power hitter with the MVP. Despite the black eye baseball has endured the past five years, I guess people are still awed by the longball, and I find it almost comical that two descriptors clarifying why Howard won were:

Ryan Howard of the Philadelphia Phillies was voted the National League's Most Valuable Player on Monday after leading the majors in home runs and RBI.

He had the most homers in the major leagues since Barry Bonds hit a record 73 in 2001.

Is it a good thing to be compared to Barroid Bonds? As I already analyzed, Albert Pujols was probably more deserving. This is the third time Pujols has finished second in the MVP vote, the first two times to Bonds. How many times this season did I hear an ESPN analyst claim Albert Pujols is "the best player in the game" (and more often, "best hitter in the game") only to then declare his support for Howard because of his particularly great season. Shouldn't "the best" usually win this award?

Stacking the two up next to each other yields these certainties:

-Howard's lead in home runs and runs-batted-in outweighed Pujols' higher finish in batting average, on-base percentage, slugging percentage, runs, and stolen bases.

-It went without much recognition that Howard finished second in the league in strikeouts with an incredible 181 whiffs. (Albert was 131st with 50 K's.)

-The often used argument of team success translating to player value did not come into play as the Cardinals made the playoffs with Rolen, Edmonds, and Eckstein fighting/sidelined by injuries. The Phillies failed to make the postseason.

-Defense isn't nearly as important as offense. Howard finished second in number of errors by all major league firstbasemen. Pujols won his first career Gold Glove Award.

Is it sour grapes? Yes. Am I still right? Yes.

UPDATE: Apparently this guy agrees with me completely. Wow, the numbers are very telling. It's not even really close; one of Howard's two statistical edges resulted in many more RBI opportunities, not clutch hitting.