Dustin Pedroia wins AL MVP

Strip him of his privilege? That's a little overboard ... you work for 'EEI?
You can definitely make a case for not including Pedroia.
He voted for Youkilis, his clear-cut choice for MVP, which in his view lessens Pedroia's value.
Quentin carried the White Sox - he's in. Hamilton was spectacular and was probably the best player in the AL for 3/4 the season. K-Rod saved 60 for the Angels, which is meaningless, but they did close games for the AL West winner. Longoria and Pena were beasts for the best team in the AL East.
Morneau and Mauer are no brainers. A-Rod didn't have an A-Rod season, but it was still better than most. Cliff Lee dominated the AL all season and Grady Sizemore's numbers would have done much more for the Red Sox than Pedroia's.

Thinking about it rationally, it's almost surprising more people didn't leave Pedroia off.

 

No, it's not.
It's a disgrace if one person did it.
Grady Sizemore?
A-Rod?

 

Is that next to Willie Hernandez?

 

Top 10? OK, that's different. I was ignorant and thought they voted a top three. Personally, I was hoping Carlos Pena would have gotten more votes.

 

I think Rhody makes a valid point in that, if you vote for Youkilis, Pedroia's season is devalued. If anyone didn't vote for Youkilis and left Pedroia off, it would be a much different story.

 

Many times, two players having roughly equal seasons for the same team split the vote pool and somebody from another team cops the MVP.
Glad for Pedroia that didn't happen, though my first place vote would have been for Youkilis. Difference between the two was small enough to place my opinion within the concept of sampling error.

 

Then how do you put both Mauer & Morneau, and both Pena and Longoria ahead?

 

Depends ...
Arizona State (Pedroia, Bonds, Jackson) is the first with three players from the BBWAA MVP voting, which began in the 1930s. If you count the league awards from the 1920s, Michigan also has three: Barry Larkin, Charlie Gehringer and George Sisler.

 

Little surprised Longoria didn't get a little more love, not that he deserved the award, but thought he'd be a little higher in the standings

 

Jesus, Buckweaver, when did you change your handle?

Nice pull FNG.

 

Easy.
You pick Youkilis, Morneau and Pena. then you have to have two of three - Mauer, Longoria, Pedroia.
Again, I'd like to point out that I don't necessarily agree with the thinking, but bostonbred's homerrific call for the writer's voting privilges to be stripped made me realize why, despite being a Boston fan, I hate most Red Sox fans.

EDIT: Here's Grant's reasoning http://www.boston.com/sports/baseball/redsox/extras/extra_bases/2008/11/evan_grant_on_l.html

Here's his ballot.

Kevin Youkilis
Francisco Rodriguez
Justin Morneau
Josh Hamilton
Carlos Quentin
Alex Rodriguez
Cliff Lee
Joe Mauer
Grady Sizemore
Carlos Pena

So yeah, I pretty much nailed his ballot.
And I wish I was Evan Grant, because then I would have a halfway decent paycheck.

 

Yeah, absolutely.