This Just In: Dustin Pedroia wins AL MVP

Yesterday, the baseball writers got it right.

Albert Pujols won his second NL MVP, a well-earned award in my book seeing that he carried what could have been a potentially terrible team into contention for most of the baseball season.

Today, I'm scratching my head over their decision to name Boston Red Sox second baseman Dustin Pedroia the AL's MVP. He's not even the best player on his team, so how can he be the most valuable player of a league?

His VORP was 63.3, only one-tenth of a point higher than Philadelphia Phillies second sacker Chase Utley. And if you were paying attention, it was Pujols (not Utley) who won the NL MVP yesterday.

Heck, Dusty's VORP doesn't even rank in the top-20 single season among all-time second basemen.

If you care (and don't feel like reading through this article) Chuck Knoblauch owns the best single-season VORP for a second baseman ... of course this was done when he wasn't booting ground balls and turning them into souvenirs by throwing them into the Yankee Stadium stands.

Like I said, Pedroia isn't even the most valuable player on his team.

Kevin Youkilis anyone?

Pedroia: .326/.376/.493 with 17 home runs 83 runs batted in and 20 stolen bases

Youkilis: .300/.390/.569 with 29 home runs 115 runs batted in and 3 stolen bases

I guess it was Pedroia's plus-17 stolen bases put him over the top.

More to come later...

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