April 22, 2008...4:25 am
Utley’s turn
There were many reasons I disagreed with Jimmy Rollins’ MVP award last year. First, there was the quality of the competition for MVP.
Matt Holliday led the league in RBI (and drove in 43 more runs than Rollins), led the league in batting average at .340 (44 points higher than Rollins), ranked 6th in OBP (61 points higher than Rollins), ranked 2nd in slugging percentage (76 points higher than Rollins), 3rd in OPS (137 points higher than Rollins), 4th in home runs (6 more than Rollins), 1st in doubles, 1st in hits, 3rd in runs - oh, and led his team to the playoffs, hitting .367 in September, .333 with runners in scoring position, and .333 with bases loaded.
Prince Fielder, in a much worse lineup and much less of a hitter’s park, led the league in home runs with 50 (20 more than Rollins), ranked 3rd in RBI with 119 (25 more than Rollins, but 17 less than Rollin’s teammate, Ryan Howard), 1st in slugging percentage (87 points higher than Rollins), 2nd in OPS (138 points higher than Rollins), and came very, very close to taking his lower-second-tier team to the playoffs.
David Wright ranked 7th in batting average (.325), 9th in RBI (107), 7th in stolen bases, 4th in OBP (.416), 4th in hits, 8th in OPS (.963, behind two of Rollins’ teammates, Howard and Utley), and tied Rollins and 4 others for 14th in home runs with 30. And did all he could to fight his team’s collapse, hitting .352 in September, .310 with runners in scoring position, .444 with bases loaded.
Now Rollins: led the league in runs (139) and triples (20), 3rd in hits (212), 5th in stolen bases, tied for 14th in home runs, 15th in slugging percentage, 21st in doubles, 21st in batting average, 24th in RBIs (with 3 teammates ahead of him!), 47th in OBP….and what, led the Phillies to the post season with his good (but not standout) .298 September average, a mediocre .272 average with runners in scoring position, an abysmal .182 with bases loaded, and his infamous boast?
But beyond the multitude of players having career years on contending teams, there was the team around Rollins. How does Rollins score 139 runs (easily his most eye-popping stat) without Ryan Howard’s 47 home runs or without Utley’s 86 hits with runners on? He doesn’t.
Holliday was cheated out of the MVP because (1) offensive achievements are devalued in the thin air of Colorado (nevermind the hitter’s haven that is Citizen’s Bank Park), and (2) the journalists who vote are disproportionately located in the Northeast, where, on any given night in September 2007, they were significantly more likely to catch the Phillies beating on the stumbling/drowning Mets from 7-10 PM EST than they were to catch the surging Rockies on their 11-game winning streak against the best pitchers in the NL from 10 PM - 1 AM EST.
But back to Chase Utley, who I’ve barely mentioned since the title of this post. Phillies’ hitters have now won the NL MVP two years running. Chase Utley, probably the best pure hitter on that team, is making an early case for a third year — .354, 9 HR, 18 RBI, 17 runs, 2 SB through 19 games. He probably could have made the case last year if he hadn’t broken his hand in July. But will batting in a lineup full of MVPs hurt his chances this year?
1 Comment
April 22, 2008 at 5:18 pm
Disagreed with Rollins also. Utley was the MVP until he got hurt and would have put together the best 2B season of all-time.
For The Jon’s money, Holliday was the MVP last season.
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