The word "valuable" in Most Valuable Player gets another close examination this season. Last year, pitcher Pedro Martinez turned the American League MVP voting into one giant, fascinating argument, which Martinez lost in a controversial vote to catcher Ivan Rodriguez. This season, the AL debate is nearly as hot. It involves a guy who has chased the Triple Crown, a designated hitter, a shortstop, Pedro and the importance of playing for a contender.
Last year, six AL players got a first-place vote for MVP, the most since seven National Leaguers received one in 1979. That won't happen this year, but the voting will be very close. And it could be decided by the four-game, A's-Mariners duel this weekend in Seattle.
For now, here are top candidates, in order.
|  | | Rodriguez has produced monster numbers despite a tough park to hit in. |
1. Alex Rodriguez, Mariners, shortstop. A shortstop hitting .325 with 38 home runs and 122 RBI in perhaps the best pitcher's park in the game (and certainly in the league). Away from Safeco Field, Rodriguez is slugging .691, a remarkably high rate. Plus, he is a great defensive shortstop, statistically better than anyone in the league except Cleveland's Omar Vizquel.
"He's better than I thought," former Oriole B.J. Surhoff said. The Mariners have had the best rate of turning a double play per double-play opportunity in each of the last three years -- and that has been with three different second basemen. The difference is the shortstop. Rodriguez has made eight errors this year -- 38 homers, eight errors for a shortstop. In 1959, Cubs shortstop Ernie Banks had 33 more homers than errors. Banks won the MVP that season for the sixth-place Cubs. The Mariners have contended all year, and Rodriguez has led them. He stretches with the team, he runs out every ground ball and he plays the game the right way.
2. Pedro Martinez, Red Sox, pitcher. He is more important to the Red Sox than any player is to his team, which, in theory, should make Martinez the MVP. He should have won last year, and he would be the leader this year except Rodriguez is having a better season than any position player did last year.
Pedro's numbers are amazing again. Entering Wednesday's start, he was averaging 7.37 baserunners per nine innings, the third-best rate in this century. The others in the top five all came before 1914, the Dead Ball Era. Now we're in the Live Ball Era, and no one is hitting Martinez. The league is batting .168 off him. He is on his way to smashing his record, set last season, for the largest disparity between his ERA and that of the league runner-up. After Wednesday's start, Martinez's 1.78 ERA was 1.49 lower than Roger Clemens' 3.27. Martinez has allowed 44 runs in 212 innings. The average AL pitcher (not including Martinez) has allowed 126.7 runs over 212 innings. He is 82.7 above the league average. Incredible. He has been the lone quality starting pitcher on a team that's still in the wild-card race.
3. Carlos Delgado, Blue Jays, first base. It will take a dazzling finish, but he could become the first Triple Crown winner since Carl Yastrzemski in 1967. Yaz won the MVP, but of the nine Triple Crowns that have been won since the MVP was established in 1931, only five won the MVP. Ted Williams won the Triple Crown in 1942 and '47, and didn't win the MVP.
Delgado, with a big kick, has an outside chance to lead the league in slugging and on-base percentage, which would make him the league's best offensive player. Yet 26 times in history has a player led his league in both categories and not won the MVP. It happened to Ted Williams six times! What has made Delgado so much better offensively is not only his average (.356), but his walk rate is even higher than Frank Thomas'. Also, he has gone from a below average defensive first baseman to at least an adequate one. If the Blue Jays don't make the playoffs, it will hurt Delgado's MVP chances. But they've been a contender all year. They've played important, meaningful games down the stretch.
4. Frank Thomas, White Sox, designated hitter/first base. He's leading the league in home runs (42) and RBI (141), with a .333 average for the game's surprise team. But, he has been the DH in 116 games, which will -- and should -- work against him. Since the DH's birth in 1973, the only MVP to play 50 games as a DH was Don Baylor, who was the DH in 65 games for the Angels in 1979. As great as Thomas has been, as much as he has meant to Chicago's stunning success, it's hard to place him ahead of a shortstop who is having an equally good offensive season.
5. Jason Giambi, Athletics, first base. He is second in the league in on-base percentage and third in slugging for a team that is making a big run at the division and the wild card. He's fourth in the league in homers and fifth in RBI, and he's first on his team in clutch hits. He's the leader of a team that plays the game hard, plays it properly and plays it to win.
With apologies to Bernie Williams and Manny Ramirez, those are the top five. We urge everyone not to vote, or officially endorse, any candidate until the morning after the regular season ends, which is when final ballots are due. Something could change by then. This year's AL MVP race is going to be so close again that is should be examined at the last possible moment.
ESPN The Magazine's Tim Kurkjian writes a weekly column for ESPN.com. | |
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