Hmm. Gold Glove defense. Near a .950 OPS. Tons of clutch hits. Big Market Boston. All-Star.

Could be a formula for MVP.

There is one tiny kink: J.D. Drew is also doing some amazing things. A-Rod is good, again. Carlos Quinten, also, is going nuts. All are on winning clubs, but I think the writers are going to start shying away from voting for A-Rod.

Could the "scrappy" Youks be a surprise MVP for 2008?

Tomorrow I'll post some stats.

It is so rare that I start a thread, and I was so right with this one, and I am so pasty-faced right now, please just merge these threads and acknowledge how right I was.

http://www.redsoxnation.net/forums/?showto...776#entry779399

Meh! Tonight he had 2 K's in one inning and made 2 errors. What made tonight the night you decided to post this topic?

This is a pretty seperate concept.

"Yay, Youks is doing good. Let's celebrate" vs "Let's discuss Youk's chances at winning an MVP, reasons for and against it."

If Youks drives the Sox to the East Title with 30 plus HRs he's got to be considered for MVP.

Yeah, even being MVP on this team is a big deal, and if they do as you say, yes, he needs to be way up there. Any writers not liking him though, I wonder? Pedroia should get significant votes also.

As nice a season as Pedroia is having, you can't make an honest argument for him even being the best player at his position in the league this year. I don't see him garnering too much support.

The race in the AL seems wide open, though. The writers will talk themselves out of ARod and Sizemore if the Yanks and Indians miss the playoffs. I could see Youk gaining a lot of support if he finishes the season on a high note.

AROD really is not having that great of a year - certainly not MVP worthy, as I think any Yankee fan would tell you.

Youk and Drew have really carried this club all year - Drew in particular while Papi was out went nuts -

I think Youk will get votes for sure - but if the WSox make the playoffs, I can't see how Quentin does not win it

Oh, I also guarantee Hamilton will get a ton of votes.

In the eyes of the stupid, old codger voters, sure. But Pedroia is imminently more valuable than Kinsler factoring defense in. Kinsler is a pure butcher in the field.

A case could be made for Roberts I suppose. Uggla and Kinsler have more pop, but just can't field their position.

I'd say Utley, Pedroia, Roberts are the 3 best in baseball.

Youk is 3rd in the MLB at 1B in OPS(.948,behind Pujols and Berkman) and 4th in RC27 (7.61, behing Pujols, Berkman and Giambi). Youk's OPS is also good for 4th overall among AL batters (Bradley, A-Rod, Drew)

This boy is going to get paid this off-season. Glad he is on our team.

I think it is much more of an "old codger" move to make up reasons to dismiss a player having an amazing season with the bat. I'm as big a Pedroia fan as anyone, but he's pretty clearly been the third-best second baseman in the AL behind Roberts and Kinsler. Roberts is older and Kinsler smells like a career year, so I like Pedroia going forward as much as anyone in the league, but there is just no way that he's been better this year. Defense is important, but you can't just arbitrarily cite it to dismiss a player with a slg 100 points higher without looking it up.

WARP1
Roberts 6.2
Kinsler 6.0
Pedroia 5.8

Plus Roberts and Kinsler are faster on the bases, not that Pedroia's terrible.

Anyhow, getting back to Youks, he's pretty clearly been the best first baseman in the AL. Giambroid(??!) is pretty close to his numbers with the bat, but it's not close once you include defense.

I have no idea why I end up defending ARod on this board so much, but he's definitely having an MVP caliber year. I have no doubt that the voters will talk themselves out of him should the Yanks miss the playoffs. And I don't really care what Yankee fans would tell me about ARod - if I cared what Yankee fans thought, I would be hunched over a test-tube right now trying to distill the cure for cancer and AIDS from Jeter's spit.

To a certain degree, trying to guess who the writers will pick as the MVP is an impossible task. They'll talk themselves into something idiotic like Shannon Stewart again because there isn't a clear-cut, obvious choice this year. If it were up to me, I'd just give it to Sizemore because by a lot of measures he's been the best player in the league, and he plays a difficult, up the middle position, which gets you some bonus kudos from me. It's not his fault that the Indians suck.

IF the Red Sox overtake the Rays and Youkilis continues to put up the numbers, he's got a shot. Mourneau is in the same situation. I doubt they count versatility in the MVP vote. But playing both corner positions makes Youk incredibly valuable. It's one of the main reasons I never would have traded him even up for Teixeira.