Three lost posts, which I’ll just consolidate into one:
So if you scrutinized the NL MVP voting results, you might have noticed two things:
1. Pujols was listed on every ballot, but one voter had him seventh. That was Milwaukee writer Tom Haudricourt, who put Howard first and had Sabathia and Fielder ahead of Pujols, as well as three Brewers in his ten names.
2. Someone omitted Ryan Howard entirely. That was Fredericksburg Free Lance-Star writer Rich Campbell, who covers the Nationals.
I’ll save other thoughts on the results of this vote – and tomorrow’s, which should be really interesting – for my chat this Thursday.
Edinson Volquez appears on three NL Rookie of the Year ballots, even though he’s not a rookie. It wasn’t even something esoteric like the days-on-the-roster rule; he threw 80 innings for Texas prior to 2008, and the cutoff is 50.
I think the truth about my rejected membership is that I failed the board’s intelligence test – I have some.
UPDATE: The three voters who included Volquez were Jeremy Cothran of the Newark Star-Ledger, John Klima of the Los Angeles Daily News, and Jay Paris of the North County Times in San Diego.
Other – um, harsher – takes: Dugout Central, The Slanch Report, Shysterball, Epic Carnival, Fanhouse.
Named on 27 of 28 ballots … not sure how I feel about his omission. It could go either way – an anti-stathead/anti-twerp vote, or someone like antone, who looks at production (but not versus replacement-level?) and sees Pedroia’s production as not really MVP-caliber.
UPDATE: Just found this fisking of Paul Sheridan’s anti-intellectual whine today about Ryan Howard not winning the NL MVP award.
UPDATE #2: Evan Grant is the one voter who didn’t include Pedroia, and he said he’ll try to blog about his ballot later today. He did send it to me, and it’s a mix of favorite players of both camps.