Anyone who thinks David Ortiz deserved the AL MVP award over Alex Rodriguez is either insane, a Red Sox fan, or an insane Red Sox fan. Ortiz had a phenomenal season at the plate, no question, but he’s a DH. Some of you are rolling your eyes right now, saying that argument doesn’t hold any water, but you’re mistaken.
First, let’s look at the numbers:
Rodriguez – .321, 48 HR, 130 RBI, 124 runs, 21 steals, .421 OBP, .610 slug
Ortiz – .300, 47 HR, 148 RBI, 119 runs, 1 steal, .397 OBP, .604 slug
A-Rod beat Big Papi in every single category except for RBI (and doubles, 40-29). Had Ortiz topped Rodriguez in any of the other categories, perhaps a stronger case could’ve been made for the Boston slugger, but the numbers, while extremely close, favor A-Rod.
Of course, numbers don’t always tell the whole story, and nobody in baseball drove in more clutch runs for his team in 2005 than Ortiz. I’m not going to deny that. It seemed like every other night on SportsCenter, I watched Papi knock a two-run homer out of the yard in the ninth, or lace a run-scoring double into the gap in the eighth to lead the Sox to a key victory. For that reason alone, Ortiz certainly deserved consideration for the award, but it’s impossible to ignore that he essentially was a part-time player for Boston, picking up a bat every few innings and riding the pine for the rest of the game.
Did he rob anybody of a double down the line with a runner on second? Was he out there starting pivotal double plays for his pitcher, or barehanding a slow roller and gunning to first for the out? Ortiz was great for his team when he had a bat in his hand, but that’s it, which means he could only affect the outcome of a game three or four times a night, generally speaking. A-Rod, meanwhile, hit for a higher average, hit more homers, scored more runs, got on base at a higher percentage and also carried a better slugging percentage than Ortiz, plus he played 1,391 Gold Glove-caliber innings in the field. Ortiz, meanwhile, logged 78 innings at first…and committed two errors.
Ortiz is a stud, no doubt, and he may have gotten my vote for Most Valuable Hitter. But A-Rod clearly was the league’s MVP, and now he’s got the hardware to prove it.
