Happy Holliday's

Today Major League Baseball will decide who the National League MVP is. The American League winner was announced yesterday with Alex Rodriguez taking the MVP honor with an astounding 28 first place votes and an overwhelming 382 to 258 total votes over runner-up Magglio Ordonez. A-Rod finished with having one of the single greatest offensive seasons in Major League Baseball history and there really was no question that he would receive the MVP honor. It’s A-Rod’s third time that he was won the MVP in his career and his second with the Yankees. Now who does Major League Baseball choose in the National League since nobody really stands out over the each other as far as the three main candidates go? I say Matt Holliday all the way. Even though Jimmy Rollins and Prince Fielder had outstanding years and highly contributed to their teams success, I feel that Matt Holliday had the biggest impact on his team and in the National League. I won’t go over any statistics for these guys because Holliday and Fielder are in the top 5 for homeruns and RBI’s and On-Base Percentage and a few other categories as well. Jimmy Rollins is in the top 5 in hits, stolen bases, extra base hits, and a few other categories too. Holliday and Rollins separate themselves from Fielder though in batting average but I’m not going to use this information so much in my decision since all three have the stats to be named MVP. What this race is going to come down to is their contribution to their team’s success. Prince Fielder helped the Brewers finish second in the National League Central division, one of their best seasons in a at least 20 years, while Jimmy Rollins and Matt Holliday helped their teams reach the playoffs, and for Holliday, the World Series. I think what really separates these players too is who was around them and how it made the players around them better. Prince Fielder had rookie sensation Ryan Braun batting behind him, which really helped Braun’s offensive numbers, but not getting to the playoffs and having a lower batting average than Holliday and Rollins is going to hurt him in getting more votes. As for Rollins, when you think of the Phillies, you don’t only think of Rollins. They have Ryan Howard and Chase Utley, I think that Rollins play definitely helps those around him like Howard and Utley, especially with them getting more RBI’s since Rollins gets a ton of extra base hits and stolen bases; but at the same time, I think that Howard and Utley help Rollins. All three of these players are All-Stars, so to choose one guy from the team as an MVP doesn’t make prefect sense to me. I’m not saying that Rollins isn’t an MVP and nor do I think if he gets he doesn’t deserves it because he really does, but my vote for MVP is Matt Holliday. Holliday helped players around him have stellar offensive years. Troy Tulowitzki came out of no where like Braun and finished second behind him in the Rookie of the Year award. Also, Garrett Atkins had a career year, so Holliday makes a good case for contributing to the success of players around him. The reason I give him the edge over Rollins is because of the players he helped have good offensive years and getting the Rockies to the World Series. Utley and Howard have already proven themselves before this year as great offensive baseball players but Tulowitzki and Atkins haven’t. Also, some people don’t believe that the playoff picture should factor into the MVP race. I think it depends on the players in the running for the MVP personally because sometime there are people that have best offensive year ever but don’t get to the playoffs. If the Yankees didn’t make the playoffs do to what I think would be bad pitching, A-Rod should still be the MVP. In this National League MVP race, two of the players made it to the playoffs. I think that Holliday was the reason the Rockies made it and had one of the greatest regular season finishes in sports history. Rollins did close to the same by helping the Phillies catch the Mets in the National League East but Howard and Utley played a big role in that too compared to the rest of the Rockies. When Holliday was up to bat anytime in the post season it just felt like you were watching the one guy in the game who could do something great. Remember when he almost hit a walk-off homerun at home to take them to the World Series but instead it was a triple to bring it to extra innings? Amazing.

Anyway, I was just saying who I felt should be the MVP in the National League but obviously my say doesn’t mean anything at all because it was just announced on ESPN that Jimmy Rollins is the National League MVP. Good job Jimmy, so for what it’s worth, I voted for Holliday.