My MVP ...

This year, the easiest slot to fill-in on the MVP ballot was the top one. It was the other nine spots that were troubling.
As one of 28 voters for the AL MVP award, I spent hours over the final weekend of the season pondering what to do, completing the 10-player ballot, as required, before the start of the playoffs. My usual guidelines are to identify the players who had the best seasons and helped their team have success, so I usually have at least one player from each of the playoff-bound teams at the top of my list, and the non-playoff bound players toward the bottom.
Yankees 3B Alex Rodriguez was the obvious No. 1 choice, so much so I expected him to be a unanimous selection. (And he would have been except for the two writers from Detroit who both just happened to have him second and the Tigers' Magglio Ordonez first.)
My biggest issues were deciding:
which Boston player was indeed more valuable (I picked Mike Lowell over David Ortiz),
whether a second Yankee deserved to be in the top 10 (Jorge Posada was, I decided)
and where to place Tampa Bay's Carlos Pena, weighing his individual performance with the team's lack of success, raising the question of how "valuable" he could be while not wanting to be too biased from having seen him play every day (I settled on sixth; two writers had him as high as third, Bob Dutton of the Kansas City Star and Dave Sessions of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram).
All that said, here is the ballot I cast:
1. Alex Rodriguez, Yankees
2. Magglio Ordonez, Tigers
3. Vladimir Guerrero, Angels
4. Mike Lowell, Red Sox
5. Victor Martinez, Indians
6. Carlos Pena, Rays
7. David Ortiz, Red Sox
8. Jorge Posada, Yankees
9. Ichiro Suzuki, Mariners
10. Curtis Granderson, Tigers

Comments

[DR]

Who cares where he ranks among the MVP list. I'd rather see a championship team with no MVP (BoSox) rather than a team with an MVP. The Rays should focus on team chemistry/unity. Nobody on the Rays is better than the team. Like Jay said, they were a last place team. They were worse than 2,3 years before and only 5 games better than last year.

[****2]

**** = broken record

[James]

**** is just a big loser.

[Bob R.]

The following is from an ESPN site:
http://espn.go.com/classic/obit/s/2003/0618/1570127.html

It specifically says Veeck BOUGHT his contract.

Despite provocation from opposing players and fans, Doby kept his cool. He followed the advice of Veeck, who bought Doby's contract from the Newark Eagles of the Negro National League.

[Bob R.]

The Indians made history in June 1947 when Larry Doby became the first African-American player in American League history (he was preceded in the major leagues by Robinson, who debuted with the Brooklyn Dodgers on April 15). Doby, a talented player who twice hit over thirty homeruns in a season for Cleveland, struggled as a part-time infielder in his first season after being purchased from the Negro League’s Newark franchise for $10,000
________________________________
This is from a site called "One more dying Quail". I cannot vouch for its accuracy just as I pointed out I will not accept Kiner's accusations without confirmation. Various sources repeat his point that Veeck planned to buy the Phillies in the early 1940s and stock it with Black players but was not able to do it, but a number of them also suggest it is probably a myth.

[****]

As usual. You're not being factual. Are you a mindreader? Veeck wanted to compensate? He NEVER did. Who did he compensate for Larry Doby and Satchel Paige? And of course Negro Leagues owners WANTED to be compensated. So what? They never were by anyone including Veeck. And how could you possibly believe that Rickey didn't want to integrate the Pirates? Now go dust off Stu's last place trophies.

[Bob R.]

For those who are interested, Bill Veeck advocated bringing Blacks into the majors years before Rickey and even had a plan to import an entire team but was stymied by the other owners. I wish I could locate my source, and if I can I will identify it, but until I can I will only say that I know I read that Veeck did want to compensate the negro league team owners. I cannot remember whether he did or not. In any case, it is a very complex story and hardly the simple morality tale we are ordinarily fed. If you are interested in a brief history of the integration of baseball, you might look at "Shades of Glory" by Lawrence Hogan, p.333ff and for the reaction of the Negro League owners at p. 342f.

I have no intent to suggest Rickey was not a heroic figure. He was. But his motives were complex and Ralph Kiner for one disliked him intensely and claims in his memoirs that Rickey delayed integrating the Pirates when he joined them after leaving the Dodgers.

Aha, I found it. On p. 62f of "Baseball Forever" Kiner discusses the integration of baseball and says that Veeck did compensate the owners in the Negro Leagues. Kiner is not an unbiased source when Rickey is concerned, so I cannot state certainly he is truthful. But in "Shades of Glory" it is clear that many Negro League owners expected and sought some compensation or incorporation into the major league structure as minor league franchises.

[Tom]

****** You were in Brooklyn at the same time as the Brooklyn Dodgers? If that is true that means you are over 50 years old and dut still use the word dude. That is pathetic.

[James]

**** = TOOL

[Tampabaysportsfanatic]

RJ that was my thought as well....

[DRaysBay]

****, your name wouldn't happen to be Mick, would it?

[****]

Bob R. in a time warp. Nobody but nobody, including your narcissistic self, would have dreamed about compensating the Negro Leagues in the fifties. Rickey, however, did a lot for the black cause by elevating individuals to his major league roster. Brooklyn had many more blacks at the major league level than any other team. I was there. You were not. Now go help Stu's significant other with his/her groceries.

[****]

Glad you weighed in Bob R. Dude, the Rays finished LAST (for the ninth time in ten years). Last in its division, last in the AL, last in the majors. They can't go lower...I guess that is the reason for your persistent, but basically groundless, optimism. It's not lost on the remaining five good Rays players that a guy can have a career year and go nowhere individually. Guys that signed longtime deals are regretting it and no one else will make that mistake again. Now go lick the boots of your mentor, Stu.

[Bob R.]

It is true that Pena did not get them out of last place, and it is reasonable to consider that. But Ernie Banks won 2 MVPs when his team finished below .500 and Andre Dawson won with a last place team, so that has not been an automatic exclusion.

For all the justified praise Branch Rickey gets, he was not a particularly nice person. That statement about finishing last with or without a player he used to keep Ralph Kiner's salary down and to justify trading him, really out of spite. And there is a book out now that claims he helped ruin Babe Dahlgren's career by spreading a false rumor that he smoked marijuana. I do not know if the book supports that assertion however.

On the other hand, as heroic as his support for Jackie Robinson was, Rickey refused to compensate Negro League teams when he took their best players and helped bring about the demise of the leagues.

[Jay So]

Yhey finished last with him. They would have finished last without him.

[btr]

Very glad you put Granderson on your ballot. A severely underappreciated player.

[Bob R.]

Another way of considering it Marc might be to ask where the Rays would be without Pena at first. Suppose the regular first base platoon were Wigginton and Norton as originally expected. Would the Rays have won even the 66 games? And what would the future look like to the Rays? Beside the fact that his numbers were better than all but a few of the candidates, his value to the Rays and their fans is inestimable.

That said, I think #6 is a fair ranking, although I disagree with some of your others.