See the problem lies in the word “valuable”. People take it took literally when the name of the trophy should have just been NL Best Player.

This is the scary part. If you combine CC desire to play a team in the west and 2 million cut per/year, they in it.

They can offer CC sll they want still don’t think it’ll matter unless CC really doesn’t want to play in NY. The Yankees are obviously prepared to blow every other team out the water if they’re starting at 6/140.

Again, I don’t doubt that AP is awesome and valuable to STL in any number of ways. But would it be such a bad thing to add another award? Get rid of the ambiguity and the debate by just adding another category. MLB can most certainly afford it.

Laura, thanks to people like Bill James and many others, we have stats today to value how valuable a player was whether or not his team made the playoffs. Check out VORP, Win Shares and defense statistics like Dewan’s +/- and zone rating among others that show Pujols was more valuable.

Not to worry; I’m not offended. Hey, I’m the first one to admit that AP is a monster stud, who is probably the best player out there right now. But the fact remains that his team didn’t make the playoffs. How valuable was he really since they didn’t get to the postseason? I guess it depends on how you assess value and what you think the award should stand for.

Pujols did everything possible to get his team to the playoffs, including hitting .398 in August. If the players were switched, the Phillies would have clinched in early September, or maybe if Howard hit at all in any month other than July and September. Or maybe if the two players who were better than Howard on his OWN TEAM, Utley and Rollins were on the Cards, they’d have won too.

Baseball is not like basketball, one player can not carry a whole team. Pujols was rewarded accordingly for having the best season and being the most valuable player in the league.

No, I don’t believe he would. Yanks offer is $23.3M per year. If one of those teams came in at 6 years/$127M or roughly $21.3M per season, about 92% of what the Yankees offered, then I’d say they’re in the game.

I can’t access the profile if I’m not added to his friends list. Although it does seem legit, with a real pic with a real background scenery. Not photoshopped at all.