Article on Mets MVP Chances

[highlife]

[ QUOTE ]

Offense is clearly far more important than defense when evaluating the worth of a player, but between two similar candidates, the one who plays better defense is more valuable.

[/ QUOTE ]

Howard and Beltran are not similar offensively.

Yes Beltran is a very good all around offensively and one of the top 8 defensive OFs in the NL. However, Howard is having IMHO one of the best non-juiced (apparently...) hitting seasons in baseball in a LOOOOONG time.

Very easy NL MVP decision.

[Jack of Arcades]

Ryan Howard isn't even the best hitter in the league.

[New001]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]

Offense is clearly far more important than defense when evaluating the worth of a player, but between two similar candidates, the one who plays better defense is more valuable.

[/ QUOTE ]

Howard and Beltran are not similar offensively.

Yes Beltran is a very good all around offensively and one of the top 8 defensive OFs in the NL. However, Howard is having IMHO one of the best non-juiced (apparently...) hitting seasons in baseball in a LOOOOONG time.

Very easy NL MVP decision.

[/ QUOTE ]
Huh? Albert Pujols is better this season and has had at least two or three seasons better than Howard's 2006.

[Jack of Arcades]

Per Chris Dial's defensive ratings, Beltran has 15 runs of D on Albert and 17 on Howard. When you add that to RARP you get:

Pujols: 62.8
Howard: 59.7
Beltran: 71.0

[Propertarian]

[ QUOTE ]
Facts?

RYAN HOWARD
AVG .314 | HR 56 | RBI 139 | OBP .412 | SLG .676

CARLOS BELTRAN
AVG .282 | HR 40 | RBI 114 | OBP .385 | SLG .614 | SB 17

[/ QUOTE ] Howard plays in a much better hitter's park than Beltran, and his road offensive numbers are worse than Beltran's road numbers.

Road numbers for the two players:

Beltran: .335/ 25 hrs/ 76 rbi/ 59 runs/ .410 OBP/ .729 slug.
Howard: .323//28 hrs/69 rbi/ 48 runs/ .415OBP/.688 slug.

Granted, this isn't all caused by park effects, but it illustrates the point that raw numbers in Shea are harder to build up than raw numbers in Philly.

[Propertarian]

[ QUOTE ]
However, Howard is having IMHO one of the best non-juiced (apparently...) hitting seasons in baseball in a LOOOOONG time.


[/ QUOTE ]
Not really...Howard is even one of the best non-juiced home run seasons; that is it.

He only has 21 doubles and 1 triple. Furthermore, OBP is more valuable then slugging, and his OBP is not quite as good as Manny's or Frank's or Edgar's or even Bonds's in non-juiced years.

Both Derrek Lee and Alex Rodriguez were more valuable offensively in 2005 then Howard has been in 2006 as well; heck, Hafner was quite a bit better this year until he got hurt.