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APC Pujols News

MVP!

ST. LOUIS — The National League’s best player has also been named its most valuable.

Albert Pujols’ magnificent season earned him his second NL Most Valuable Player Award. Pujols’ 369 points bested the 308 points garnered by Philadelphia’s Ryan Howard, who beat him out by a narrow margin to win the 2006 MVP.

Pujols has finished in the top 10 in the voting in every one of his eight Major League seasons, and has been fourth or better seven times. He is the 11th player to win two NL MVP Awards, and he’s one of three active players with a pair of MVPs. Additionally, Pujols became the third player, along with Sammy Sosa in 1998 and Rod Carew in 1977, to win the MVP and the Roberto Clemente Award in the same year.

“I have to thank my teammates,” Pujols said at a news conference at Busch Stadium on Monday afternoon. “Obviously this is not an award that you win by yourself. My teammates were involved every day, day in and day out, supporting me, getting on base and driving me in. These kinds of numbers, you can’t do it by yourself.”

One of those teammates, Ryan Ludwick, even garnered some MVP consideration himself. Ludwick finished 16th in the balloting with 17 points. He was named on seven ballots out of 32.

Pujols received 18 first-place votes, 10 seconds, two thirds, a fourth and a seventh. He was the only player named on every ballot. He is the first Dominican player to be named MVP twice.

“I couldn’t believe [that],” Pujols said. “There are so many great [Dominican] players. There was one that was in the vote: Manny Ramirez. He’s just a great player, great hitter. Being the first one, I was excited. Hopefully I won’t be the last. Hopefully there will be many more players, not just from the Dominican Republic, but from Latin America.”

As baseball waited to hear the results of the ballot, the discussion centered on the definition of “most valuable.” Some argued that because Pujols’ Cardinals did not make the postseason, he could not be the most valuable player in the league. It was the only possible case against Pujols, who was indisputably his league’s best hitter and who plays Gold Glove-caliber defense at first base.