the Albert award

I'm trying not to get caught up in the MVP hoop-lah, because I have this terrible fear that as soon as I do, and the winner is announced, I'll just have to denounce the whole the thing as unjust and baseless. But the writers over at the Post-Dispatch had some interesting things to say about the two front-runners (Howard and Pujols), and I figured that if the contest does end up in the toilet like I'm afraid, their arguments won't have to have been in vain. Basically, I'm just preparing myself for the worst because it's probably too much to ask for the majority of the voters to look beyond the ends of their own noses and see the truth.

Anyway, here's a synposis of the comments from stltoday.com, but you should check out the whole thing.

Bernie called Howard "...about the fourth most valuable player on his own team."

Burnwell reminded us that "...[Pujols'] own peers — the MLB Players Association — already picked him as the best...."

Strauss remarked that Pujols "...led the league in slugging percentage, supposedly Howard's forte."

The Commish states that ".251 is not MVP quality...."

DG explains that Howard may have had a "September surge that included a .352 average [but] ...the other months matter, too."

Speaking of Albert's trophy shelf, so far this off-season he's picked up the Silver Slugger Award, the Fielding Bible Award, the Oscar Charleston Legacy Award, the Roberto Clemente Award, the MLBPA NL Player of the Year Award, and the Sporting News ML Player of the Year Award. Did I forget anything?