TLover

Too bad he crumbled yet again in the postseason.

NEW YORK -- Alex Rodriguez won the American League Most Valuable Player award for the second time in three seasons, beating David Ortiz on Monday in a vote that rewarded a position player over a designated hitter.

Rodriguez, in his second season as the New York Yankees' third baseman, received 16 first-place votes, 11 seconds and one third for 331 points from the Baseball Writers' Association of America.

Ortiz, the DH for the Boston Red Sox, got 11 firsts and 17 seconds for 307 points. Los Angeles Angels outfielder Vladimir Guerrero received the other first-place vote and was third with 196 points.

Voting was done before the start of the postseason, when both the Yankees and Red Sox were eliminated in the first round. Rodriguez hit only .133 with no RBIs in a five-game loss to the Angels while Ortiz batted .333 with a home run as the Red Sox were swept by the Chicago White Sox.

Rodriguez hit .321 with an AL-high 48 homers and 130 RBIs, breaking Joe DiMaggio's 68-year-old Yankees record for home runs by a right-handed hitter (46). A-Rod also won the award in 2003, his final season as the Texas Rangers' shortstop before he was dealt to the Yankees.

Ortiz batted .300 with 47 homers and a major league-leading 148 RBIs. Big Papi had 34 RBIs that put his team ahead, the most in the AL, and had eight RBIs from the seventh inning on that put Boston ahead to stay.

Rodriguez became the first Yankees player to win the award since Don Mattingly in 1985 and only the fourth player to win an MVP with two teams, joining Barry Bonds (Pittsburgh and San Francisco), Jimmie Foxx (Philadelphia Athletics and Red Sox) and Frank Robinson (Cincinnati and Baltimore).

A-Rod also is the fourth to win at two positions, following Detroit's Hank Greenberg (first base and left field), the St. Louis Cardinals' Stan Musial (outfield and first base) and the Milwaukee Brewers' Robin Yount (shortstop and center field).

Rodriguez gets a $1 million bonus for winning the MVP for the second time during his record $252 million, 10-year contract. With Ortiz's second-place finish, the price of Boston's 2007 club option increases by $400,000 to $8.4 million. The buyout goes up by the same amount to $1.4 million.

Guerrero got $200,000 for finishing third and Boston outfielder Manny Ramirez gets $75,000 for placing fourth.

Cleveland DH Travis Hafner was fifth and earned an automatic $200,000 annual raise to $2.7 million next year and $3.95 million in 2007, with the price of Cleveland's 2008 option rising to $4.95 million.

Always Dirty

What a joke.

juniorbean

iTrader: (5)

If Boston won the east, Ortiz would have won it, but being a Yankee fan, glad to see A-Rod got it.

Honestly though, at this point I really don't care b/c it's football and hockey season

Neech

He's such a little bitch.

BstonBruin

their stats were pretty similar...however Ortiz had so many clutch hits this season...Ortiz is one guy you'd want with the game on the line in the bottom of the 9th

TLover

If Ortiz just would've played first (he wouldn't even have had to play it well), he would've won.

CL Platano

I'm a Yankee Fan but I think Ortiz should of won, I know I was always afraid of him when he came up.

juniorbean

iTrader: (5)

Amen... but the fact that he wasn't in the field hurt him in the voting, which, in a way, makes sense....

BstonBruin

I agree with you on that. however, he did what he had to do for the team...he is an average at best 1st basemen in terms of fielding percentage and range, the sox had better defensive first basemen so there was no reason to put Ortiz at first.

NYZGREATST

how can you be a mvp without playing both sides of the ball!!?!?!? im sure if poppy played first at all even if he sucked he would have gotten the mvp award. you cant have a DH as a mvp, its just not logical. tru a-rod was not clutch at times and he str8 up screwed our chances in the playoffs but between arod and poppy, a-rod gets this award. good call baseball gurus.


although they screwed up the cy young award. rivera def should have gotten that joint.

CL Platano

It's the same thing..How do you give Rivera the Cy Young if he didn't even pitch half the innings the other guys did? He pitched well but to be Cy Young IMO you need to have a 20+ win season with a 1.50 - 2.50 E.R.A..Don't mean to be hatin on my Yankees but fair is fair..Atleast they are all Dominican

btsilver

:whocares:

GIBSON6594

I still think Guerrero should have won it

Yumcha

dallison

HyDrOpOnIkToKa

arod=overrated

Yumcha

I know I may get slapped for this, but my vote is still for Ortiz...Don't care if he was a DH.

juniorbean

iTrader: (5)

Your vote doesn't count... A-Rod won

michimonster

cant stand him

Always Dirty

Don't most Yankee fans hate him as much as the rest of the country does?

Yumcha

I know.

...as do most of my GM moves...no executive ever listens to me.

CL Platano

Nah I don't hate him I just upset that he hasn't shown up for a playoff game yet, but the whole team hasnt in the past 2 yrs so it aint just A-Rod.. I think Randy Johnson was more of waste of money than A-Rod was..

JimmyCarter

Only insofar as its not about something that can be used directly against the Red Sox

MattT516

I know I'm beating this point to a pulp, but A-Rod definitely got the award because he plays the field. Since their stats were fairly similar (Ortiz had almost 20 more RBIs, A-Rod had 20 points higher in BA) it all came down to the fact that A-Rod is a good defensive player and Ortiz doesn't even know what defense is. I still happen to think Ortiz deserved it because Boston probably wouldn't have made the playoffs without his clutch hitting, but you can't deny that A-Rod didn't have a fantastic year. It was pretty much a toss-up all along.

NYZGREATST

kinda. he irritates the hell out of me in the playoffs but during the year he gets it done.

ccannizz11

Ortiz is the MVP. They just gave the trophy to A-Rod so Steinbrenner wouldn't try to pawn him off on some other team.

goose25

A-Rod may have won the MVP in voting by the sportswriters, but Big Papi gets more loved in Boston and than A-Fraud will ever receive in NY. Really, can anyone remember a big hit for A-Fraud during the last season when the Yankees really really needed one? Right, that's what i thought.

goose25

Rodriguez gets a $1 million bonus for winning the MVP for the second time during his record $252 million, 10-year contract

WTF??? For $252 Mil, you should be expected to be in the damn running for the MVP each and every year and there sure as hell shouldn't be a bonus involved.

I'm Batman

Ortiz got screwed because he is a DH. This award is based on offensive performance. So playing in the field shouldn't matter. Who was the last player to win the MVP for outstanding defensive skills?

TLover

Where does it say the MVP is strictly about offensive numbers? What about Dennis Eckersley or Roger Clemens? Of course, defense counts. Is that not part of baseball?

ccannizz11

Griffey?

I still think Ortiz is the MVP even with A-rod's "defense"