What's With This MVP ?

Mathew Bush chosen first overall, and Phillip
Umber chosen third, and then you have to go all
the way down to number twelve before you see a
name that makes any impact to the typical
baseball fan, Jered Weaver. The thirteenth
pick incidentally was made by a team that no
longer exists, the Expos, but who knows, they
might be had they chosen first or second and
were wise enough to draft the name missing from
this article thus far, Justin Verlander. Jered
Weaver just signed a multi year deal this year
that will make him an Anaheim Angel for a long
time to come, and based on his record this year
of 18-7 with a stellar 2.41 era along with a
career record of 82-46, he deserves it, and the
Angels are the benefactors. But let's get back
to Justin Verlander, who this year is really
making waves. The kind of waves that real only
happen once in a while, when people begin arguing
as to whether or not a pitcher, a non everyday
player, is deserving of MVP consideration.

I am of the school that pitchers should not be
considered for MVP, BUT, I do believe that there
are exceptions, and every once in a while, a
special case happens. This is one of those cases.
When Steve Carlton won 27 games in 1972, the
Phillies were miserable, and his wins amounted
to nearly 46% of the Phillies wins, and though
it's tough to be the MVP of the league when
your team stinks, it has been done, ask Andre
Dawson. Though his Cubs didn't stink up the
joint like Carlton's Phillies, they did finish
last, and he still won MVP. Back to my argument.
Verlander has nearly 27% of the Tigers victories
this season and his era of 2.29 is a real gem
in a hitters league like the AL that sports the
DH, and what is an MVP anyway? Is it not a
player that has the most value to a team?,
preferably a winning team? Yankee fans will
scream and shout high from the mountain tops all
the while juggling their 27 trophies and tell you
that Curtis Granderson wuz robbed, when in fact,
though he is more than worthy of consideration,
his supporting cast of, A-Rod, CC, Texeira, Jeter,
Rivera, and company are much more of a compliment
to his numbers than Verlander's team is to him.
With that I won't go over every other player that
is worthy of consideration in the AL this season,
nor will I anoint Verlander MVP. What I will say
however is that in this writers opinion, he is
worthy of consideration, if I voted he would most
probably receive my vote, and what the heck were
the Padres thinking?

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