Howard winning MVP is questioned

Ryan Howard earned the MVP award. He carried the Phillies on his back after they gave up on the season by trading away star players like Bobby Abreu. If it were not for Howard, the Phillies would not have come nearly as close as they did to making it to the playoffs, finishing only two games out.

Oh yeah, his stats were pretty darn good too. A .313 average, 58 homeruns, 149 RBI, and 104 runs scored.

So when runner up Albert Pujols said earlier this week that Howard should not have won the award, I was a little shocked.

His reason was that he thought an MVP should come from a team that actually made the playoffs. Maybe he is forgetting that the Cardinals actually won two less games that the Phillies in the regular season. Sure, they won the WOrld Series, but the MVP only includes regular season performance. Had St. Louis been in the NL East they would have finished in third place and not made the playoffs.

And not to mention, his stats did not match up. He hit .331 with 49 homers and 137 RBI.

Pujols is a great hitter, no doubt. In fact, he is probably the best hitter in the game.

But when I look at where each team would have been without their star, the Phillies would have been nowhere close to making the playoffs without Howard.

So I say to Albert Pujols, take your World Series ring and stop complaining. Are you going to complain next year when Howard wins the MVP again and the Phillies win the World Series?