Phillies' Howard Named National League MVP
Star Follows 2005 Rookie Award With 58 HR Season
By RONALD BLUM
AP Sports
NEW YORK (Nov. 20) - Ryan Howard had a season that defied convention, one that made him only the second player voted Rookie of the Year and Most Valuable Player in consecutive years.
Why did they choose Howard? His 58 homers to Pujols' 49, and his 149 RBI to Pujols' 137. That's where the advantages for Howard end. Pujols is better in nearly every single other significant category. See for yourself:
Player AVG OBP SLG VORP WARP EqA
A. Pujols .331 .431 .671 85.4 12.9 .357
R. Howard .313 .425 .659 81.5 9.4 .346
The first three categories are well-known rate stats, and clearly show Pujols was the superior player in 2006. The main knock on Pujols in the MVP race was that he didn't play as many games as Howard.
Houston 's Lance Berkman was third with 230 points, followed by the New York Mets ' Carlos Beltran (211), Cabrera (170) and Washington 's Alfonso Soriano (106) - who agreed to a $136 million, eight-year contract with the Chicago Cubs on Monday.
2006-11-23
21:36:37
·
22 answers
·
asked by
marnefirstinfantry
5
in
Baseball