NL MVP: Beltre or Bonds...

[mojowitt]

Wow. Look what happens when you post and go away for a week. Good stuff, I learned alot. Im not sure I agree with all of it, but interesting nonetheless. To clarify, I never meant to imply that ANYONE is a better hitter than Barry Bonds. I dont believe there is anyone who comes close. Im just trying to figure out whether the best player is always the Most Valuable one. It seems the baseball writers, and most of you, seem to think so...

[Tavish]

Im just trying to figure out whether the best player is always the Most Valuable one. It seems the baseball writers, and most of you, seem to think so...

No its not an always situation where the best hitter is the most valuable. But when the gap is so tremendous the other factors can't make up the difference. The AL MVP is a good example, the best hitter out of the candidates didn't win (Manny), the best fielder out of the candidates didn't win (Sheffield), but the player who had the best all around season did (Vlad). With Barry, the offensive numbers are so overwhelming that the smaller pieces didn't really matter.