Holliday Over Hanley?
August 15, 2007 by Geoff Young
Filed under Awards
Jacob and his fellow writers at Epic Carnival have assembled a list of their choices for MVP and Cy Young awards if the season ended today. My only gripe is with the NL MVP award. Matt Holliday is enjoying a fine season, but that .299/.362/.470 line away from Coors Field is pretty pedestrian. For my money, he’s not in the same class as Florida’s Hanley Ramirez, who is putting up goofy numbers at a premium defensive position in a much more difficult environment. It also seems like Vlad Guerrero should get a little more love in the AL voting, but maybe he’s one of those guys who has set the bar so high that almost anything he does will be viewed as a disappointment.
8IP, 10K; Dr. Fausto strikes again!
On a more serious (/intelligent) note, I agree that Hanley has been fantastic this year, but we can’t turn a blind eye to his fielding. THT’s RZR has him as the worst defensive shorstop in baseball (even behind Jeter!), and both MGL’s RZR and Dewan agree.
That being said, I have no clue who should be the NL MVP- I voted for Utley, but in a couple weeks he’ll have missed too much time to still be a viable candidate.
Holliday leads every almost every major hitting category in the NL…He also is single-handily carrying his team to a chance at the playoffs…Coors field isn’t even as good of hitters park as Citizens, so I don’t buy this Howard, Rollins, Utley bologne. Need proof: Holliday hit 4 balls 20 rows deep in 3 games in Philly, there have been more homers hit there this year, and the rockies have the LOWEST ERA in the NL since the all-star break at 3.90
Thomas, I agree that Citizens is a joke of a park; however, three games from Holliday there doesn’t tell us much. As for Coors vs Citizens, here are their park factors from 2005 to 2007:
Coors
‘05: 1.285 (#1 in MLB)
‘06: 1.149 (#2)
‘07: 1.169 (#3)
Citizens
‘05: 1.161 (#2)
‘06: 1.063 (#8)
‘07: 1.052 (#12)
Runs are still much easier to come by in Denver than they are in Philly. That said, Holliday deserves a lot of credit for hitting .357/.434/.833 in September and helping to keep a team in contention that nobody expected to be here this late in the season.