Every year about this time the baseball world finds itself hotly discussing, or debating, who the league MVPs and Cy-Young Award winners should be, and this year is no different. Sometimes we all get jipped, like last season, when a player like Alex Rodriguez has a season that is heads and shoulders above that had by anyone else in the league. And then sometimes we luck and get a race like last year’s matchup of Colorado’s Matt Holliday and the Phillies’ Jimmy Rollins.

This year, the raging debate in the American League is between Carlos Quentin of the Chicago White Sox and Josh Hamilton of the Texas Rangers, and the Cardinals’ Albert Pujols and Philly’s own Ryan Howard in the National League.

The real crux of the MVP issue is that the definition of what a Most Valuable Player is subjective to that particular voter. Is the MVP simply the guy who has had the best statistical year, no matter how his team has fared that season? Should a player on a last place team even be in the discussion? (see Rodriguez and the Texas Rangers) Or is the MVP the guy who carries his team into the postseason? A guy who single handily puts his team on his shoulders and extends their season into October, despite possibly not having the best all around numbers?

This debate is epitomized in the comparison of the seasons of Howard and Pujols. Ryan Howard leads the major leagues* this year in homeruns (45), RBIs (138) and runs (97). Albert Pujols is tied for second in the National League in hits (177), second in batting average (.353), second in walks (96), second in on base percentage (.457), and is first in slugging percentage (.641). Howard’s power numbers blow Pujols’ away, and in fact they crush everyone else in the league by at least 10. And Howard would probably be a shoe in if his average wasn’t around the .250 mark. But Pujols’ non-power numbers are significantly better than Howards.

For comparison,

HR          RBI         AVG       R             H            BB           OBP         SLG        K          AB

Howard         45          138        .248       97           144        77           .337        .534       190      580

Pujols           34           105       .353       93           177         96           .457        .641       52        501

The fact that Pujols has almost 80 less at bats diminishes Howard’s bigger power numbers, and in the categories that are less affected by the specific number of at bats (AVG, OBP, and SLG), Pujols crushes Howard. The most glaring disparity is in the number of strikeouts. Howard is competing with Arizona’s Mark Reynolds for the major league lead in strikeouts, and could break the single season record, whereas Pujols has a paltry 52 all season. That number is obviously slanted since he has so many less at bats, so we’ll compare their strikeout to at bat ratio. Howard strikeouts 33% of the time, whereas Pujols strikes out just over 10% of the time. That is a staggering disparity.

So Pujols has clearly been the best all around player in the league this year. But the award is not the Most Outstanding Player award, or the Best Player In The League award. It is called the Most Valuable Player award, and that leads to a disambiguation in the definition of the award.

One could very well argue that MVP refers to the player who is most important to his particular team, and I would argue that that player is Howard, not Pujols. One could even make the argument that Carlos Delgado is deserving of the award. Lets look at the numbers.

Since September 1,

HR RBI AVG R H BB OBP SLG K AB K/AB

Howard 9 27 .371 19 23 8 .431 .935 14 62 23%

Pujols 5 16 .279 10 17 9 .371 .623 5 61 8%

Delgado 6 13 .328 14 19 6 .385 .690 11 58 19%

In that time (Sept. 1 – 18) the Phillies are 11-5, the Cardinals are 5-10, and the Mets are 9-6. Howard has had a monster month, hitting in clutch situations like nothing I have seen in sometime, whereas Pujols has cooled off and his team has completely fallen out of contention. So by this other MVP definition, Howard clearly has to be considered the winner.

The debate will continue to rage over who this year’s MVP should be, as it will over what it means to be an MVP.

*Stats as of Friday pre game time