A-Rod is no MVP

Alex Rodriguez may be the best player in baseball.

Certainly, it would be hard to argue that he is not the best player in the American League.

He is an incredible shortstop defensively and is very consistent at one of the most difficult positions in baseball.

Rodriguez scored 124 runs, which led the AL, and he hit 47 home runs and had a .600 slugging percentage with 118 RBI to his credit.

He shows up every day for a last place team and plays his heart out.

So, he received the MVP award this week in the American League.

Looking at all of his numbers and consistency, he deserved it. Right? No, I don't think so.

First of all, let's consider the team Rodriguez is playing on, the Texas Rangers.

This is a team that had a 71-91 record to finish dead last in the American League West.

In fact, since Rodriguez signed on with the Rangers three years ago, this Texas team has finished in the cellar every year.

The team is basically not very good and A-Rod has not helped the situation.

Is this all his fault? No way.

However, my point is that Rodriguez has not made this team any better record-wise since he has been there.

Finishing last is what the Rangers would be doing no matter who was playing shortshop. This is the MVP of the AL?

Also, reports have come up that A-Rod is on the trading block.

If he is so valuable to his team, how could he be traded?

The Ranger front office sees the fact that although he is a great baseball player, he is more valuable to get players in a trade that would help them win than he is on the field playing.

Is this what an MVP is all about?

So, who should be the MVP in the AL this year?

That is really up for debate.

You could make a pretty good case for Carlos DelGado who finished second to A-Rod in the voting.

DelGado hit .302 for the Toronto Blue Jays, while A-Rod did not even reach the .300 level being the MVP.

DelGado also hit five less home runs than Rodriguez, but actually had 27 more RBI than him driving in 145 to A-Rod's 118.

Their slugging percentages are very close with Rodriguez's being slightly higher.

DelGado had 109 walks to A-Rod's 87.

I could go on and on, but the bottom line is that both players are pretty close in their numbers.

One thing that is different, their respective team's records.

While Toronto finished in third place in their division with an 86-76 record with Carlos DelGado, the Texas Rangers finished, as I said before, with a 71-91 record with A-Rod.

I'm not sure if DelGado is on the trading block, but I don't think he is.

Sure, you can say that DelGado had more people around him to have more success team-wise.

I can't dispute that, but you can look at it both ways.

Opposing pitchers could pitch to A-Rod because many times he would be batting with no one on base.

If anyone was on base, they could pitch around him.

Maybe that is why he had less RBI than DelGado. Who knows?

DelGado had more players around him, so he could hit with more people on base.

Therefore, he had more chances to get the RBI.

Either way you look at it, the question remains, would A-Rod have had more runs batted in if he had a better team? We will never know.

One thing we do know, however, is that DelGado didn't fail very often when he had a chance to drive in runs.

He had more pressure on him to drive in runs playing for a winning team.

Although the New York Yankees and the Boston Red Sox started running away from the Blue Jays in the end, there was a time when Toronto was in the hunt.

I don't think the Rangers were ever in the hunt.

Personally, A-Rod seems like a great guy. He is very professional and a role model to the youth who follow baseball.

However, when he won the MVP, he admitted that the award was "driving him crazy."

Also, he said it was "painful to come in second place," and now he "couldn't be happier."

Are you serious, A-Rod? Wasn't is painful to watch your team, the Texas Rangers, come in last place the last three years.

Now, you can't be happier that you lost 91 games, but did receive the MVP.

Sounds kind of selfish to me.

What is the MVP award anyway?

Does it go to the best player in his league? Does it go to the most important player on his team?

That is, if this player was not on his team, they would be terrible. I don't really know.

"Most" means something like the "greatest or highest degree," according to Webster's dictionary.

Webster's first definition of "valuable" is "having monetary value."

So, I guess if you look at these definitions and use the worth of Rodriguez's contract, he may be the MVP.

After all, no player in the league is going to make $179 million over the next seven years.

His contract is the most valuable and he is the player with that contract, therefore, he is the MVP.

However, that is only if you use money as the criteria for value.

Baseball will not clearly define what the Most Valuable Player Award really means.

It is very vague and subjective to each voter.

Usually, it is given to a player on a winning team, seeing as Rodriguez was only the second player to win from a last place team.

Since not one player really was head and shoulders above the rest, A-Rod received the award.

I would just like to think that the MVP of the entire American League was good enough to keep his team out of last place.

I will not argue his greatness as a player, but Rodriguez needs to play for a winning team where he is the man that has all the pressure on him.

Then, if he performs and gets his team in the playoffs and continues to put up the numbers he does, A-Rod would deserve the MVP.

We may find out if he can do that next year when he is traded to a winning team that expects Rodriguez to put them over the top.