NL MVP to be Announced this Afternoon

I apologize for neglecting the blog these past few days; I have been a little busy. Fortunately, there was not much complaining to do as the Sixers destroyed the OKC Thunder on Saturday night and the Flyers upset Montreal and beat Atlanta last night.

However, I was not so thrilled to see the Eagles tie a Bengals team that has won all of one game this season. I am not going to do my usual angry tirade about the Eagles, but I will just say what I have been saying all along: It is time for Andy Reid, Donovan "Choke" McNabb and Joe Banner to go.

But today the Baseball Writers' Association of America will announce its' National League Most Valuable Player award. Our boy Ryan Howard is one of the front runners to win, as is St. Louis Cardinals first baseman Albert "Winnie the" Pujols, as Chris Berman would say. 

This race is so close and there is certainly no definitive answer as to who will win. Let's analyze the two candidates:

Ryan Howard: .251 BA, 48 HR, 146 RBI, .543 SLG

Winnie: .357 BA, 44 HR, 116 RBI, .653 SLG

And as much as I would like to add "World Series Champion" to Howard's line, postseason attributes do not factor into MVP voting.

Prior to this season, everyone was talking about how Chase Utley would complete the three-peat as Phillies' MVP winners, but that will not be the case this year.

Clearly, Howard's average drags him down and as much as I am pulling for him on this one, I would not put my money on it. At least not a lot of it. 

A few days ago, I said the same things regarding Charlie Manuel and the NL Manager of the Year award, and unfortunately, I was correct.

But this time, I have a better feeling. As much as I feel that Pujols will take this award, I think Howard has a good shot; at least a better shot than Manuel did. 

I would guesstimate that Howard has about a 40% chance at winning and Pujols, a 57% chance. 

And how about some love for Manny? You can not deny what this guy did for his team so let's give him that last 3%.

I will post as soon as it is announced. Should be around 2 p.m. Stay tuned.