Sox' Ortiz, a DH, hopes he's still in position for MVP

November 14, 2005|On baseball

If this was for an Oscar, there's no question they'd be calling out David Ortiz's name when they opened the envelope. No one in the major leagues made a more dramatic impact on the 2005 season than Big Papi.

He had three walkoff hits, including two home runs. He led the American League with 34 RBIs that put his team ahead, and was first in game-winning RBIs with 21, eight of which came from the seventh inning on. Nineteen of his 47 home runs came in the seventh inning or later, eight from the ninth inning on. In the last month of the season, when the Red Sox were trying to win the division against the Yankees, Ortiz hit 11 home runs, the most ever by a Sox player in the season's last month, and drove in 30 runs. His numbers for August were the same, 11 and 30.

But the award at stake is the American League Most Valuable Player award, one that will be announced this afternoon by the Baseball Writers Association of America, whose membership (two writers per AL city) cast its ballots at the end of the regular season. The Boston voters for the MVP were Bill Ballou of the Worcester Telegram and Steven Krasner of the Providence Journal, both veteran reporters who take their voting responsibilities seriously.

And for all of his late-game heroics, Ortiz probably rates no better than a 50-50 chance against New York Yankees third baseman Alex Rodriguez, who is bidding to win his second MVP award in the last three seasons.

Ortiz is trying to become the first Sox player since Mo Vaughn in 1995 to win the award, while Rodriguez, who won with Texas in 2003, is attempting to become the first Yankee since Don Mattingly in 1985 to win.

Ortiz faces a considerable handicap. No full-time designated hitter ever has won the award. Don Baylor, who won in 1979 for the California Angels, was a DH for 65 games, but played 97 games in the outfield. The closest a DH ever came to winning was in 2000, when Frank Thomas of the White Sox finished second to Jason Giambi of the Athletics. Thomas drew 10 first-place votes to Giambi's 14 (the other four went to A-Rod), and lost by 32 points overall (it's 10 points for a first-place vote, 9 for second, etc., with voters required to fill in all 10 spots on their ballot).

Consider the case of Edgar Martinez, who retired after 18 seasons with the Seattle Mariners and is generally considered the best DH of all time. In 1995, the year that Vaughn won, Martinez like Vaughn played for a playoff qualifier. He won the batting title with a .356 average, 56 points higher than Vaughn, led the league in runs scored (121) and doubles (52), had an on-base average almost 100 points higher (.479 to .388), and a slugging percentage more than 50 points higher (.628 to .575). Vaughn had more home runs (39 to 29) and more RBIs (126 to 113).