Congrats Vansmack!

Guerrero voted AL MVP

By RONALD BLUM, AP Sports Writer
November 16, 2004
NEW YORK (AP) – Vladimir Guerrero won the American League MVP award Tuesday, just the fifth time a player switched leagues and earned the honor in his first season with his new team.

The Anaheim Angels right fielder received 21 of 28 first-place votes and 354 points in balloting by the Baseball Writers' Association of America.

New York Yankees right fielder Gary Sheffield finished second with five first-place votes and 254 points. Boston players split the remaining two first-place votes, with left fielder Manny Ramirez finishing third with 238 points and designated hitter David Ortiz winding up fourth with 174 points.

Guerrero, 28, signed with the Angels last winter after eight seasons with the Montreal Expos. He hit .337 with 39 homers and 126 RBIs as Anaheim won the AL West, and led the league with 124 runs and 366 total bases. He batted .371 in September with 10 homers and 23 RBIs.

The only other non-rookies who became MVPs in their first AL seasons were Baltimore's Frank Robinson (1966), Chicago's Dick Allen (1972) and Detroit's Willie Hernandez (1984). In the NL, Kirk Gibson accomplished the feat with Los Angeles in 1988.

Houston's Roger Clemens won the NL Cy Young Award last week following his first season in the league. Clemens won six Cy Youngs in the AL.

Guerrero became the second Angels player to win, joining Don Baylor (1979). He is the fourth Dominican to be MVP, following Toronto's George Bell (1987), the Chicago Cubs' Sammy Sosa (1998) and Oakland's Miguel Tejada (2002).

Guerrero gets a $500,000 bonus for winning the award and Ramirez $100,000 for finishing third. Ortiz didn't get anything for finishing fourth – but would get $400,000 for finishing second through fifth in his contract that starts next season.

Tejada, now with Baltimore, gets a $300,000 bonus for finishing fifth, and Detroit's Ivan Rodriguez gets $100,000 for winding up 10th.


Updated on Tuesday, Nov 16, 2004 2:00 pm EST

What did Vansmack do?

horseshit.

Originally posted by Rhett Miller:
What did Vansmack do?

Lobbied hard my friend!!!!!

Thanks Venerable. I know what you mean even if others don't!

Good for Vladi and good for Arte Moreno, who went out and got his guy. Now I have to go lobby for him to leave "Anaheim" alone.

Originally posted by sonickteam2:
horseshit.

21 of 28 first place votes is hardly horseshit, especially for someone who plays on the Left Coast.

He hit nearly 30 points higher, trailed in doubles, RBI's, and HRs by less then 5 without playing 81 games with the green monster, stole 11 more bases, scored 16 more runs, not to mention he led the AL in throwing guys out on the basepaths (13), even with people knowing he has an arm. Manny threw out 4 players, even with the short fence behind him.

Maybe if it was Manny and not David Ortiz hitting all those walkoff HR's you'd have a case, but from Aug 15 on, Vlad carried the Angels into the postseason. That's what MVP's do.

Originally posted by sonickteam2:
horseshit.

I know, Sheffield shoulda got it. ;)

Seriously, Vlad is the man. :cool:

what i like best about that article is knowing that tejada got $300K for coming in 5th, but manny got $100K, and david ortiz got bupkus. course, ortiz was a cast-off from the twins, and generally unwanted. but manny needs to get himself a new agent.

sorry smackie. vlad is a great player, but i think had Ramirez and Ortiz not been on the same team one of them would've had it.

Originally posted by Venerable Bede:
but manny needs to get himself a new agent.

manny makes like $21 million a year

I'm just pretty proud as a Dominican that 4 out of the 5 finalists are fellow countrymen…

Then how do you justify Bonds' getting the MVP, and not Pujols?

Originally posted by vansmack:

Originally posted by sonickteam2:
horseshit.

, but from Aug 15 on, Vlad carried the Angels into the postseason. That's what MVP's do.

Originally posted by Rhett Miller:
Then how do you justify Bonds' getting the MVP, and not Pujols?

I don't. I wouldn't have picked Bonds. I don't like cheaters.

Originally posted by sonickteam2:
sorry smackie. vlad is a great player, but i think had Ramirez and Ortiz not been on the same team one of them would've had it.

Right. If they didn't play together all you could do is reduce the number of times one scored and the number of RBI's the other had, but it's not like they split the first place votes so Vlad got it. Look at the math:

AL MVP Award Voting
Player, team 1st 2nd 3rd Total
Guerrero, Ana. 21 5 1 354
Sheffield, N.Y. 5 8 9 254
Ramirez, Bos. 1 14 9 238
Ortiz, Bos. 1 – 5 174
Tejada, Bal. – 1 – 123

One for Manny, one for Ortiz, five for Sheff, and TWENTY ONE for Vlad. This wasn't even close. How do you figure?

Originally posted by Rhett Miller:
What did Vansmack do?

Yeah, what did he do?

<img src="http://larry.teamoverkill.com/pics/temp/worst_thread_ever.jpg" alt=" - " />

Originally posted by Deepak Chopra:
Yeah, what did he do?

Which reminds me, I saw Deepak Chopra this weekend speak with Dean Ornisch. Not that impressed but the hippies here in No Cal love him.

Originally posted by vansmack:

Which reminds me, I saw Deepak Chopra this weekend speak with Dean Ornisch. Not that impressed but the hippies here in No Cal love him. [/QB]

I looked down upon the unfaithful.

Originally posted by vansmack:

Originally posted by sonickteam2:
sorry smackie. vlad is a great player, but i think had Ramirez and Ortiz not been on the same team one of them would've had it.

Right. If they didn't play together all you could do is reduce the number of times one scored and the number of RBI's the other had, but it's not like they split the first place votes so Vlad got it. Look at the math:

AL MVP Award Voting
Player, team 1st 2nd 3rd Total
Guerrero, Ana. 21 5 1 354
Sheffield, N.Y. 5 8 9 254
Ramirez, Bos. 1 14 9 238
Ortiz, Bos. 1 – 5 174
Tejada, Bal. – 1 – 123

One for Manny, one for Ortiz, five for Sheff, and TWENTY ONE for Vlad. This wasn't even close. How do you figure?

the votes arent really the math. people voted for them.

so if you take Manny's numbers and David's numbers and Vlad's numbers, whose are more valuable compared to the rest of the team.

i mean, Vlad is MORE valuable to Los Angeles than either Ortiz or Ramirez is to Boston, but I would take Ramirez over Guerrero on most days.

i think Ortiz not just took votes from Manny and vice versa, but they kinda cancelled each other out completely.

but i dont care too much, cause we won the goddamn world series.

i am just sayin.

Originally posted by sonickteam2:
but i dont care too much, cause we won the goddamn world series.

i am just sayin.

America takes it again, that is amazing! Is this like, the millionth time the world series is won by an American team? You tall Americans, you!

Originally posted by sonickteam2:

i mean, Vlad is MORE valuable to Los Angeles than either Ortiz or Ramirez is to Boston

you said it yourself!!!

oh, and the team is in anaheim, not l.a.

Originally posted by Deepak Chopra:
America takes it again, that is amazing! Is this like, the millionth time the world series is won by an American team? You tall Americans, you!

yeah but most of the players up for awards are not American, so I guess it is a World Series