Who Is Your MVP?

The Phillies sent out ace Cliff Lee to toe the rubber last night in game 5 of the World Series on full rest, the Yankees countered with AJ Burnett on short rest. Cliff was old school good and AJ got lit up like the 4th of July. What is interesting on how just the smallest thing can change the outcome or flow of a game of baseball. In game 2 the ump was giving AJ the wide outside strike allowing him to dictate each at bat. Game 5 the ump calls strikes-strikes and balls off the corner as balls. That made Burnett throw his fastball over the plate where he got tagged and was ineffective for the most part.


Chase Utley just keeps mashing and is getting to the point where regardless of who wins the World Series, he may be in a real good position to be named MVP. If the Phillies mange the improbable and do somehow pull the upset then it isn’t an issue but if the Yankees do manage to close things out at home then who is most deserving of the honour? Utley is tearing it up so far and has tied Reggie Jackson’s home run record, his hits are coming in important times and not just meaningless tag on runs. Does Mariano Rivera finally get credit for not only a post season but career of being the best of the best at that position. Does Jeter or Damon get the nod for having some multiple hit games and scoring a few runs? ARod has had a decent series on the whole. He hasn’t lit it up but the 3 or 4 hits that he has got have been big or game changing. As well his overall numbers over the course of the playoffs are very good. An MVP and a World Series win just might finally make him a true Yankee.

Despite the fact that the series has been fairly interesting, which is a change from the last few years of being anti-climactic, there has not been a clear cut dynamic performance by any one person. It is that team effort thing and not the one guy saying ‘jump on my back and i’ll take you there.’ That is what makes it such a tight race for the award. Since this is baseball I guess it is anyone's guess until the ballots are counted.