<B>As a side note, just because Ichiro did something that hasn't been done in a while doesn't mean he automatically gets the award over Giambi. </B> No one ever said it meant he "automatically" gets the award. It helps to show that there's a reasonable argument for giving him the award. As I stated in the original post: <I>To say that voters were stupid for picking Ichiro is just silly. Was there a case for Giambi? Absolutely. Was he the only reasonable winner? Hell no.</I>
<B>Ichiro's batting average with runners in scoring position is great, but the fact that he only had 69 RBIs tells you that he didn't have NEARLY as many RBI opportunities as Giambi, and therefore had a much smaller sample size to get that .450 average.</B> Not true. Ichiro actually had more at-bats that counted towards Avg with RISP than Giambi did. Ichiro: 136 AB, 0.449AVG, 0.509 OBP, 55 RBI Giambi: 113 AB, 0.354AVG, 0.531 OBP, 72 RBI Giambi just walked more often, and of course hits for more power, so he had more RBI's. Giambi gets on base alot, but couldn't do anything once he gets on. Ichiro doesn't get on base as much, but was able to be a playmaker when he got on base. Different players have different roles. Ichiro's don't score runs if there aren't cleanup hitters. Giambi's don't get RBI's if there aren't table setters.
Did any of that happen this year? No. Looking at those stats, Player B is clear and away the winner. And I'll share a little secret with you - there is nothing else that trumps that enormous lead in OPS, from any of those player. Then what was the point of trumpeting Ichiro's batting average with RISP as a reason for his winning the MVP? Its obvious that Giambi is better in that regard as well, as far as hitting with RISP goes. Ichiro was good defensively and a good baserunner, but its not nearly enough to compensate for the massive difference between Giambi and Ichiro as far as offensive production goes. In my opinion, choosing Ichiro over Giambi was stupid. Heck, Sosa was closer to Bonds than Ichiro was to Giambi.
I don't believe anyone said they were silly or stupid. As I recall, the general statement of the pro-Giambi people in this thread is that Giambi deserved the award over Suzuki for the reasons given.
I think the point needs to be made that it's the Most Valuable Player award, not the Offensive Player of the Year award. Ichiro's team did tie the all-time wins record and even though he wasn't solely responsible for that, he was certainly tremendously valuable to the team, won a gold glove I think, and was apparently the most clutch hitter in baseball this season.
....also there will always be subjective weight included with the objective weight which dominates. Remember when larkin won it in 95? If you went solely on numbers who would say no way he should have won...so many had better numbers, but there is a definite subjective consideration here...
