He did it folks! He did it!!
Boston Red Sox second baseman Dustin Pedroia was named American League MVP this afternoon by the Baseball Writers Association of America.
Pedroia is just the third person, Cal Ripken and Ryan Howard are the others, to be named MVP and Rookie of the Year. Fred Lynn (1975) and Ichiro Suzuki (2001) won both in the same year.
Pedroia is the first second baseman in Red Sox history to win the award and is the first AL MVP for the Red Sox since Mo Vaughn won it in 1995. He is the 10th AL MVP for Boston since 1931.
He finished second in batting average this season hitting .326, had 17 home runs, 83 RBI and 20 stolen bases. He led the league in runs scored with 118 and had 54 doubles.
This is the third postseason honor for Pedroia as he was awarded a 2008 Gold Glove and won the AL Silver Slugger Award at second base.
Justin Morneau of the Minnesota Twins finished second in the voting and Red Sox first baseman Kevin Youkilis finished third.
Here is how the writers voted for the AL MVP. Each city’s writers got two votes. Evan Grant of the Dallas Morning News left Pedroia off his ballot entirely.
| Player | Club | 1st | 2nd | 3rd | 4th | 5th | 6th | 7th | 8th | 9th | 10th | Points |
| Dustin Pedroia | Boston Red Sox | 16 | 6 | 4 | 1 | — | — | — | — | — | — | 317 |
| Justin Morneau | Minnesota Twins | 7 | 7 | 6 | 3 | 3 | 1 | 1 | — | — | — | 257 |
| Kevin Youkilis | Boston Red Sox | 2 | 4 | 4 | 9 | 2 | 4 | 1 | 2 | — | — | 201 |
| Joe Mauer | Minnesota Twins | 2 | 8 | 1 | 3 | 4 | 3 | 3 | 2 | 1 | — | 188 |
| Carlos Quentin | Chicago White Sox | — | 1 | 4 | 8 | 4 | 4 | 4 | — | 1 | 1 | 160 |
| Francisco Rodriguez | Los Angeles Angels | 1 | 2 | 6 | 1 | 6 | — | 3 | 2 | — | 2 | 143 |
| Josh Hamilton | Texas Rangers | — | — | 2 | 2 | 3 | 7 | 3 | 2 | 4 | 3 | 112 |
| Alex Rodriguez | New York Yankees | — | — | — | — | 1 | 1 | 4 | 1 | 4 | 7 | 45 |
| Carlos Pena | Tampa Bay Rays | — | — | 1 | — | 2 | — | 2 | 3 | 2 | 3 | 44 |
| Grady Sizemore | Cleveland Indians | — | — | — | — | — | 2 | 1 | 5 | 6 | 1 | 42 |
| Evan Longoria | Tampa Bay Rays | — | — | — | — | — | 2 | 2 | 5 | 2 | 1 | 38 |
| Cliff Lee | Cleveland Indians | — | — | — | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | — | 1 | — | 24 |
| Miguel Cabrera | Detroit Tigers | — | — | — | — | — | 1 | — | 1 | 4 | 1 | 17 |
| Vladimir Guerrero | Los Angeles Angels | — | — | — | — | — | — | 2 | 2 | 1 | — | 16 |
| Jermaine Dye | Chicago White Sox | — | — | — | — | 1 | — | — | 2 | — | 2 | 14 |
| Aubrey Huff | Baltimore Orioles | — | — | — | — | — | 1 | — | — | 2 | 3 | 12 |
| Milton Bradley | Texas Rangers | — | — | — | — | — | 1 | 1 | — | — | — | 9 |
| Jason Bartlett | Tampa Bay Rays | — | — | — | — | 1 | — | — | — | — | — | 6 |
| Mike Mussina | New York Yankees | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | 1 | — | — | 3 |
| Raul Ibanez | Seattle Mariners | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | 1 | 1 |
| Ian Kinsler | Texas Rangers | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | 1 | 1 |
| Ichiro Suzuki | Seattle Mariners | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | 1 | 1 |
| Mark Teixeira | Los Angeles Angels | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | 1 | 1 |
I’m happy with the result, but how does Justin Morneau finish second? Yes, good year, but not as good as Youk.
I can see Youk smashing a few things in his house tonight.
Congrats but I actually think Youk should have been below Morneau AND Mauer.
Very well deserved for Pedroia. Youk finishing that high surprises me because he was the leader in zero statistical categories.
did anyone else notice Pedroia only had 27 writers of 28 vote for him? While Morneau and Youkilis had 28 voters. I mean even if you didn’t think he was the winner how is he not in your top four or five?
Evan Grant of the Dallas Morning News left Pedroia off his ballot completely. his first place vote went to Kevin Youkilis which is fine but how do you not cast a ballot in anyother spot for Pedroia?
This is from Sean McAdam:
Red Sox second baseman Dustin Pedroia, voted earlier today the American League MVP, was named on every one of the 28 ballots except one. Evan Grant, who covers the Texas Rangers for the Dallas Morning News, left Pedroia off entirely.
Grant had Kevin Youkilis (who finished third) as his first-place choice, followed by Francisco Rodriguez, Justin Morneau, Josh Hamilton, Carlos Quentin, Alex Rodriguez, Cliff Lee, Joe Mauer, Grady Sizemore and Carlos Pena.
“In hindsight,” said Grant this afternoon, “the way I stacked up my ballot was obviously the wrong way to do it.”
Grant said he relied heavily on OPS (on-base percentage plus slugging percentage) and batting average with runners in scoring position and found Pedroia behind his other listed candidates in those categories. Pedroia had an OPS of .864, placing him behind the eight position players on Grant’s ballot.
Pedroia hit .307 with runners in scoring position, a figure lower than that of five position players on Grant’s ballot, but higher than the figures for Alex Rodriguez (.271), Sizemore (.268) and Pena (.259).
“Where I may have screwed up,” said Grant, “is that I obviously didn’t give enough value to how much Dustin moved around and how timely some of his hits were. While I gave an awaful lot of credt to Youk, I should have balanced that out more with credit to Pedroia. All the numbers I was looking at said, to me, that Youkilis picked up the slack when the injuries to (Mike) Lowell and (David) Ortiz hit and I didn’t put enough value into what (Pedroia) did by moving around the lineup.
“Based on the vote of all my other colleaguesa, I misinterpreted how valuable Dustin Pedroia was. If my statistical analysis was wrong, I am happy to see it didn’t prevent him from winning the award that my collegeus thought he deserved.”
I think they got it right with Youk finishing third myself. He was invaluable when Manny left the team, Lowell got hurt, etc, etc….
Just shows you how smart some baseball writers are. I’m sure he’s been getting some nasty emails from Red Sox faithful today.
And if you want to email him yourself: egrant@dallasnews.com
I can only imagine if he cost Pedroia the MVP spot.
Some of the young fans and of course the pink hats don’t remember in 1999 when Pedro martinez was left off the ballot by a New York writer (George King I beleive) and it did most likely cost him the MVP.
That was the year Pedro was 23-4 with a 2.07 ERA and 0.92 WHIP and 313K’s. He lost by 13 points to Ivan Rodriguez 252 to 239.