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The 2003 Sabey Awards Part 5: NL MVP

And so we come to the final day of the 2003 Sabey Awards. To recap:

The 2003 Sabey Awards Part 1: Rookie of the Year
The 2003 Sabey Awards Part 2: AL Cy Young
The 2003 Sabey Awards Part 3: NL Cy Young
The 2003 Sabey Awards Part 4: AL MVP



REGULAR METRICS

               Age  AVG  OBP  SLG   BB   K   XBH  HR  AB    R   RBI
Barry Bonds     39  341  529  749  148   58   68  45  390  111   90
Todd Helton     30  358  458  630  111   72   87  33  583  135  117
Javy Lopez      33  328  378  687   33   90   75  43  457   89  109
Mike Lowell     29  276  350  530   56   78   60  32  492   76  105
Albert Pujols   23  359  439  667   79   65   95  43  591  137  124
Gary Sheffield  34  330  419  604   86   55   78  39  576  126  132
Sammy Sosa      35  279  358  553   62  143   62  40  517   99  103
Jim Thome       33  266  385  573  111  182   80  47  578  111  131
Preston Wilson  29  282  343  537   54  139   80  36  600   94  141

ADVANCED METRICS

               Win Shares   EqA   RARP 
Barry Bonds     39.21 (2)   420  106.5
Todd Helton     33.52 (4)   345   73.3
Javy Lopez      29.73 (6)   337   64.4
Mike Lowell     23.04 (21)  299   41.7
Albert Pujols   41.13 (1)   362   90.8
Gary Sheffield  34.51 (3)   341   73.9
Sammy Sosa      21.77 (30)  303   38.3
Jim Thome       30.00 (5)   321   58.3
Preston Wilson  19.92 (39)  279   30.4

Okay, so I left Eric Gagne off the list. This was more out of laziness than any lack of merit on Gagne's part. He did put up more Win Shares (24.98) than three of the hitters here, but lets not kid ourselves, he wasn't going to win this award.

Here's a short list of others who won't be winning this award:

Javy Lopez - He broke the single-season record for most homers by a catcher, just edging out my drinking buddy Todd Hundley. This was an uncharacteristically productive season for Javier, who is usually just this side of worthless at the plate. His career year also came at a most opportune time, considering this was his walk year.

Mike Lowell - He had a very nice season, but wasn't even the best third baseman in the league (Scott Rolen), and might not have been the best player on his own team (Pudge Rodriguez).

Sammy Sosa - Come on. The guy was 30th in Win Shares, and only put up a .358 OBP. Great player, but didn't have a great season. Plus he missed some time RE: Corked Bat.

Jim Thome - Great pickup by the Phillies. The AVG was a twenty point drop from his career mark, but you can't complain about a .958 OPS in his first year in the league.

Preston Wilson - Nuff said.

While this is really a two horse race, I need to at least mention Todd Helton and player/agent Gary Sheffield. These guys actually put up very similar seasons in terms of Win Shares, EqA, and RARP. Sheff would probably get the nod because he doesn't play half of his games in a Batting Cage and he plays a (slightly) more demanding defensive position.

Poor Albert Pujols. The man is only (allegedly) 23 years old, and has already put up three MVP-caliber seasons. And, thanks to MLB's indentured servant rules, he only made $900k this year, and will continue to make chicken feed for the next three seasons. Unless he gets indicted on cocaine charges in the Dominican Republic or we find out he's actually 42, he stands to see a hefty raise come 2007. If he played in the American League, he'd run away with the award this year. Unfortunately for him, God happens to play in the National League.

Barry Bonds put up his worst year since 2000, when he posted a Neifi Perez-esque 1.128 OPS. He still managed to put up an otherworldly 1.278. Barry Bonds' production continues to boggle the mind. He led the league in OBP, SLG, OPS (duh), walks, intentional walks, BB/PA, BB/K, groundball-to-flyball ratio (not sure how impressive this is, but he led the league in it nonetheless), RC/27 (runs created per 27 outs), isolated power, secondary average (I'm just going through ESPN.com's sortable statistics at this point), etc. The only knock against him this year is that he played only 130 games. This explains why Pujols held a slight edge in Win Shares, but it won't be enough to deny Bonds his third straight (sixth overall) MVP award.

2003 Sabey Choice: Barry Bonds
Predicted MLB Winner: Barry Bonds