{"id":186,"date":"2008-09-25T23:15:50","date_gmt":"2008-09-26T04:15:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.broadstreetbelievers.com\/?p=186"},"modified":"2008-09-26T11:23:13","modified_gmt":"2008-09-26T16:23:13","slug":"the-final-weekend","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/broadstreetbelievers.com\/?p=186","title":{"rendered":"The Final Weekend and an MVP Pick"},"content":{"rendered":"

–Well, I went into tonight just looking for a loss from the Mets or the Brewers.\u00a0 I would have been ecstatic if just one <\/em>of them had lost but, alas, they both pulled out walk-off wins and the Phillies find themselves clinging to just a one-game lead in both the division and the wild card race.\u00a0 This is not where I thought they would be as of one week ago but, on the other hand, if you had offered me this scenario at the beginning of the season, or even two weeks ago, I would’ve signed up.\u00a0 Now the Phils (and the Mets) will have to deal with the rains all weekend, which could have them playing meaningful games into Monday.\u00a0 Ideally, they’ll have the division won going into the final game and can save Cole Hamels for a Game 1 playoff start, but that’s getting ahead of ourselves at this point.\u00a0 But, really, are we going to see this <\/em>Mets team and <\/em>this Brewers team step up and handle the pressure this weekend?\u00a0 Well, let’s hope not.<\/p>\n

–Ryan Howard has gotten all the buzz for NL MVP over the last week or two, and rightfully so.\u00a0 He’s certainly carried the \"pujols\"team to the division lead and has been clutch all season long, as mentioned in a New York Times article <\/a>today.\u00a0 But if I look at it objectively, I have to go with Albert Pujols for MVP.\u00a0 Most pundits this year seem to be ruling him out because the Cardinals won’t be in the playoffs, but I’m not sure when that became a prerequisite for winning an MVP award.\u00a0 Obviously, a team’s success enhances the MVP resume of any candidate, but the Cardinals have had a solid season and over-achieved by a lot, largely thanks to his\u00a0.353 BA, 35 HR, and a ridiculous .458 OBP, which is more what you expect from Barry Bonds after a ‘roid binge.\u00a0 I know, I know, it’s the most valuable<\/em> player, not the best.\u00a0 But hey, this is a team game, and just because the Phillies are better than the Cardinals doesn’t mean Pujols is less valuable than Howard.\u00a0 In the end, I just don’t see how a guy that hits .248 and brings nothing to the table defensively can be the MVP.\u00a0 Although, I will be hoping Howard gets it!<\/p>\n

–I mentioned in my post a couple weeks ago that the division could come down to Pedro Martinez and Joe Blanton.\u00a0 The Mets managed a win tonight despite another unimpressive outing from Pedro.\u00a0 Blanton will take the ball tomorrow in a big spot for the Phils.\u00a0 Here’s hoping the Nationals act like the Nationals.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

–Well, I went into tonight just looking for a loss from the Mets or the Brewers.\u00a0 I would have been ecstatic if just one of them had lost but, alas, they both pulled out walk-off wins and the Phillies find … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[357,356,68,358,16,218],"class_list":["post-186","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-mlb","tag-albert-pujols","tag-brewers","tag-mets","tag-pennant-race","tag-phillies","tag-ryan-howard"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/broadstreetbelievers.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/186","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/broadstreetbelievers.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/broadstreetbelievers.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/broadstreetbelievers.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/broadstreetbelievers.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=186"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/broadstreetbelievers.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/186\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/broadstreetbelievers.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=186"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/broadstreetbelievers.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=186"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/broadstreetbelievers.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=186"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}