Tracking MVP races as the break nears
The purpose of this column is to rank players according to how likely they are to win a given award, not by who is most deserving of that award. As a result, the rankings below bow to the conventional wisdom that Adrian Gonzalez and Prince Fielder have been the most valuable players in their respective leagues through the first half of the 2011 season, despite the fact that they quite clearly have not been. While Gonzalez and Fielder are indeed enjoying outstanding seasons, both are first basemen playing in hitter-friendly ballparks. If one adjusts their production to account for the offensive standard of their position and the tendencies of their home ballparks, both are slightly diminished. More significantly, even without any adjustments, each plays in a league with a player who has been clearly more productive in terms of raw numbers.
skate shoes basketball shoes baseball bats garmin forerunner 305 binoculars