Baseball writers win MVP: Most Vacuous People award

After denying recognition to Troy Tulowitski as the baseball rookie of the year, and snubbing skipper Clint Hurdle for coach of the year honors, almost no one - or at least me - thought that Matt Holliday would be passed over as NL Most Valuable Player. But the writers of the game again mystified many fans by voting the Phillies' shortstop Jimmy Rollins as MVP for this season.

What? A Phillies' player got MVP again? Yes, it's true (Ryan Howard won last year).

One look at the numbers says it all: Holliday led the league in batting (.340) RBIs (137), hits (216), total bases (386), doubles (50) and extra-base hits at 92, including his 36 home runs. And who can forget his tying triple in the 13 th inning of the playoff game and the head-first dive to win it?

Rollins was impressive as the first player, Sports Illustrated points out, to get 200 hits and 20 doubles (38), triples (20), home runs (30) and stolen bases (41) in a single season, plus setting a record with 380 total bases and batting .296 while scoring 139 runs. But the Phillies were gone in the playoffs faster than one of their city's steak sanwiches.

One factor might have been the voting was done before the post season, when the Rockies swept the Phillies and Diamondbacks enroute to the World Series where they were swept by the Red Sox.

As I said in an earlier blog, I think the balloting shows a definite bias toward major-market clubs, and I'll bet after this vote, a lot of folks will agree. Post your own feelings on the Rockies being ignored for honors here on YourHub.com.