Kevin Youkilis – 2008 MVP?
Posted on August 22, 2008
Filed Under 2008 Season | Leave a Comment
The whispers about Kevin Youkilis have gotten louder and louder all season.
In April, they were ‘yeah man, no way Youk keeps this up for the rest of the season.‘ Now it’s August and the murmurs have become ‘dude, I think Youk has a chance to be the AL MVP!‘
I was listening to WEEI at work yesterday and there were a huge portion of calls talking about Kevin Youkilis and his candidacy for MVP. To be honest, there aren’t too many locks to win the award. Let’s check out Youk’s resume:
.321 BA (2nd in AL)
.388 OBP (9th in AL)
.577 SLG (4th in AL)
24 HR (10th in AL)
88 RBI (6th in AL)
Throw in the fact that his fielding this season has still been Gold Glove caliber, and you’ve got a potential MVP. His competition* will largely consist of Carlos Quentin and Justin Morneau. Quentin has better numbers while Morneau has a smaller supporting cast in Minnesota thus making him more valuable to the team. I’m not saying that Youkilis doesn’t have his work cut out for him but he’s sure to be in the mind of MVP voters.
* – I’m removing Josh Hamilton and Alex Rodriguez from the equation because the urge to pick a player on a contending team has never been stronger. Both of these guys are playing on teams that will likely miss the playoffs and probably wreck their MVP chances as well.
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