Magglio Ordonez is on top of the AL in pretty much every category. With him starting slow for the first 2 weeks of the season, I figured that he had put up such gaudy numbers since that he’d be a shoo-in for AL player of the month numbers. Using the day by day database I pulled his competition for the month through the games of May 29th.
It turns out that there is quite the battle, and it could come down to the last day of the month. There are 3 players who have a real legitimate claim and their numbers are strikingly similar:
Kevin Youkilis has been the toughest out. Magglio Ordonez has hit for the most power. Mark Texeira has the least protection, as evidenced by the 4 intentional free passes and has knocked in the most runs.
It’s a player of the month honor, so it’s really not that important. I’m of course pulling for my home town guy, but it is an impressive group nonetheless.
I would think that the top 3 for the MVP voting would have to go Magg’s/Vlad/Youkilis, as well with ARod 4th though, as skewed as the balloting is, ARod would be even lower because of his team’s lack of success which isn’t directly attibuteable to him. But my MVP rant is saved for another day.
A guy named Carlos Pena has had a pretty good May, though in fewer at bats (73):
.356/.437/.671
Where’s Billfer? The games gettin ready to start.