Phil Sheridan goes medieval on the BBWAA for not giving the MVP award to Ryan Howard, as well as a general distaste for the fact that the writers have any say in the voting for awards in the first place.

I don’t really like the idea of the writers deciding these awards either. The same goes for the Hall of Fame. But I also don’t have a great idea for who should do it if they don’t, and it doesn’t seem like Sheridan does, either.

Maybe a consortium of writers, Hall of Famers, current players and other baseball minds would be better than putting all of the onus on the writers.

Sheridan’s second point, that Ryan Howard deserved the MVP award, is just silly. Howard had a good year, but caught fire mostly at the end. His first few months were awful. His batting average was atrocious, and no MVP should be given to any player with a batting average of .251, unless he drives in 200 runs and hits 80 homers.

The award is to the player who was most valuable to his team. There were many reasons why the Cardinals finished 4th in their division, and none had anything to do with Pujols. The fact that he couldn’t will them to a higher finish despite a .357 BA, 116 RBI and 37 HR should not preclude him from being awarded.

Clearly there were some stupid votes cast, as Sheridan points out, but in the end the right guy won the award.