He won't win it, obviously, but the real AL MVP this year was Mariano Rivera. What he accomplished at his age was simply amazing.
K-rod finished 6th in the MVP voting last year while have 18 more saves than Mo this year.
Saves = nothing
His WHIP, ERA, and SO/Walks were all worse than Rivera's this year.
Neither should sniff any MVP consideration for either of their years though.
Oh I agree, Im just saying last year the guy set the single season saves record and finished in 6th place for MVP. I dont think Mariano who had a good year, but not exceptional year should get the award.
I dont have time to dig for stats that would really beef my argument up but to make a strong case for a closer to be MVP, the team would have to be in alot of close games.
If the Angels didnt have a strong bullpen/closer last year, they would have won way fewer games than the 100 they did. They only outscored teams by 68 runs.
This years Yankees won 103 games but outscored teams by 163 runs.
Therefor, last year KRod was way more valuable for the Angels than Mo to the Yankees this year in the regular season because he was more often contributing to the win.