Let's get this right out of the way so that fans of Jimmy Rollins or Philadelphia can think about jabbing the pitchfork through this blog rather than no thought whatsoever: Jimmy Rollins is a good shortstop and has been one of the best in the National League for years.  Teams would kill for a guy like him to play position 6 for several years.  His game has transformed him from being a speed guy to an all-around, perennial All-Star shortstop.  

But he is not the MVP of the National League.  In fact, he is not the MVP of his team.  

That distinction goes to Chase Utley.  I realize Utley's playoff performance was a disappointment while Rollins showed up, but the playoffs do not dictate who the MVP of the regular season is.  The Phillies could not have gotten to the playoffs without the play of Rollins, Utley or Ryan Howard, the reigning MVP of last season.  The team went through a roller coaster ride all season; from a manager on the hot seat to the team losing pitchers to injury to a head-#### starter-turned-closer losing his head (only this time it was not on his wife), to making an improbable comeback to win the division.  Who was the one guy Philly could not play without?  Chase Utley.  When he was hurt, Philadelphia went into a funk.  When he came back from injury, they starting clicking again.  That is why he is the MVP of this team.  They were not the same team when Utley was out of the lineup.

As for Rollins, who played a big role in Philadelphia's run for the playoffs, is to his team what Kenny Lofton was to Cleveland in the mid-90's, what Roberto Alomar was to the Toronto Blue Jays in the early 90's and what Derek Jeter has been to the New York Yankees.  All rock-solid players who are valuable to their team - but none of them have an MVP under their name during the regular season.  Seems strange because those guys were impact players in their prime (in Jeter's case he still is an impact player), but that does not downplay how great they were or are.  Rollins is that guy. 

But don't go Barry Larkin and give him the MVP. 

Who takes the award then?

Some people are saying Matt Holliday.  Granted, Holliday plays in Colorado - a place known for offense but he certainly had a great year.  However, Holliday wasn't even on the radar until the last week of the season.  An MVP should have had strong consideration before September 15th.  Therefore, Holliday is not an option.

This decision, however, will allow you to pile up ridicule.

David Wright.

I realize New York just had one of the biggest choke jobs in baseball history.  But Wright was the man the entire year, hit for a great average with great power, fielded his position like a gold glover and added 30+ stolen bases to his credit.  Not to mention that his second half and September batting average was incredible.  So how do you fault the guy?  The Toronto Blue Jays choked a big lead away in 1987 to the Detroit Tigers when they lost their final 7 games of the season.  The man who won the MVP award that season was George Bell, who played with the Jays.  He was the MVP that season and David Wright should be the MVP of the National League. 

Other Awards:

- A-Rod should win the AL MVP, Jake Peavy should win the Cy Young Award in the NL and I'd give the AL Cy Young to Josh Beckett with C.C. Sabathia being a close second.  Give Ryan Braun the Rookie of the year in the NL and Dustin Pedroia the Rookie of the year in the AL.  Coaches of the year?  Let's go with Eric Wedge and Bob Melvin.

***My show has been on hiatus since Sept 20 as I have been working on other projects while recharging the batteries.  I will be back next Tuesday October 16 at 9AM EST. 

Picked up the 'USA Today Sports Weekly' that my brother brought home and started reading the article on the Toronto Blue Jays as they were comparing them to both the New York Yankees and the Boston Red Sox. The Blue Jays will need a few career years to have a shot at the division or the wild card this season.

But what the heck is with the Red Sox?

Canadian boy Adam Stern is slated to be the starting centerfielder, while slap hitting Alex Cora takes over at shortstop. Will they be able to fill in for a team looking to contend? That remains to be seen.

Other question marks are Kevin Youkilis playing first base. If you've ever read the book, 'Moneyball', Youkilis is referred to as 'The Greek God of Walks'. The guy played well when he got steady playing time last season, and he should have been playing over the vastly overrated Kevin Millar. J.T. Snow should take over the role John Olerud had last year.

The lineup for Boston still looks good when you have Manny Ramirez and David Ortiz occupying the middle of the order. They don't plan on putting Jason Varitek in the 8th spot, right? Sports Weekly puts him batting 8th in the order. No freaking way he should hit that low, he should have the 5 spot locked up. Currently, they have the overhyped Trot Nixon batting 8th.

Best case scenario for the Red Sox is this: Curt Schilling and Keith Foulke are healthy and pitching well again, Cora and Stern play better defensively than Johnny Damon (not hard to do) and Edgar Rentaria (had over 30 errors last year), Mike Lowell finds his solid production again and the relievers shut teams down. Adding Guillermo Mota and Julian Tavares were nice moves, but both are prone to having mental breakdowns from time to time.

Here are more questions: How many GM's do the Red Sox have? Is it good to have more than one? And is the Theo Epstein situation bizzare or what?

The move to get Mark Loretta was a good one. Loretta is a perennial .300 hitter and a very underrated second baseman. With Rentaria having an off-year, a good year from Loretta will be an upgrade. However, if they knew they were about to trade Rentaria, why get rid of Hanley Ramirez? Yes, they got Lowell, Mota and Josh Beckett, who can be lights out when healthy, but this deal was made before they traded away Rentaria thus showing a questionable thought process. Do they really believe Cora is the answer? They better hope so. Cora can field but if he hits below .230 they may as well get Pokey Reese (I will take that back).

There are a lot of questions surrounding the Boston Red Sox coming into this season based on the team they currently have. Lots of questions were posed on this post. Blogger-Nation, your turn.