Well, in my opinion (and many other readers of this blog), the best man won the National League MVP award for 2007!!! Congratulations to Jimmy Rollins who had an absolutely amazing season this year with a .296 batting average, 30 home runs, 94 RBIs and 41 steals from the leadoff spot, helping the Philadelphia Phillies rally from a big September deficit to win the NL East over the Mets who had led the division most of the year. He led the league with 139 runs and 20 triples, vaulting the superstar into the 30/30/30 club as well as the 20/20/20/20 club. Rollins was the second consecutive Phillies player to win the MVP following Ryan Howard’s win last year.

Jimmy Rollins didn’t just cruise by on the reputation he set himself up for when he spent the offseason bragging about how his Philadelphia Phillies were the team to beat in the National League East. His 139 runs and 88 extra-base hits set records for shortstops. Everyone made such a big deal of Curtis Granderson’s 20-20-20-20 – doubles, triples, home runs and stolen bases. Well, Rollins went 35-20-30-40 and set career highs in batting average at .296 and slugging percentage at .531. And he set a major league record with only 716 appearances at the plate. Still, to the disappointment of all Phillies fans, Jimmy Rollins didn’t make this year’s All-Star team, instead, he was overlooked for J.J. Hardy, probably as a punishment for his grandiose pre-season predictions. The joke of it all is that Hardy didn’t even get one single single MVP vote among the 320 votes cast.

The Gold Glove and Silver Slugger shortstop, Jimmy Rollins, received 16 of 32 first-place votes and finished with 353 points in balloting by the Baseball Writers’ Association of America. Matt Holliday, who led the Colorado Rockies to their surprising sweep to the World Series got 11 first-place votes and 336 points. Milwaukee Brewers’ slugger Prince Fielder came in third, with five first-place votes and 284 points. Rounding out the voting was New York Mets third baseman David Wright who finished fourth in the balloting and Jimmy Rollins’ teammate and last year’s NL MVP, Ryan Howard came in fifth. Braves slugger Chipper Jones, the 1999 winner, was sixth and Padres ace Jake Peavy, who won the Cy Young Award unanimously last week, finished seventh in the balloting.

I’ve been amazed with Rollins support from the Philadelphia fans after attending my first few games at Citizen’s Bank Park this season. As a transplant from South Florida (and a former Marlin’s fan), who now lives in Delaware in the summers, my only option has been to make the 2 1/2 hour drive to Philadelphia if I wanted to see live baseball and I’ll say, the Phillies fans are much different from the fans I was used to in Miami, and those Phillies fans are contagious. So contagious, I made sure to be at all the last games of the Phillies home stands against the Braves and the Nationals. I even caught some video of Ryan Howard hitting a home run and some video of Jimmy Rollins after a home run against the Braves, rounding the bases with the stadium rocking and chanting “MVP - MVP - MVP”. You can see the video on the BaseballTalkPro Forums.

Congratulations to Jimmy Rollins and the Philadelphia Phillies. I’ll be attending a lot more Phillies games next year for sure.

Any Phils fans who care to discuss, feel free to express yourselves and show some support on our forum :
Jimmy Rollins wins the NL MVP

Oh, and in other news, Alex Rodriguez won the AL MVP (who cares).

I’m no baseball historian due to the fact I’ve only been following the game for ten years shy of a half century. If my memory serves me well, there has never been a double sweep, dual elimination in the National League Divisional Series (NLDS). The disturbing events of this last week have broken the hearts and the spirits of the fiercely loyal and emotionally supportive fans of the Philadelphia Phillies and the Chicago Cubs. A river of tears and a mountain of lost hope are the requiem for the vanquished diamond heroes and outfield sluggers who captured the pollyannaism of the fans’ yearning for a shot at a World Series championship.

In the 1970’s, women burned their bras in a show of solidarity for the feminist movement. In 2007, Phillies and Cubs fans are burning their jerseys and rally caps in utter disgust brought on by the flirtation with greatness, the aspiration of a championship lost, the realization that the dream is over. In Chicago and Philadelphia, the facetious and irreverent statement “Better luck next year” falls upon deaf ears.

Wow, talk about the “comeback kids”, the Colorado Rockies have certainly set a pace for this years pennant race with their miraculous season finish to clinch the wildcard position in the National League. The Rockies have been on fire recently and won 14 of their last 15 games, including a franchise record 11 game winning streak, the longest winning streak in the major leagues this season.

During that 15 game stretch, the Rockies hit .316 as a team and outscored their opponents 102-61. Matt Holliday, Troy Tulowitzki and Brad Hawpe all have emerged as league leading sluggers and led the Rockies in their scoring frenzy. Holliday homered 11 times in a 12 game September stretch and became just the fifth player since 1949 to lead his league in both batting (.340) and RBI (137). Troy Tulowitzki

Despite having to pitch at home in the thin air at Coors Field, the Rockies managed to post the best ERA (3.86) in the National League since the All-Star break . Jeff Francis, who tied the single season Rockies franchise record for wins with 17, was the only pitcher with 30 starts. It’s not just the starters who powered the Rockies into the playoffs, the bullpen posted a impressive 2.26 ERA during the final 15 games of the season.

Although the Philadelphia Phillies were a huge underdog story this year, coming from the back of their division to beat the Mets for the title, the Rockies are the most suprising entry into the playoff picture. Congratulations to skipper Clint Hurdle and his staff for all their efforts to bring the Rockies into the post-season.