In Which Tom Boswell Argues For, Sigh, Ryan Howard

And so the Albert Pujols-Ryan Howard MVP debate rages on. You already know the sides at work here: Smart people who understand baseball on one side (Pujols') and Phillies fans on the other. Plus, of course, Murray Chass; he thinks Ryan Howard should have won too. Of course he does.

So, unfortunately, does legendary Washington Post writer Thomas Boswell. If Boswell's legacy wasn't so well entrenched, it would have just about undone it with circular logic like this:

This week, Albert Pujols won the NL MVP Award. Why? Mostly because he had a better OPS and VORP (Value Over Replacement Player) than Ryan Howard. Say what? Meanwhile, back in the real world, the Phils' first baseman had 48 homers and 146 RBI to Pujols' 37 homers and 116 RBI.

You can imagine where it goes from there: Numbers are bad, except these numbers, which for Boswell happens to be RBI. That's literally his only stat -- RBI. The most team-dependent statistic in the history of ... you know what? Nevermind this. Far smarter writers have already written takedowns of Boswell's post, guys like Jonah Keri and Joe Posnanski, who are clearly baffled and sort of saddened by the whole mess. I suppose that's a fair reaction. In the meantime I'm going to go read more of the comments on Boswell's post. Now that's entertainment.