Right Now, Ryan Braun is your NL MVP

As the baseball season turns it’s final month for the first time in what seems like a long time (fact check: one year) the NL MVP race is still wide open, and not wide open in the rhetorical sportswriter meme where “every vote counts” but wide open in the sense that I’ve read legitimate arguments for probably about 15 candidates.

I’ve seen that Chase is the odds-on favorite, read that Aramis Ramirez is going to emerge from the pack, heard that it’s between Pujols and Lance Berkman for the belt and even had people believe that the Kenesaw Mountain Landis Award is Carlos Delgado’s, or Ryan Ludwick’s, or CC Sabathia’s to lose.  And all of that is without delving into the layers of nonsense that commenters can come up with.

With that in mind, I’m going to dive into the stats, the standings, and the rest of the season to see who can, should, and will be the 2008 National League MVP.  One man’s MVP Ballot …

Obvious caveat: A lot can change in a month. If Miss Davis from Varsity Blues can beat out Mitt Romney and Tim Pawlenty for the chance to kiss babies, attend funerals and shoot friends in the face next to McCain for four years, it is plausible that any of two dozen more names could come up.  That said, in descending order and increasing in interest  …

(sportscomplex.blogs.citypaper.net)