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[h1]Pedroia named AL MVP[/h1] [h2]Boston second baseman did it all in sophomore season[/h2]
By Ian Browne / MLB.com
BOSTON -- Just call him Mr. November. Or better yet, refer to Dustin Pedroia as the Most Valuable Player of the American League.
The second baseman of the Boston Red Sox continued his rapid burst into the national spotlight on Tuesday, when he was recognized with that impressive honor.
Though most pundits expected the race for MVP to be agonizingly close, Pedroia won in comfortable fashion, garnering 16 out of 28 first-place votes. He also received six second-place votes, four third-place votes and one fourth-place vote for 317 total points.
Runner-up Justin Morneau of the Twins received seven first-place votes and finished with 257 points. Boston first baseman Kevin Youkilis finished third, tallying two first-place votes and 201 points in a third-place finish.
Following a 2007 season in which Pedroia helped fuel the Red Sox to a World Series championship and won the AL Rookie of the Year Award, the right-handed hitting machine staged quite an encore.
Pedroia joins Cal Ripken Jr. and Ryan Howard as the only players to win Rookie of the Year and MVP in consecutive years.
For his performance in 2008, Pedroia received a Gold Glove Award, a spot on the American League's Silver Slugger team and now the MVP.
By prevailing in the Baseball Writers' Association of America voting, Pedroia became the first Red Sox player to cart home the coveted MVP Award since Mo Vaughn in 1995. But unlike Vaughn, one of the most physically imposing figures in club history, Pedroia will go down as one of the slightest.
Officially listed at 5-foot-9 in the Boston media guide, Pedroia is probably two or three inches shorter than that.
After a grand slam at Yankee Stadium on Aug. 27, a revved-up Pedroia informed his teammates that he was "the strongest 165-pound man in baseball."
It was that type of infectious enthusiasm that earned Pedroia the rare ability to be considered a team leader at the age of 25.
But as much as Pedroia said in the clubhouse and dugout, his bat spoke the loudest.
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[table][tr][td]2008 AL MVP Award Voting[/td] [/tr][tr][td]Player, Club[/td] [td]1st[/td] [td]2nd[/td] [td]3rd[/td] [td]4th[/td] [td]5th[/td] [td]6th[/td] [td]7th[/td] [td]8th[/td] [td]9th[/td] [td]10th[/td] [td]Points[/td] [/tr][tr][td]Dustin Pedroia, BOS[/td] [td]16[/td] [td]6[/td] [td]4[/td] [td]1[/td] [td] [/td] [td] [/td] [td] [/td] [td] [/td] [td] [/td] [td] [/td] [td]317[/td] [/tr][tr][td]Justin Morneau, MIN[/td] [td]7[/td] [td]7[/td] [td]6[/td] [td]3[/td] [td]3[/td] [td]1[/td] [td]1[/td] [td] [/td] [td] [/td] [td] [/td] [td]257[/td] [/tr][tr][td]Kevin Youkilis, BOS[/td] [td]2[/td] [td]4[/td] [td]4[/td] [td]9[/td] [td]2[/td] [td]4[/td] [td]1[/td] [td]2[/td] [td] [/td] [td] [/td] [td]201[/td] [/tr][tr][td]Joe Mauer, MIN[/td] [td]2[/td] [td]8[/td] [td]1[/td] [td]3[/td] [td]4[/td] [td]3[/td] [td]3[/td] [td]2[/td] [td]1[/td] [td] [/td] [td]188[/td] [/tr][tr][td]Carlos Quentin, CWS[/td] [td] [/td] [td]1[/td] [td]4[/td] [td]8[/td] [td]4[/td] [td]4[/td] [td]4[/td] [td] [/td] [td]1[/td] [td]1[/td] [td]160[/td] [/tr][tr][td]Francisco Rodriguez, LAA[/td] [td]1[/td] [td]2[/td] [td]6[/td] [td]1[/td] [td]6[/td] [td] [/td] [td]3[/td] [td]2[/td] [td] [/td] [td]2[/td] [td]143[/td] [/tr][tr][td]Josh Hamilton, TEX[/td] [td] [/td] [td] [/td] [td]2[/td] [td]2[/td] [td]3[/td] [td]7[/td] [td]3[/td] [td]2[/td] [td]4[/td] [td]3[/td] [td]112[/td] [/tr][tr][td]Alex Rodriguez, NYY[/td] [td] [/td] [td] [/td] [td] [/td] [td] [/td] [td]1[/td] [td]1[/td] [td]4[/td] [td]1[/td] [td]4[/td] [td]7[/td] [td]45[/td] [/tr][tr][td]Carlos Pena, TB[/td] [td] [/td] [td] [/td] [td]1[/td] [td] [/td] [td]2[/td] [td] [/td] [td]2[/td] [td]3[/td] [td]2[/td] [td]3[/td] [td]44[/td] [/tr][tr][td]Grady Sizemore, CLE[/td] [td] [/td] [td] [/td] [td] [/td] [td] [/td] [td] [/td] [td]2[/td] [td]1[/td] [td]5[/td] [td]6[/td] [td]1[/td] [td]42[/td] [/tr][tr][td]Evan Longoria, TB[/td] [td] [/td] [td] [/td] [td] [/td] [td] [/td] [td] [/td] [td]2[/td] [td]2[/td] [td]5[/td] [td]2[/td] [td]1[/td] [td]38[/td] [/tr][tr][td]Cliff Lee, CLE[/td] [td] [/td] [td] [/td] [td] [/td] [td]1[/td] [td]1[/td] [td]1[/td] [td]1[/td] [td] [/td] [td]1[/td] [td] [/td] [td]24[/td] [/tr][tr][td]Miguel Cabrera, DET[/td] [td] [/td] [td] [/td] [td] [/td] [td] [/td] [td] [/td] [td]1[/td] [td] [/td] [td]1[/td] [td]4[/td] [td]1[/td] [td]17[/td] [/tr][tr][td]Vladimir Guerrero, LAA[/td] [td] [/td] [td] [/td] [td] [/td] [td] [/td] [td] [/td] [td] [/td] [td]2[/td] [td]2[/td] [td]1[/td] [td] [/td] [td]16[/td] [/tr][tr][td]Jermaine Dye, CWS[/td] [td] [/td] [td] [/td] [td] [/td] [td] [/td] [td]1[/td] [td] [/td] [td] [/td] [td]2[/td] [td] [/td] [td]2[/td] [td]14[/td] [/tr][tr][td]Aubrey Huff, BAL[/td] [td] [/td] [td] [/td] [td] [/td] [td] [/td] [td] [/td] [td]1[/td] [td] [/td] [td] [/td] [td]2[/td] [td]3[/td] [td]12[/td] [/tr][tr][td]Milton Bradley, TEX[/td] [td] [/td] [td] [/td] [td] [/td] [td] [/td] [td] [/td] [td]1[/td] [td]1[/td] [td] [/td] [td] [/td] [td] [/td] [td]9[/td] [/tr][tr][td]Jason Bartlett, TB[/td] [td] [/td] [td] [/td] [td] [/td] [td] [/td] [td]1[/td] [td] [/td] [td] [/td] [td] [/td] [td] [/td] [td] [/td] [td]6[/td] [/tr][tr][td]Mike Mussina, NYY[/td] [td] [/td] [td] [/td] [td] [/td] [td] [/td] [td] [/td] [td] [/td] [td] [/td] [td]1[/td] [td] [/td] [td] [/td] [td]3[/td] [/tr][tr][td]Raul Ibanez, SEA[/td] [td] [/td] [td] [/td] [td] [/td] [td] [/td] [td] [/td] [td] [/td] [td] [/td] [td] [/td] [td] [/td] [td]1[/td] [td]1[/td] [/tr][tr][td]Ian Kinsler, TEX[/td] [td] [/td] [td] [/td] [td] [/td] [td] [/td] [td] [/td] [td] [/td] [td] [/td] [td] [/td] [td] [/td] [td]1[/td] [td]1[/td] [/tr][tr][td]Ichiro Suzuki, SEA[/td] [td] [/td] [td] [/td] [td] [/td] [td] [/td] [td] [/td] [td] [/td] [td] [/td] [td] [/td] [td] [/td] [td]1[/td] [td]1[/td] [/tr][tr][td]Mark Teixeira, LAA[/td] [td] [/td] [td] [/td] [td] [/td] [td] [/td] [td] [/td] [td] [/td] [td] [/td] [td] [/td] [td] [/td] [td]1[/td] [td]1[/td] [/tr][/table]
With 213 hits, Pedroia tied Ichiro Suzuki for the Major League lead. His 54 doubles led the Majors. He led the AL in runs (11and multihit games (61).
Backed by a .326 average, Pedroia lost the batting title by just four points to Minnesota catcher Joe Mauer. Pedroia finished fourth in total bases (322) and seventh in extra-base hits (73).
An elite tablesetter, Pedroia also chipped in with power (17 homers, 83 RBIs) and speed (20 stolen bases).
From a team standpoint, Pedroia and the Red Sox fell just one win shy of getting back to the World Series after a heartbreaking 3-1 loss to the Rays in Game 7 of the AL Championship Series.
Considering the obstacles the Red Sox faced (David Ortiz missed seven weeks with a left wrist injury, Mike Lowell and J.D. Drew missed considerable time, Jason Varitek had a sharp decline at the plate), it's doubtful they could have gotten to the postseason without the performances of Pedroia and Youkilis.
Before Pedroia's final red-hot surge of late August and early September, Youkilis was the Boston player getting a lot of mention in MVP discussions.
And the first baseman, who also played third base when Lowell was injured, had a big year in his own right. Youkilis established career highs in batting average (.312), home runs (29), RBIs (115) and slugging percentage (.569).
As for Pedroia, he became the fifth second baseman in Major League history to have 200 hits, 50 doubles, 100 runs and 15 homers in the same season, joining Charlie Gehringer (1936), Craig Biggio (199
How does he win this award???
