Mike Celizic

If I had an MVP vote in the National League, I’d have given it to Manny Ramirez. I don’t know how anyone could have voted differently.

I say this with full appreciation for the season that Albert Pujols had for the Cardinals and with awe for the power numbers of Philadelphia’s Ryan Howard.

But Manny put the Dodgers in the playoffs all by himself.

There shouldn’t be an argument. The legend on the award says “Most Valuable Player.” It doesn’t say “Most Popular Player,” “Thumper of the Year,” “Best All-Around Hitter,” “Best Season” or “A Really Nice Guy.” It’s about value to a team’s success; nothing else.

In my mind, players for teams that don’t at least contend strongly for the playoffs should never win the MVP. If your team finishes down in the standings, how valuable could you be?

To me, the MVP is the player that a contending team could not have lived without. There’s no question that Pujols is the player the Cardinals can least afford to lose, but St. Louis faded from contention in the NL Central by mid-August. They finished third — a position they probably could have attained even without Pujols’ help.

Pujols himself said a few years ago that if your team doesn’t make the playoffs, you shouldn’t win the MVP. The voters should have listened to him.

Ryan Howard has a better claim to the award than Pujols. The Phillies fought to the season’s last day to win, and Howard saved his best for last, carrying the team down the stretch. In any other year, Howard would be my MVP.

But Philly has a powerful lineup, and Howard wasn’t the sole reason the team won. Besides, there was a better candidate than Howard, Pujols or Brewer Ryan Braun, the third-place finisher. That is Ramirez, the only player who can be mentioned with Pujols in discussions of who is the greatest active right-handed hitter in the game.

Manny played for the Dodgers for just over two months, and some voters doubtless felt that mitigated against his candidacy. But rather than arguing against his candidacy, the brevity of his service should have argued more forcibly for it.

The facts are incontrovertible. Before Manny arrived in L.A., the Dodgers were fighting to play .500 baseball and stay in contention in the game’s worst division. After he arrived, L.A. started playing at a championship level that carried them to the playoffs.

His stats were absurd: 53 games, 53 RBIs, 17 home runs, 14 doubles, .489 on-base percentage, .396 batting average, .743 slugging percentage.

If ever one player carried a team to the playoffs, it was Ramirez and the Dodgers. Without him they were a mediocrity. With him, they were division champs.

I don’t care that he played just two months. I do care that he was the reason the Dodgers won. He’s the very definition of an MVP.

Unfortunately, too many people think that the MVP should go to the player most responsible for a team’s success — unless somebody has a really phenomenal year for a team that didn’t have much success. Alex Rodriguez once won for being indispensible to the Rangers’ last-place finish, and Ernie Banks once won for distinguished service to another lousy Cubs team.

Video   Pujols wins his second NL MVP Nov. 17: A very humble Albert Pujols accepts the MVP award and talks about how he still gets nervous playing the game. NBC Sports

The other factor voters consider that they shouldn’t is popularity. Give them a chance to punish a guy they don’t like in favor of someone they do, and they’ll take it more often than not. Ted Williams twice lost MVP races to Joe DiMaggio because the voters liked Joe D. better than they liked the Splendid Splinter.

I suspect there was some of that at work this season. Everybody loves Pujols, and with good reason. He’s a pillar of the community, a Roberto Clemente Award winner, a great team player and, oh, by the way, an incredible ballplayer.

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Manny, on the other hand, is not the most beloved player in the game. Although most writers don’t despise him, most were offended at his ridiculous behavior when he was doing everything in his power to get out of Boston. And he did behave outrageously. I remind myself that he was only following the orders of his agent, the notorious Scott Boras, who knows no shame in the pursuit of money.

Also, the NL MVP award wasn’t about Boston or anything other than who meant the most to the success of his team. And there’s no question about it. Manny’s your man. The fact that he finished fourth is no discredit to him, but to the voters.

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