My Bad Milton

You know, now that I set my formula for 500 plate appearances. I checked... and Milton Bradley had 510 plate appearances, which means he does qualify for the MVP. But A-Rod still has it...

The AL MVP Qualifiers
TIER A
1. Alex Rodriguez - 59 points (8th)
TIER B
2. Milton Bradley - 49 points (17th)
3. Kevin Youkilis - 46 points (3rd...hey there is one right!!!)
TIER C
4. Carlos Quentin - 38 points (5th)
5. Joe Mauer - 36 points (4th)
6. Josh Hamilton - 34 points (7th)
7. Justin Morneau - 32.5 points (2nd...yeah, 2nd on his team)
8. Grady Sizemore - 31.5 points (10th)
9. Nick Markakis - 31 points (NO VOTES!)
TIER D
10. Dustin Pedroia - 25 points (1st...not even 1st in Boston)
RESULT
Pedroia won. Making this a total wash of an MVP. Pedroia barely made the list and although this is an acceptable MVP choice, it is a pretty bad grade and near failure. Writers get a D.

I think of all those, the most interesting find was that Bradley was more valuable than Hamilton. However, Hamilton finished ten spots ahead of Bradley in voting. Both have had troubled pasts. Hamilton was on enough crank to increase productivity in a Chinese toy factory by 600 percent. Bradley has had his share of problems, but most of them come from anger.

Bradley grew up a poor black kid who chose to dedicate his life to baseball which is uncommon in the black community. Hamilton grew up a wealthy white kid who was groomed to be the next phenom baseball player. However, drug and alcohol problems derailed his climb to the Majors. Bradley's anger issues halted him from having lucrative contract offers and made him unwanted by many teams.

So has Milton Bradley overcome more or Josh Hamilton? Hell the man overcame my 500 plate appearance requirement, so I say Milton by a landslide.

The AL top list is intriguing. It has a pair of American Latinos, three men cast off by their first team as lost causes, an angry black man, a few ex football players, an ex hockey player, a guy not offered a division one scholarship, a catcher, a crackhead, a DH, a caveman, a hard-nosed fidget, and a top prospect now voted off a 40 man roster. Thus proving that the game of baseball is the exemplary, definitive metaphor to the American dream. Where height, race, body fat percentage, attitude, and addictions are nothing but side notes and prefaces to living like a rock star and getting paid like a oil tycoon.