We can't stand the little gnat, but we do respect the way he plays and it's that play that helped him beat out Justin Morneau for the MVP award. With David Ortiz banged up and Manny Ramierz being Manny, Pedroia helped lead the Red Sox back to the playoffs with a .326 average, 4 points less than the batting title winner, Joe Mauer.
Pedroia added 17 home runs, 83 RBI, 20 stolen bases and led the league in runs scored (118) and multi-hit games (61). He also became the fifth second baseman in baseball history with 200 hits, 50 doubles, 100 runs scored, and at least 15 home runs. He took 16 of the 28 first place votes.
Morneau, who we would have selected, carried an offensively inept Twins team for much of the season. The Twins came up short in the AL Central and Wild card races, but they wouldn't have been close without Morneau, who won the MVP award in 2006. The first baseman hit .300 with 23 home runs and a second league best 129 RBI. He received 7 first place votes and finished 60 votes behind Pedroia.
Kevin Youkilis and Joe Mauer each received 2 first place votes, while Francisco Rodriguez picked up 1. Alex Rodriguez was the top Yankees finisher with 45 votes, good enough for 8th place, while Mike Mussina finished 19th with 3 votes. How in the world did Mariano Rivera not get one vote?
As usual, our pre-season pick, Curtis Granderson, received no votes.
| 2008 AL MVP Award Voting | |||||||||||
| Player, Club | 1st | 2nd | 3rd | 4th | 5th | 6th | 7th | 8th | 9th | 10th | Points |
| Dustin Pedroia, BOS | 16 | 6 | 4 | 1 | 317 | ||||||
| Justin Morneau, MIN | 7 | 7 | 6 | 3 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 257 | |||
| Kevin Youkilis, BOS | 2 | 4 | 4 | 9 | 2 | 4 | 1 | 2 | 201 | ||
| Joe Mauer, MIN | 2 | 8 | 1 | 3 | 4 | 3 | 3 | 2 | 1 | 188 | |
| Carlos Quentin, CWS | 1 | 4 | 8 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 1 | 1 | 160 | ||
| Francisco Rodriguez, LAA | 1 | 2 | 6 | 1 | 6 | 3 | 2 | 2 | 143 | ||
| Josh Hamilton, TEX | 2 | 2 | 3 | 7 | 3 | 2 | 4 | 3 | 112 | ||
| Alex Rodriguez, NYY | 1 | 1 | 4 | 1 | 4 | 7 | 45 | ||||
| Carlos Pena, TB | 1 | 2 | 2 | 3 | 2 | 3 | 44 | ||||
| Grady Sizemore, CLE | 2 | 1 | 5 | 6 | 1 | 42 | |||||
| Evan Longoria, TB | 2 | 2 | 5 | 2 | 1 | 38 | |||||
| Cliff Lee, CLE | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 24 | |||||
| Miguel Cabrera, DET | 1 | 1 | 4 | 1 | 17 | ||||||
| Vladimir Guerrero, LAA | 2 | 2 | 1 | 16 | |||||||
| Jermaine Dye, CWS | 1 | 2 | 2 | 14 | |||||||
| Aubrey Huff, BAL | 1 | 2 | 3 | 12 | |||||||
| Milton Bradley, TEX | 1 | 1 | 9 | ||||||||
| Jason Bartlett, TB | 1 | 6 | |||||||||
| Mike Mussina, NYY | 1 | 3 | |||||||||
| Raul Ibanez, SEA | 1 | 1 | |||||||||
| Ian Kinsler, TEX | 1 | 1 | |||||||||
| Ichiro Suzuki, SEA | 1 | 1 | |||||||||
| Mark Teixeira, LAA | 1 | 1 | |||||||||
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