The MVP's not on the team?! What?!

That's the question that we'll all be asking if and when Jason Giambi is awarded the American League' sMost Valuable Player trophy at the end of the season. What team isn't he on? The All Star team. Why? Because Ozzie Guillen is a dick. Sorry to put it that way, but it's true. He's a dick. The uber-fantastic blog "Fire Joe Morgan" is an everyday read for me, and occasionally inspires me to write something scathing. They do it best. They wrote a great piece on Guillen's obnoxious and "dick-ish" All Star selection process. All White Sox, all the time.

Anyway, the tale of Jason Giambi's comeback started on July 4th, 2005. It is the one year anniversary of his big return, and the splits between Independence Day last year until the end of the regular season, and the start of the 2006 campaign until July 4th is strikingly remarkable for it's consistency. Check it out:

76 games - 66/231(.286) 154 TB, 27 HR, 65 RBI, 52 R, 67 BB, 11 HBP
72 games - 66/242(.273) 153 TB, 25 HR, 65 RBI, 53 R, 60 BB, 10 HBP

Overall, that's a line of .279/.451/.649 and an OPS of 1.100! The totals are:

148 games - 307 TB, 52 HR, 130 RBI, 115 R, 127 BB, 21 HBP

Still 14 games to go until he reaches 162! I guess that's not good enough to make it on Ozzie Guillen's All Star squad. I'd like to take a look at David Ortiz' last 148 games to compare. He's the guy that all the sports "experts" love the most after all, and he's starting at 1B. Plus, I'd like to look at Albert Pujols' numbers over 148 as well. It should give us some context for Giambi, since Pujols is universally regarded as the best player in the game today.

JG's 148 - .279/.451/.649/1.100, 52 HR, 130 RBI, 115 R, 127 BB, 21 HBP
DO's 148 - .280/.399/.608/1.007, 50 HR, 139 RBI, 109 R, 105 BB, 3 HBP
AP's 148 - .323/.443/.664/1.107, 49 HR, 126 RBI, 124 R, 107 BB, 6 HBP

So, there you have it. Giambi = Better than Big Papi, and hangs tough with the best guy in the sport. If he hit over .300, he'd be as good as Pujols. But, he's not an All Star. Konerko's an All Star. Good for him. Nice to have a raving lunatic for a manager.

In the end, Giambi will have the last laugh, as he becomes the 1st player in Major League history to win the MVP award without being selected to the All Star Game. The campaign starts today.

Happy 4th of July.