Baseball has this amazing ability to crown the MVP of the World Series to someone who might not have cracked the lineup mid season, hell even the championship series prior. We can see a backup First Baseman immortalize himself in history with the label MVP and that is something you just don't see in the NBA or NFL. The World Series consistently brings out a competitive edge amongst teams, a fight or flight situation after a 162 game grueling season. This list is dedicated to those who we would have never thought would have the Willie Mays Trophy raised above their head after the big series.
#5 Jermaine Dye (2005)
(Photo by Lisa Blumenfeld/Getty Images)
The White Sox were a cinderella team themselves as they began the year as 22-1 odds to win World Series according to Chicago Tribune. They inevitably defied those odds and lost one game in the postseason and swept the Astros to win the 05’ title. Jermaine was a pretty feared slugger in the early 2000’s as a reliable batter after Paul Konerko. He had a pretty injury riddled career up to that point despite a very solid 2000 season where he hit .321 and was an all star. He batted 6th for most of the season and ended with a .274 average and .333 OBP which isn’t awful but wouldn’t make me think this guy is going to be a main factor to his team grabbing a ring in 05. Those stats coupled with a pretty hot Joe Crede and Paul Konerko coming out of the ALCS, close to prime Mark Buehrle on the bump, and Scott Posednik stealing every base in sight made Dye and afterthought for this award and caused him to be a controversial number 5 on this list. Dye ended up with 7 hits in the World Series and a slash line of .438/.526/.688. He was by far the only consistent bat for the Cinderella Sox and this was the main contribution to their ring in 05'.
#4 David Eckstein (2006)
(Photo by: G.N. Lowrance/Getty Images)
Eckstein was an all star this year and had a solid career as a 2x all star and 2x world series champ. He had a decent slash line in the regular season at .292/.350/.344 through 123 games. The weird parnt about this team is their path to the playoffs as they finished just above .500 with a 83-78 Record wiaan awful NL Central division. This team featured a young and dominant Albert Pujols who blasted 49 HR's and 137 RBI's and Scott Rolen was also a force for the Cards finishing with 95 RBI's. Eckstein also had an awful NLDS hitting 2 for 15 and a mediocre NLCS finishing 6 for 26 being overshadowed by Jim Edmonds, a young Yadi, and an elite Pujols. The Cardinals took out the Tigers in 5 in 2006 as Eckstein emerged as a leader leading the pack with 8 hits and 4 RBI's. The pitching in the World Series was phenominal for the Cardinals as they held the Tigers to 4 runs or less in every game, Eckstein didn't have monster numbers like some of the other players on this list but was hot at the right time and did just enough to get the nod for MVP.
#3 David Freese (2011)
(AP Photo/Eric Gay)
We're going with back to back Cardinals players here and admitidly both players were very solid role players but the talent level combined with amount of impact to that point landed both of these Cardinals players on the list. Freese had a solid season despite only playing 97 games during the regular season htting .297 with a .350 OBP. He spent most of his time hitting 5th or 6th in the lineup behind a MVP Caliber Albert Pujols who raked that year with 99 RBI's and a lethal Lance Berkman who ended the year with a .412 OBP. This team also featured Matt Holiday, Jon Jay, and Yadi including deep pitching depth in Chris Capenter and Kyle Lohse, so Freese was an afterthought to take the WS MVP trophy to say the least. Once the playoffs began a clear star had emerged as he ended the postseason with a .397 average, 5 HR's and a stunning 21 RBI's. His World Series alone featured 7 RBI's and a .348/.464/.696 slash line. Berkman and Yadi also had fantastic numbers in the world series but clutch and consistent hitting landed Freese the MVP trophy.
#2 Edgar Rentaria (2010)
(Matthew Emmons/US Presswire)
There is a pretty significant drop off from #3 to #2 as Edgar Renteria had a great career but was a longshot for being a major contributor in the 2010 season as this aging star hit .250 with a .307 OBP the year prior. Renteria entering the season at age 33 was a fringe starter when healthy for the Giants, a team who began the season off of almost everyone’s playoff list. He only appeared in 72 games during the regular season and almost didn’t even make the World Series roster after suffering an injury in game 2 of the NLDS. The Giants featured a couple big bats in Buster Posey who hit .305 in the regular season, Aubrey Huff a fellow aging star who managed to hit .290 with 86 RBI’s. They also had Matt Cain and Tim Lincecum in their prime as well as a young Bumgarner closing out this dominant rotation into the World Series. Renteria played in less than half the season, went 1 for 16 in the NLCS and only played in 4 out of the 7 games due to this hitting slump and previous series injury, and had suffered four separate injuries during the 2010 season. He tore it up in the World Series hitting a scorching hot .412 in 5 games including 2 big flies, 6 RBI’s and a .444 OBP leading him to his second ring and a shiny MVP trophy to go along with it. If you had Renteria being mvp before the first pitch was thrown in October of 2010 then you should probably invest in some futures picks.
#1 Steve Pearce (2018)
(Photo by Kevork Djansezian/Getty Images)
Here we are, the main inspiration for this list, the coveted backup First Baseman/DH playing the most pivotal role for one of the highest paid teams ever. If someone were to ask me who the MVP of this 2018 Red Sox tem would be if they won it all Steve Pearce wouldn't even cross my mind. If you look at this ball club Steve Pearce has a good chance at not even making the roster for the playoffs, as a 12th to 13th option all season. Entering his 35 year old season he was traded halfway through to the Red Sox, appearing in only 50 games during the season for Boston and hit .279 with 26 RBI's which isn't bad at all for his limited playing time. The Red Sox had a star studded lineup featuring Mookie Betts, JD Martinez, Xander Bogaerts, Andrew Benintendi and many more big bats. The pitching staff was also ridiculous with Chris Sale, David Price, and Rick Porcello. He emerged as a starter in the playoffs letting JD martinez primarily DH and honestly had a solid ALDS then an underwhelming ALCS. He proved his batting prowess to the Sox and starting game 1 of the World Series in the 3 spot. He absolutley lit the dodgers pitchers up as he appeared in all 5 games and finished with 8 RBI's, on 4 hits with 3 homeruns. He walked a solid 4 times in the series & his slash line is insane at .333/.500/1.167, obviously its a 5 game series but he was an tremendous offensive piece to this stacked ball club. I think the kicker for him at #1 was a contribution of how deep and talented this Boston team was along with his age and amount of playing time going into the Fall Classic.
Thanks for taking the time to read this piece, were going to be focusing a lot on some of these nostalgic lists to put together for you guys. If you have any suggestions on rankings you want to see from us please drop them on any of our social media platforms.
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