November 18, 2008 at 2:14 PM
Pedroia wins AL MVP Award
This afternoon the Baseball Writers Association of America named Dustin Pedroia the 2008 American League Most Valuable Player. Pedroia is the first AL 2B to win the award since Nellie Fox in 1959 and the first Red Sox player to take home MVP honors since Mo Vaughn in 1995. Pedroia can add the MVP trophy to his mantle, which already includes a Gold Glove and a Silver Slugger award in 2008, the 2007 AL Rookie of the Year, several player-of-the-month and player-of-the-week awards, and a multitude of NCAA honors from his time at Arizona State. In 2008, he led the AL in runs, hits, doubles, and multi-hit games. He received sixteen first-place votes.
Twins 1B Justin Morneau finished second in the voting, and Boston's Kevin Youkilis finished third, garnering two first place votes. Youkilis was named on all thirty ballots, while Pedroia was named on twenty-nine - one voter from the Dallas Morning News left Pedroia off his ballot.
Pedroia is the ninth Red Sox player to be named AL MVP, following in the footsteps of Jimmie Foxx (1938), Ted Williams (1946 and 1949), Jackie Jensen (1958), Carl Yastrzemski (1967), Fred Lynn (1975), Jim Rice (1978), Roger Clemens (1986), and Vaughn (1995).