Jayson Stark Sums Up the Absurdity that is the MVP Award

"...Remember that this award is about "value," not numbers."

Interesting. And all this time I thought the numbers were the very thing representing that value. He also provided this valuable new age statistic for us:

My "runs produced" definition is RBIs plus runs scored, then subtract homers. Here's how they rank:
Hamilton 160
Kinsler 147
Morneau 142
Quentin 140
Youkilis 125

Sorry, Alex Rodriguez, Grady Sizemore, and Milton Bradley, you are not MVP-worthy. The reasons for this are three-fold: either A) the players in front of you don't get on base enough B) the players behind you don't hit good enough or C) you hit too many homeruns.
Now, I know that Stark didn't exactly use this to back up his stance on the MVP, but the fact that this type of statistic is being used in any context is cause for concern. This is essentially one of the worst ways to determine how well a player produces runs.
Let me show you why this "statistic" should never be used in any argument ever again.

Runs Produced-2008
Mark Reynolds
127
Albert Pujols
122

Thank you.