It will be announced shortly that Philadelphia’s own Jimmy Rollins will win the National League Most Valuable Player Award. With Ryan Howard’s win last year, this will mark the eighth time in NL history that two teammates have won the MVP consecutive years – first since Jeff Kent and Barry Bonds did it in 2000 and 2001. JRoll will also join the ranks of the four other Phillies to win the award along with Howard, Mike Schimdt (’80, ’81, ’86), Jim Konstanty (1950), and Chuck Klien (1932).
The year began contrversally for our fiery shortstop as he repeatedly made outrageous claims like the “2007 Phillies were the team to beat.” The smack talk simultaneously got under the skin of NL East opponents and inspired the Phils to step on the field and prove it. Well, of course we all know, not only was Jimmy spot on with his prediction, he made sure the prophecy was self-fulfilling.
This season JRoll played in all 162 regular season games and the 3 games that made up the Phillies abbreviated playoff run. In 716 at-bats mostly from the leadoff spot, he scored 139 runs while driving in 94, and had 212 hits including 38 doubles, 20 triples and 30 homeruns. He remained a terror on the basepaths stealing 41 bases while being caught only 6 times for a 87% success rate. At short he compiled a .985 fielding percentage while making just 11 errors and turning a career-high 110 double-plays alongside Chase Utley and the since-released Tad Iguchi. Although he was unable to carry his hot hitting into his first playoff appearance, he made good use of the 2 hits he did have (a triple and a homer) driving in four runs.
For the 2007 season, Jimmy Rollins lead the league in Games Played, At Bats, Plate Appearances, Runs, and Triples. He finished second in Hits, Total Bases, Extra Base Hits. Simply put, he deserved to win the National League’s Most Valuable Player and he did. Congrats Jimmy!!
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