Clutch is the last refuge of morons.

In 2006, Carlos Delgado was 12th in MVP voting. In 2008, his stats almost exactly mirror his 2008 stats. Twelfth in MVP voting sounds about right to me:

"That's why Carlos Delgado will not be the National League MVP, even though he should be.

The numbers don't work for him. With a .261 average, he doesn't crack the league's top 50, and it's way shy of even his Mets teammates Jose Reyes (.300) and David Wright (.291).

His 103 RBIs is impressive, sixth in the league. But it's three fewer than Wright.

Thirty-five home runs is good enough for fourth in the NL. But, heck, Alex Rodriquez has 33 and nobody is touting him for most valuable anything.

Too bad baseball doesn't keep one stat I'd love: clutch hits."

This is very easy to do yourself, if you really want to. Go through the box scores and put a tick mark next to the clutch hits. I'm quite certain Delgado has less clutch hits than this guy thinks. With an overall .261 batting average, I'm guessing Delgado has also made a ton of clutch outs.

As for the idea that ARod isn't valuable at all, Delgado is batting .276 with runners in scoring position and ARod is batting .274 with runners in scoring position.

The resurgent Mets are a good storyline. Delgado is a fresh face among MVP candidates. Utley's 25 first-half homeruns are so first half.