Though Mark Rose makes a good point on run production, it’s not as if Francoeur cheated himself of chances to produce (and unfortunately, the slump at the end of the year probably had something to do with the rookie of the year vote as well). Run production has other uncontrollable factors, and is not the sum total of a player’s worth to his team and overall ability. In this case, Howard’s superiority is not terribly overwhelming.

A key difference between the two is their respective batting averages versus left and right hand pitchers. Jeff Francoeur hits .379 against lefties and .272 against righties, both of which are very respectable, and against lefties is extraordinarily impressive even for a veteran. Ryan Howard had a much larger discrepancy facing righties and southpaws - .148 versus lefties and .323 versus righties. For any game with a left handed starter, it’s debatable whether Howard is even worth starting.

Defense is another factor, but much harder to measure with Howard at first base. Francoeur’s fielding percentage of .966 isn’t quite Andruw Jones caliber (he had a .995 fielding average), but the number of assists and runs saved by Francoeur’s arm is impressive. He had 13 assists in 67 games - Jones had 11 over the entire season, and the National League leader Cliff Floyd had 15 over 150 games.

Howard’s fielding percentage at first base was .993 - right in the middle of first baseman and neither horrible nor spectacular.

As far as run production, Francoeur spent most of the season in the six or seven spot of the order, just as Howard did. The difference being that there were less runs to pick up, even though he had a higher average. The truth of the matter is that the beef of the Atlanta lineup in 2005 was superior to the Philly lineup - a lot of runs were driven in before Francoeur got to them, or innings ended before he got a chance to contribute. His 12 point advantage in batting average makes this clear, as well as his projected hit totals over 162 games - 178 hits to Howard’s 165. Francoeur’s double production, the heart of run manufacturing, outpaced Howard as well.

Howard would have scored 96 runs in a 162 game season - Francoeur would have scored 95 runs. In short, even with Mark’s well-detailed post regarding run production, the difference in batting average and Francoeur’s contributions from the outfield should not go unnoticed.

It was a close race - both are going to be good and effective in the league for some time. I do agree - let the readers decide.

Isn’t baseball a refreshing change of pace?