I’m sorry to be the bearer of bad news, St. Louis, but Albert Pujols should not win the Most Valuable Player award this year.Now, before sending me those e-mails about how great the Cardinals are and how horribly unfortunate it is that a Cubs fan is allowed to write about baseball, here me out.Derek Lee should have to wait ’til next year to win his first MVP award.In my humble little opinion, Andruw Jones is running away with the honors.Pujols and Lee are both having incredible years: Lee is leading the National League in batting average and is only 3 home runs and 8 RBIs away from regaining the lead in all three Triple Crown categories. Pujols continues to be the premier young hitter, with over 35 homers for the fourth time in his five-year career.Yet, despite all of their accomplishments, they still cannot quite cut it.If Lee hits in September like he did in May, winning the Triple Crown might not be too much of a stretch. But I have one little hang-up over D-Lee’s MVP chances: He is not on a playoff team.I have always had a problem with a player winning the MVP award, despite not playing for a contending team. Can a player really be that valuable if his team falls short of the playoffs? Besides, who are his statistics really valuable to anyway-his agent’s commission check?The “but where would the team be without Derek?” argument might be something else that hits my inbox, but look where the Cubs are: fifth place in the NL Central. They could be worse, but not by much.Why should Pujols not win the MVP? Both he and Jones have had to overcome losing big bats in their lineups to injury; Pujols is picking up the slack for Scott Rolen and Reggie Sanders, while the Braves have seen Chipper Jones hit the disabled list twice in 2005. Atlanta also had to overcome the disappointment of having to send Raul Mondesi and his big bat packing during the season.The two players are having stand-out years in all of the offensive categories; the only gap exists in batting average, where Pujols’.331 trumps Jones’ .272.Defensively, both players are virtually shadows of one another. Jones has made two errors, which is good for a .993 fielding percentage, and Pujols has committed 11 errors, but still maintains a .992 fielding percentage.Despite all that Pujols has done, he is not more valuable to the Cardinals than Jones is to the Braves.Jones leads Pujols in HR and RBI, but more importantly, Jones accounts for a higher portion of his teams’ dingers and RBI.Pujols’ 99 RBI accounts for 16 percent of the St. Louis total, but Jones and the 102 runs that he has driven home make up 17.3 percent of the Braves’ total.Atlanta needs the runs that Jones produces more than St. Louis needs what Pujols has been doing for the Cards. Atlanta’s pitching has a higher ERA, WHIP and batting average against than the Cardinals’ staff.Further, Jones has carried a reputation as a streaky hitter who occasionally jogs on to balls in the outfield and does not run out infield ground balls. Jones, however, has picked up his play this season in the absence of another consistent bat in the Atlanta clubhouse. With the loss of Rolen, St. Louis has seen Jim Edmonds, Mark Grudzielanek and Yadier Molina put together outstanding years, but Pujols is projected to fall short of career high HR, RBI and hit numbers.I don’t think that baseball writers who have votes that actually count will see eye-to-eye with me; Pujols seems like he will walk away with the award. But, then again, if I’m right, those nasty e-mails might be better sent to Peter Gammons.For safety’s sake, though, I’ll have my inbox ready at the end of the day.