This season, both of our MVPs, Justin Verlander in the AL and Ryan Braun in the NL, were anything but unanimous. In the American League, a really interesting debate was held over the merits of a starting pitcher being voted most valuable and in the National League, Matt Kemp was arguably more deserving than Braun. What I find of equal interest though is some of the more surprising and perplexing votes that some of the members of the Baseball Writers Association of America cast for both the winners and losers.
Justin Verlander won the AL award after a very split vote. He received 13 of the 28 first place votes but he also got 2 6th place votes, 1 8th place vote and was left off one ballot entirely. Now, I get leaving Verlander off, it’s understandable for a writer to think that a pitcher can’t be the MVP but how do you justify voting the guy 8th? Clearly you think a pitcher can be an MVP because you voted for him but you think that he was only the 8th most valuable? By what measure? Who were the 7 (SEVEN!!!!!) people you would have rather had? But you know what, I can even understand that more than some of the other votes. For instance, Jacoby Ellsbury finished second in the AL race after receiving 4 first place votes, 13 second place votes and 242 points. He also received a 10th place vote. HOW? There is no pitcher argument here, Ellsbury played 158 games in Centerfield. He also hit .321 with 31 bombs, 39 steals, and 105 RBIs. If you don’t think he was the Most Valuable Player, fine. If you think Verlander was better, fine, I agree. But how in the world was Ellsbury only 10th on someone’s ballot?
Those are not the only interesting votes. How much do you want to bet that the guy who voted for David Robertson and the 2 guys who voted for Mark Teixeira live in the New York area?
Like Ellsbury, Jose Bautista had a stellar season. He finished 3rd and was always in the conversation for the award, yet he mysteriously received a 7th, 8th, and 9th place vote. Despite the plethora of qualified AL candidates, including JV, Ellsbury, Bautista, Curtis Granderson and Miguel Cabrera, somebody voted for Michael Young to win. Yes, Young had a great season, top notch by any standard, but no one in their right mind could think he was better than the others.
Over in the NL, Ryan Braun beat out Matt Kemp presumably because Kemp played on a crappy Dodgers team and Braun won the NL Central with his Brewers, thereby meaning that Kemp couldn’t possibly be as “valuable” an Braun. Yet, some voters cast their ballots for Michael Morse, Starlin Castro, and Mike Stanton. Honestly, even if their respective teams were half way decent, Morse and Stanton shouldn’t be on that list. Like Ellsbury and Bautista, Prince Fielder, your 3rd place finisher and a legitimate contender for the win, received an unexplainable 10th place vote. Please, someone name for me 9 better players this season in the NL than Prince Fielder.
Between the two leagues, 49 players received MVP votes. Doesn’t that seem like a lot? I think there should be at least a little more of a consensus among the writers who know the sport the best about who the best players in the game are, even if there is still discussion and dissent about who is the actual best. More than that, I think the MVP voting should be held in very high regard. Only the players who deserve to win should receive votes. I’ve had enough of this “voting for 10th place stuff.” Let’s limit it to 5. Each writer can cast a ballot for a winner and 4 runner ups. That way, we’ll avoid having players who had good seasons but not MVP caliber years on the ballot. We’ll also avoid some of the top players in the league getting absurd 10th place votes for no particular reason.
This is the first year I’ve really studied the awards voting and I’m glad I did, it’s pretty cool and you can get a whole lot from it.
-Max Frankel
