MLB 2011 season

Both MVP's wound up being incorrectly chosen...


On Verlander winning the MVP: He's a pitcher. The award for best pitcher is the Cy Young. Pitcher's don't need to be included in the MVP voting. It's stupid. Why have a Cy Young at all if pitchers are eligible for the MVP? If there is a Cy Young, there should be a Best Position Player award, too. Oh, I know! We could call the Best Position Player award the MVP!!
Regardless of the fact that no one player stood out in the MVP field in the AL, Verlander already got his best pitcher award. He shouldn't get the MVP.


In the NL... Are you f**king kidding me? Kemp was better than Braun in nearly every single way, especially defensively. Are you telling me that the Dodgers would have been an above .500 team without Kemp? No f**king way. In an excerpt from an article I wrote in late September  on all the MLB awards and how I thought they should turn out:

Matt Kemp led his team in BA, HRs, RBI, Runs, SB's, SLG, OPS, OBP, BB, 2B, and Hits. In case you're wondering, that's EVERY major hitting stat except for triples. Oh, he was 3rd in triples.  The Dodgers are an absolutely terrible team. They only had three other guys with more than 5 HR's this season, and none with more than 16. None of their other regular starters hit .300 and only three others hit over .275. Their offense was easily one of the worst in the league.

Matt Kemp WAS the Dodgers' offense. He was far more valuable to his team than Braun, which is backed up by individual numbers, team numbers, and WAR calculations. Kemp was robbed and voters ought to be ashamed. If you have to make the playoffs to get the award then call it the "Most Valuable Player Whose Team Made the Playoffs" award instead. Otherwise, give it to the guy that is ACTUALLY the most valuable player to his team, which, in this case is clearly Matt Kemp.

This year is a perfect example of the BWAA not having any clue what the awards they're voting for are actually for.

The infamous Catch Twenty-Two. The whole point of the season is to make the playoffs (win the World Series but that doesn't come into play with the MVP voting).  If your team doesn't make the playoffs, how valuable were you?   That said, I full accept the argument that he is but 1 player and he can't be blamed for the pitchers drinking in the clubhouse and the 1st basemen going out with a season ending injury, etc. etc. etc.

There is absolutely no way the Tigers win their division and make the playoffs without Verlander's pitching.  Yes he only pitched every 5th game, but he pitched into the 7th inning of every single one of his starts.  This meant that the Tigers bullpen was well rested when Max Scherzer and Rick Porcello came out after the 5th inning of almost every one of their starts.

rushfan4 wrote: How is it a disgrace?

I don't think pitchers should win the award at all. With that said though, Bautista, Ellsbury, and Pedroia all had much better years and were more valuable to their team, yet since their teams didn't make the playoffs they don't get the award.

Also, the fact that Pedro didn't win for his 1999 season, but Verlander gets one for this season is just ludicrous.

How is it a disgrace? 

Funny enough, the last 5 Tigers to win AL MVP have all been pitchers: Verlander, Willie Hernandez, Denny McClain, and Hal Newhouser (2 times).

Eh like I said, given how balanced the field was I'm fine with it anyway, especially since he had such an epic year. With no one else standing out (or having their team collapse) Verlander does make sense.
I still think it needs to be a position player because while this was not the case in Detriot, if you have a great pitcher on a bad team...what does it matter? Kinda like Doc on the Blue Jays. Load of good they ever were even with him.

For this year I could make an exception, Verlander was a good choice.
It's all or fun anyway, the MVP didn't come from the Cardinals and I'm guessing none of them care

Yeah, deep down I want to say a pitcher simply can't be MVP because they play every 5 games.
Even if they went like 33-0 but the team sucks they will not make it far, it should be an every day player.

Though when you look at his value to the Tigers, it is tough to disagree with and the MVP field seemed weak this year, especially given the Sahx didn't make the playoffs and the Yanks went down so easily. Depth in the playoffs always looks better. 
It is no surprise though, don't let the talking heads fool you. It was going to be him.

Well some of this MLB voting is kinda like the BCS.......sometimes what happens does not make sense.

Impossible...neither one of those guys were the Most Valuable Player in the American League....its pretty easy to me.