I’ll start this post off with a congratulations to Joe Mauer, the deserving AL MVP. Contrary to what those who believe I’m biased 100% of the time might think, I would have voted for Joe Mauer if I had the honor of voting for the AL MVP.
Mauer received 27 out of the 28 votes from Baseball Writer’s Association of America. The one vote not in his favor? Keizo Konishi of Kyodo News, based in Seattle, voted instead for Miguel Cabrera as the AL MVP.
People are entitled to their opinions and assuming Konishi is a member of this voting board because he can back up his vote with a logical reason, I have no reason to assume his vote was impure. In his defense, Cabrera definitely had a remarkable year and there’s no doubt that without him the Tigers are not even close to contending for the division title. His stats certainly line up with Jeter’s in most regards. Do I think that his numbers and value to the Tigers was enough to warrant him a vote for 1st place? No, but I’m not going to automatically jump down that guy’s back and call him an idiot because he didn’t conform to the other 27 voters or fall in line with my thinking.
However, people might feel strongly about this and they are going to wonder why Konishi voted the way he did, especially considering Mauer’s stats (and the rest of the votes) suggest it wasn’t even close. Some might even say that Mauer was a clear-cut winner, suggesting a vote should not have even been necessary. Having said that, the vote happened and therefore I don’t think there’s any wrong vote outside the four finalists for the award because all had great seasons and I think an argument could be made for all. The arguments outside of Mauer might be weak, but they certainly exist. That’s why it’s put to a vote and majority wins.
So why did Konishi vote the way he did?
I found some statistics that might create more controversy about Konishi’s decision to vote for Miguel:
The first thing that came to my mind was “Did Konishi see either of these two play live?” Many times people generate much stronger feelings about players when they actually see them in person or on TV as opposed to looking at stats on a sheet of paper or on the computer.
As I said, Konishi is a writer based in Seattle, so I went to the stats for Cabrera and Mauer when they played the Mariners, specifically when they were in Seattle when Konishi was most likely to have seen them play in person.
Miguel Cabrera, in 39 plate appearances against the Mariners, hit his season best .471 with a 1.215 OPS. Joe Mauer hit .333 on the season with a 1.157 OPS in 29 plate appearances. At Safeco Field, Cabrera hit .500 and Mauer hit his season worst at any stadium, .167.
For Konishi’s reputation as a voter, who has been receiving slack from every knucklehead person out there before ever taking into consideration a reason why he voted the way he did, I hope this isn’t how he determined his vote. It’d be silly to follow such a small sample size. The end of the season stats from Mauer don’t lie.
However, if he loved what he saw from Cabrera in person and merely made that a small portion of the equation, I don’t think that’s entirely unfair. And let’s actually look at the criteria for voting before looking solely at the stats:
“There is no clear-cut definition of what Most Valuable means. It is up to the individual voter to decide who was the Most Valuable Player in each league to his team. The MVP need not come from a division winner or other playoff qualifier. The rules of the voting remain the same as they were written on the first ballot in 1931
1. Actual value of a player to his team, that is, strength of offense and defense.
2. Number of games played.
3. General character, disposition, loyalty and effort.
4. Former winners are eligible.
5. Members of the committee may vote for more than one member of a team.
You are also urged to give serious consideration to all your selections, from one to ten. A tenth-place vote can influence the outcome of an election. You must fill in all ten places on your ballot. Keep in mind that all players are eligible for MVP, and that includes pitchers and designated hitters. Only regular-season performances are to be taken into consideration.”
Personally,
1. I think Cabrera’s value to the Tigers is the most out of the top four MVP finalists. If you take Teixeira off the Yankees, they’re still great and same with Jeter. Mauer and Cabrera are more of a toss-up, but I think in the end Cabrera’s value to the Tigers outweighs Mauer’s to Minnesota’s.
2. Cabrera played in 22 more games than Mauer. You can look at that one of two ways. Was the player durable enough to be of the greatest value to his team or did he still accomplish more than the others in even less time. I’d probably lean toward the latter. Mauer’s stats are better than the other finalists, even with having missed 24 games on the season.
3. Mauer FTW by default (see Cabrera’s drinking).
Next time, before we start sending him hate letter’s and absurdly ridiculing his vote because it’s not how you or I would have voted, let’s at the very most ask why he may have voted the way he did. But in the end, respect the voting process and actually focus on the fact that Joe Mauer is the AL MVP not on why he didn’t get all the votes.
Congratulations Joe Mauer on a fantastic season. I just wish you were in another division so I could appreciate you more.
Add The Sports Daily to your Google News Feed!
