The AL MVP will be announced today at 2 PM and the fantastic thing is that we will be discussing this for years to come. Does a pitcher really have enough value pitching every 5 days to be an MVP? Do you need to hit over .262 to be an MVP? What if you do everything you can to help the Red Sox win a playoff birth and they still come up short? Can you be an MVP then? I’ve been on the Detroit Tigers’ Justin Verlander bandwagon all year. He put on the most dominant pitching season since Pedro in 1999. Do voters look back at 1999 and regret not giving the MVP to the best player in the league that year (Pedro)? I’m sure they do. With that in mind, I fully expect Justin Verlander to be the AL MVP at 2:01 EST today.
I laid out my explanation in an earlier article and as a college student, you always look to reuse things. From my October 2nd post about end of season awards:
If the Tigers had given Verlander the start when he was due up in the rotation on the second to last day of the regular season, he would have had a chance to become the first pitcher since 1972 to strikeout 250 while winning 25 games. The thing that hurts Verlander is that he pitches just every five days while his competitors for the award play every day. Many voters will use that against Verlander but here’s the thing, nobody meant more to their team than Justin Verlander and he was involved in more plate appearances than any other player this year (969). Jacoby Ellsbury had a great year (32 homers, 39 steals, 105 RBI out of the leadoff spot, playing Center Field) but, he couldn’t stop the September collapse despite his many attempts (5 homers in the last 9 games) and he just doesn’t feel like an MVP. I’m going to use the same argument for Curtis Granderson: great year, important to his teams success, nearly 120 RBI out of a center fielder, just doesn’t feel like an MVP. I’m typically a numbers guy but in this case, we’re going with old school feel. Be upset sabermetricians, be very upset.
I must say, a full 6 weeks later I can’t say I disagree with the line of thought. In much the same way Yankees fans look at whether or not they won the World Series, we’ll be looking at whether or not JV won the MVP. Yankees fans really don’t care who wins if its not them. Looking back at 1999, many of us know that Pedro didn’t win the MVP but, I’m only about 64% sure that Pudge went home with the award. Looked in up — in fact it was Pudge. Back to the subject…. When the voting is about whether a certain guy wins or looses, we should know who the real winner is. Verlander has generated the most MVP buzz and was the best player in the Majors this year. What else do you need to be an MVP? Maybe a badass nickname.
Stat of the Day: The last unanimous AL MVP winner was 1997 Ken Griffey Jr. That same year 7 pitchers got MVP votes.
-Sean Morash
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