The MVP is the one award I believe should take into account team success, as well as individual numbers. This isn’t to say that Ryan Braun and Adam Lind aren’t legitimate candidates just because they played on losing teams, merely that when they are compared to men with similar statistics on winning teams, they fall slightly behind.
I also believe that the MVP award should go to a position player. Not that Greinke and Lincecum aren’t extraordinarily “valuable,” but pitcher’s have their own award and there needs to be some credit given to those guys that grind it out every day, both at the plate and in the field. As such, defense is also a major factor when it comes to my MVP voting, which is why I favor stats like WAR (Wins Above Replacement), which account for fielding as well as hitting.
Unfortunately, the MVP races aren’t very close this year. Albert Pujols and Joe Mauer are, deservedly, runaway favorites. I believe that, were anybody else to win, it would be a bit of a travesty, so the main question for me was how to fill out the rest of my ballot and which league provided the most interesting group of second and third tier candidates to discuss. There were some very interesting arguments to be made on both sides, but my discussion of the AL is just going to have to wait until November…
See my ballot at The Sporting Hippeaux
