Joey Votto won the National League MVP award this afternoon in a landslide over Albert Pujols. Votto got a staggering 31 of 32 first-place votes by members of the Baseball Writers Association of America, with Pujols getting the other one.
Hard to complain with the line of thinking displayed by my fellow scribes. You could make a legitimate case for Pujols every single year and no one would find fault with that, but Votto really was the best player in the NL this season, having led the league in on-base percentage (.424), slugging (.600) and OPS (1.024). Throw in the fact he helped lead a Reds club to its first NL Central title in 15 years (while Pujols' Cardinals finished five games back) and there's a pretty rock-solid case for Votto.
The rest of the top 10: Carlos Gonzalez, Adrian Gonzalez, Troy Tulowitzki, Roy Halladay, Aubrey Huff, Jayson Werth, Martin Prado and Ryan Howard.
As for the Nationals ... well, two players did get Top 10 votes but finished way back in the pack. Ryan Zimmerman finished 16th, with only eight of 32 voters including him on the ballot. And Adam Dunn finished in a tie for 21st, with only five of 32 voters including him on the ballot.
I don't have a problem with Dunn finished where he did, though I could probably make a case he deserved to be ranked ahead of Dan Uggla, who actually tied for 17th place.
I am disappointed Zimmerman didn't get more respect from the baseball-writing community. Personally, I would have ranked him around eighth in the NL (behind Votto, Pujols, both Gonzalezes, Tulowitzki, Roy Halladay and Matt Holliday) but I didn't expect the majority of BBWAA members to do that. Such is life when you play for perennial last-place club.
You can see the complete voting results here on the BBWAA's official website.
Since all of the NL awards have now been handed out (all that's left is the AL MVP tomorrow) I suppose it's safe for me to now reveal the one award I did actually vote for: NL Manager of the Year. I voted for Bud Black, who did win. You could certainly make cases for Dusty Baker, Bruce Bochy and Bobby Cox, and I considered them all before submitting my ballot on the final day of the regular season. In the end, though, I just had to give credit to Black for managing a Padres team with one of the smallest payrolls in baseball and no hope of even finishing .500 and keeping that club alive until Game 162.
12 comments:
Mark Zuckerman wrote...I am disappointed Zimmerman didn't get more respect from the baseball-writing community. Personally, I would have ranked him around eighth in the NL (behind Votto, Pujols, both Gonzalezes, Tulowitzki, Roy Halladay and Matt Holliday) but I didn't expect the majority of BBWAA members to do that. Such is life when you play for perennial last-place club.
Mark, it could have been worse for Zim so while the locals are well aware of Zim's accomplishments and believe he is a Top 10 guy in the league, until the Nats compete for 1st place or Zim gets in the Top 3 in BA, HR or RBIs, he will be back in the pack.
Dunn had 5 voters name him on their ballots so overall a nice combo day for the Nats system.
There will be a day in the not so distant future that probably 3 to 4 Nats will be in the Top 20 (Zim, Strasburg, Harper, and TBD).
I also predict that the Water Taxi that goes up the Potomac to the Stadium to be renamed Harper's Ferry when he debuts at Nats Park!
http://natsinsider.blogspot.com/2010/10/handing-out-mlb-awards.html
Mark, your knowledge on nailing everything up to now has been amazing!
When you see your fellow BBWAA, hand them a hilight reel of Ryan Zimmerman and tell them that they blew it.
I wish every voter put in the time and effort you did for the awards. While I think as a group they got every 1st place vote right, some of the runner's up got short changed and some of the votes like a 6th place for Pujols or a 2nd place for Ryan Howard is mind boggeling to say the least.
The writers should take over the Gold Glove voting too. Jeter for a Gold Glove at SS and Scott Rolen for a Gold Glove at 3rd?
Maybe the writer who voted Ryan Howard second was using the same logic that the Lerners are Cheap crowd uses, namely that the more a player is paid the more valuable he is. Who are you to deny stupid people the right to be a baseball writer?
I feel that based on WAR Zimmerman should be even higher than 8th; more like top 5.
If Zimmerman played for the Yankees, he'd be a top 3 MVP candidate every year. Look up Teixeira's career accomplishments and numbers in his pre-Yankees days and post. As soon as he showed up in NY, suddenly he's an all star, silver slugger, gold glove and MVP candidate.
Lets just hope by the time it really begins to wear on him, our team is good enough to keep him here and put him in a position to win an MVP or two.
These postseason awards are nice but none of them really matter.
Steve M.: The very fact that you mentioned BA, HR, and RBI as criteria for placement of MVP votes proves that awards mean nothing and should mean next to nothing to the players. Seriously, if BA, HR, and RBI are the criteria, 5-year olds might as well vote.
So many of those MVP picks on 4th thru 10th place are a popularity contest and good criteria are ignored. Ryan Howard didn't deserve to be 10th overall just like Zim should have been higher than 16th and Dunn probably didn't deserve any votes although as a Nats fan it is nice to see that they were both in there.
Some writers probably don't use much more than looking at the Triple Crown categories and others are using Sabermetrics and some of the newer formulas to come up with their pics which is why there are so many guys receiving MVP votes.
Zim is an MVP in everything but actual name. There is nothing about his performance that isn't in the Top 5 of all NL BB players.
I'm a Nats fan, and I'd like to see a Nats win it. But being a Canadian,I'm happy for Joey Votto. He did everything that an MVP is supposed to do.
@Mark, the one, if not the only: May we take it you think a msnsger does (or can) win more than a few games for his team?
"I just had to give credit to Black for managing a Padres team with one of the smallest payrolls in baseball and no hope of even finishing .500 and keeping that club alive until Game 162."
*manager*
I do believe a manager can make some difference with a team, sure. But to be honest, Manager of the Year is my least favorite BBWAA award because there's no real quantitative method to determine how much difference a manager truly made. In most cases, the award just ends up going to the manager of the team that surpassed expectations the most. Doesn't necessarily mean that guy did a better job managing than any of his counterparts. It's just one of the only ways to judge them against each other.
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