Nl MVP, CY Young & ROY leaders

by faketeams on Jul 9, 2008 9:30 AM EDT in Baseball

Rotojunkie has taken over the dynamic feature started by Baseball Happenings that draws on the collective knowledge of the blogging community to provide intelligence on which players are currently considered the leading contenders for the big three baseball awards - MVP, Cy Young and ROY - for the American and National leagues. This week's NL voting should be available on Friday at lunch time.

NL Cy Young:
1. Ben Sheets Milwaukee Brewers
2. Tim Lincecum San Francisco Giants
3. Edinson Volquez Cincinnati Reds

NL MVP:
1. Chase Utley Philadelphia Phillies
2. Albert Pujols, St. Louis Cardinals
3. Dan Uggla, Florida Marlins

NL ROY:
1. Geovanny Soto Chicago Cubs
2. Kosuke Fukudome Chicago Cubs
3. Jair Jurrjens, Atlanta Braves

These essentially qualify as my mid-season winners. I don't like giving Top 3 votes to non-play-off teams in CY Young and MVP voting, but Lincecum and Volquez are so much better statistically than Cole Hamels of Philadelphia, Carlos Zambrano of Chicago and Brandon Webb of Arizona that I had to put them in the top 3. For my own cognitive dissonance, I hope this does not remain so.

MVP also is tough because there are players on sub-.500 teams leading the NL. Chipper Jones in Atlanta and Lance Berkman in Houston are having better overall seasons than Chase Utley, but I can't look past Chippers' time off or Berkman's less challenging defensive position.

At the last minute, I dropped Reds' 1B Joey Votto and replaced him with Atlanta Braves' SP Jair Jurrjens. With a top 10 NL ERA and eight wins so far, Jurrjens is more valuable on the open market than a 1B with an .800 OPS would be.

Poll

Should the record of a player's team be a consideration for MVP and CY Young voting?

Yes

14 votes

No

25 votes

Only to break ties

11 votes

50 votes | Poll has closed

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Comments

MVP, but not Cy Young

I believe a team’s record should be taken into account when selecting the MVP, but not Cy Young.

For MVP, my criteria is simple. You want to know who was the most valuable, so the question is “Where would the team be without this player?”. A bad team is still a bad team. Where would the last place Astros be without Berkman? Last place. A great season is enough to get a guy a 7th or 8th place vote if he’s on a bad team, I suppose.

Cy Young is for best pitcher, period. Record doesn’t come into play at all.
Of course, ROY is for the best rookie, period.

My current winners:

MVP: 1 – Utley, 2 – Pujols, 3 – Burrell.
CY: 1 – Volquez (he’ll probably drop out soon but now he’s the choice based on ERA), 2 -3: toss-up between Lincecum, Haren, Sheets
ROY: 1 – Soto, 2 – Jurrjens, 3 – Fukudome (Votto just behind)

by bobo123 on Jul 9, 2008 11:46 AM EDT reply actions

Burrell

I keep looking at Burrell and thinking he has been vastly under-appreciated this season, but can’t get him past the monster seasons of my Top 3.

Agree on Volquez. The wheels may be coming off.

Fake Teams - a proud member of the SB Nation

by faketeams on Jul 9, 2008 11:50 AM EDT up reply actions

"Value"

Seems like the most “valuable” player could be measured by VORP if it’s a simple question of where the team would be without him. A little too reductive.

by Xavier. on Jul 10, 2008 3:47 PM EDT reply actions

VORP

For NL Hitters:
Berkman 62.6
Jones 54.8
Hanley Ramirez 50.7

Fake Teams - a proud member of the SB Nation

by faketeams on Jul 10, 2008 3:53 PM EDT reply actions

Berkman as MVP

It’s tough to argue against any of your choices here, but I’ll repost what I wrote on my blog here in response to the Utley as MVP argument:

“The smart money to win this award would be on Chase Utley. Utley is currently on pace to hit 43 HRs and drive in 120 runs–all for a division leading team. However, a closer look at Utley’s splits indicates he is benefiting greatly from playing in the bandbox that is Citizen’s Bank Ballpark. At home, Utley has 17 HRs compared with 8 on the road. To be fair, Lance Berkman plays in a bandbox of his own, but the HR splits for him are dead even–11 at home and on the road.”

Now I do agree the argument does come down to how you define the award. Is it the best player or the most valuable player to a team? And even then, how do you define the valuable piece? The Astros are 4 games under .500 right now, without Berkman, they would likely be much worse than that. Is that value?

Chris Iafolla http://heardinthecheapseats.com/

by Chris Iafolla on Jul 12, 2008 11:35 AM EDT reply actions