My vote was Hanley Ramirez, as I obviously do not subscribe to the theory that a player has to be on a winning team to be an MVP candidate, because in my mind it makes no difference how good a player's team is when looking at an individual award. Other people have vastly different opinions on this, which makes for some pretty good debate.
Also, I was forced to bring back Thursday Debate due to popular demand (and by that 2 people that I personally know said I should bring it back)... not that that's a bad thing.
But I really am interested to see what you guys think... who should be the NL MVP? And why? Please vote, and leave a reason or two in the comments. I think the results could be really interesting.
5 comments:
I know I said Holliday before, but now I'm leaning a bit towards Utley. Holliday's home road splits were pretty bad, although his normalized numbers were still very good, so I guess it depends on how much you weigh those types of things. The only guy I think shouldn't win is the guy who I think will win: Jimmy Rollins
I've made my case for Utley over and over the past couple weeks, and I stand by it. The guy has a fabulous year, gets hurt for a month, his team pisses away the season, he comes back, his team comes back from the greatest late season deficit ever to win the division and make the playoffs. Even if you don't value how well player's teams do at all (I don't either, I think it's a bullshit argument) you CAN'T ignore that. All of these guys are deserving (I'm not sold on Pujols, but he won't win it anyway) so it should be good to see who wins it.
I understand your position that an MVP is an individual award, which means team performance isn't the #1 concern, but in a year like this, where two players have been SO instrumental in leading their teams to a playoff berth, they must be considered above all.
In a year where there are no obvious candidates, then a guy like Hanley Ramirez, who's a had a grest season, can win it. But, with all that Rollins and Holliday have done, especially lately, they must be considered the two favorites for the award.
Looking at those two, defense is a facet of the game that has been largely ignored. Holliday's has been average at best, while Rollins has had a great season fielding one of the game's most crucial positions. Based on that edge, Rollins' premonition in the winter, and his unbelieveable offensive numbers, I would take him in a photo finish over Holliday. I think your boi Hanley deserves to finish in the top 5, which is really unbelieveable for a 23-year old shortstop on a last place team.
I made my case for David Wright here: http://zonersports.com/?p=960
Stephen Chow at his craziest scene.
Chow
Post a Comment