Here it is; my 2011 MVP Award Winners. After last week’s 2011 Cy Young Award Winners, this selection was a bit of a douzy – especially in the American League. Here we go:
American League
In the AL, I had a terrible time deciding on my MVP for the season. I knew that picking a Red Sox player would be an instant loss of credibility (Yes, Yankees fans are that bad now) so I sought the most objective manner of determining and MVP that I could come up with. First, I narrowed the list down to the 5 candidates below. Then I compared them against themselves, stat by stat (minus steals and fielding considerations). For each statistical category the winner was assigned 1 point, the second best 2 points, and so on. The player who ended with the fewest points was then determined the MVP. Using this method, the breakdown went like this:
Miguel Cabrera: 16 points
Jacoby Ellsbury: 19 points
Adrian Gonzalez: 20 points
Curtis Granderson: 23 points
Jose Bautista: 25 points
Looking at these numbers, I see 3 factors that are still unaccounted for – defense, steals, and whether or not the player’s team made the playoffs. Granderson, Ellsbury, and Gonzalez all had excellent defensive seasons. Ellsbury and Granderson also had speed (39 and 25 steals, respectively) that should be taken into consideration. Finally, Cabrera and Granderson were on teams that got to the playoffs. With that in mind, I’ve added 2 points for each specific attribute each of the players in this group missed. The shakedown now looks like this:
Miguel Cabrera: 20 points
Jacoby Ellsbury: 21 points
Adrian Gonzalez: 22 points
Curtis Granderson: 23 points
Jose Bautista: 31 points
I do want to say that I think Justin Verlander was likely more valuable to the Tigers than Miguel Cabrera. That said, I already did my Cy Young picks and I wanted to recognize an offensive player with this award. But if I was actually part of the legitimate MVP voting, I’d give Verlander the nod.
howiGit’s 2011 American League MVP: Miguel Cabrera, Detroit Tigers, 1B
161 games played, .344 AVG, 30 HR, 105 RBI, 111 R, 197 H, .448 OBP, 48 2B
Runner-up: Jacoby Ellsbury, Boston Red Sox, CF
158 games played, .321 AVG, 32 HR, 105 RBI, 119 R, 212 H, .376 OBP, 46 2B, 39 SB
Honorable Mentions: Adrian Gonzalez, Boston Red Sox, 1B
159 games played, .338 AVG, 27 HR, 117 RBI, 108 R, 213 H, .410 OBP, 45 2B
Curtis Granderson, New York Yankees, CF
156 games played, .263 AVG, 41 HR, 119 RBI, 136 R, 153 H, .364 OBP, 26 2B, 25 SB
Jose Bautista, Toronto Blue Jays, RF
149 games played, .302 AVG, 43 HR, 103 RBI, 105 R, 155 H, .447 OBP, 24 2B
National League
In the National League, the decision was not so tough – ultimately it was either going to be Matt Kemp or Ryan Braun. I’m giving the nod to Kemp, as he was statistically better in most categories and didn’t have the benefit of playing alongside another MVP candidate.
howiGit’s 2011 National League MVP: Matt Kemp, Los Angeles Dodgers, CF
161 games played, .324 AVG, 39 HR, 126 RBI, 115 R, 195 H, .399 OBP, 33 2B, 40 SB
Runner-up: Ryan Braun, Milwaukee Brewers, LF
150 games played, .332 AVG, 33 HR, 111 RBI, 109 R, 187 H, .397 OBP, 38 2B, 33 SB
Honorable Mention: Prince Fielder, Milwaukee Brewers, 1B
162 games played, .299 AVG, 38 HR, 120 RBI, 95 R, 170 H, .415 OBP, 26 2B
That’s it. Agree, disagree?
So you cant pick a red sox player, a team that had the collapse and then now coming out clubhouse issues, a team that had three candidates yet none of the three could show up when it matters most, and your winner is almost exactly the same as the runner up except in batting average and obp in which Cabrera crushes Ellsbury and its the Yankees fans fault you can’t? Come on.
It’s not the Yankees fans’ fault – if the Sox had made the playoffs I would have picked Ellsbury. He’s got the speed and the defensive element that Cabrera doesn’t. It was very hard not to pick him nonetheless because he was that valuable to the Sox this year with all the big hits and walk offs that he had. Who was more complete than him? No one. But Cabrera gets the nod. He was a beast all year.
“I knew that picking a Red Sox player would be an instant loss of credibility (Yes, Yankees fans are that bad now)”
-Geoff Eugene Roberts, about an hour ago.
That would seem to say it is the Yankees fans fault.
No it would seem to say you folks would be jumpy if I picked Ellsbury, even if he was deserving.
Do you disagree with either of my picks?
Nah, they are probably right.
I saw a bunch of greasy ps3 controllers on craiglists coming out of fenway, you interested?
Dustin Pedroia should have gotten the MVP before Cabrera. You just like big power numbers. Pedroia was ranked higher in WAR, played amazing defense at a premium position and is a smart base runner.
Ellsbury had the highest WAR in the AL by far (Wins above replacement) at 9.4. He was one of the only Red Sox that competed like they wanted to go to the playoffs the last month of the season and he does play excellent defense (the only person with a higher UZR is Garnder).
That said its hard to go against Verlander here. I think (yes Im not looking up the stats) minus that crazy run to end September the Tigers would have been under .500 without Verlander. That team is pretty poor without him – and the pitching staff certainly was before the acquisition of Fister.
My vote would be Verlander, Ellsbury, Bautista.
The NL should go to Kemp. He was the best player from start to finish all year.
Ellsbury was able to do all that while getting the freeze treatment by some of the teams mainstays
can you really blame them though? What he did last year was disgusting.
what did he do?
he was a pussy all year. Didnt travel with the team, ignored the team doctors and magically found broken ribs every time he was ready to come off the dl
how did he discover broken ribs, wouldnt an x-ray machine do that?
Good choices. MVPs are usually debatable.
In baseball I think the player’s team making the playoffs bit is overblown since it’s not a true team sport. The players can’t really pass the ball to each other to score. So the offensive stat comparison holds a lot of weight. Defensively, the position a player plays should count. A good centerfielder is far more valuable than a good first baseman. Baserunning is a relatively small part of the game.
It’s hard to measure the value of a pitcher against a positional player. Verlander was easily the best pitcher in the AL. He was dominant. In the absense of any players having truly exceptional offensive years, I’d choose him as AL MVP. Matt Kemp is an easy choice in the NL.
So Adrian gonzalez got 2 points added at the end instead of 4? Why is that? His team neither made the playoffs nor does he have the speed. So that will knock him out of 3rd. I understand why you only did offensive players but most valuable player is not best offensive. Verlander is far and away the MVP this year. If you took each particular player off that team how much worse would they have been? Would the tigers have done what they did without verlander? absolutely not and maybe don’t make the playoffs. Would the red sox come on third without either of them? Yes and maybe without both so no value there. Same for batista. Would the yankees win the division without granderson? Probably not and they would have gotten a wild card.
You are correct on Adrian, my mistake. I agree with you on Verlander, but I will say that if you remove Cabrera from the lineup the Tigers are in big trouble offensively.
To be honest that’s why I didn’t mention him I agree with you there and seeing as how the MVP always ends up being offensive he will win, but this year in particular I just hope verlander wins. I re-did your rankings with cano for curiosity because with no one hitting behind him and the injuries to the yankees I might argue he is the yankees MVP but he would only move ahead of bautista.
Any reason why you used batting average, obp, hits, 2bs, and hrs but left out triples and slugging percentage?
Triples just because it’s a weird stat, I did look at OPS although I didn’t list each players’. Slugging percentage doesn’t do a whole lot for me.