NL MVP

While I was manipulating statistics to expouse a DH for MVP in the American League, I also used my newly created VORP DIFFERENTIAL and LEADING CAST statistics to select an MVP. What I did not write about (since I am on vacation, have a bad head cold, and was very sleepy at the time) was that I had done the stats for the National League teams as well. Imagine my surprise when I noticed that the NL MVP was all out-of-whack.

While reading Joe Sheehan's article on Baseball Prospectus that detailed the NL MVP race, he came to the same conclusions that I had in my groggy state the night before (and he seemed as surprised as I was): http://www.baseballprospectus.com/article.php?articleid=6944. Nice to know it was not only me who was flabbergasted by the choice of Jimmy Rollins as MVP.

Check out who stands out on my list below and who is conspiciously absent.

VORP RANK NAME TEAM VORP DIFF LEADING CAST
58 Eric Byrnes ARI 2.4 89
6 Chipper Jones ATL 28.5 135.3
29 Derrek Lee CHN 4.7 121
36 Adam Dunn CIN 8.3 119.8
7 Matt Holliday COL 23.1 161.9
2 Hanley Ramirez FLO 18.1 157.33
9 Carlos Lee HOU 0.4 116.2
35 Russell Martin LAN 5.8 110.6
11 Prince Fielder MIL 11.9 148.9
5 David Wright NYN 30 146.7
12 Chase Utley PHI 2.7 206.2
88 Freddy Sanchez PIT 2.7 81.4
49 Adrian Gonzalez SDN 15.4 84.9
19 Barry Bonds SFN 28.8 56.6
9 Albert Pujols SLN 51.4 59.8
57 Dmitri Young WAS 11.7 83.1

Forget Hanley Ramirez already, the MVP is overwhelmingly Albert Pujols. That St. Louis team is really, really bad and Prince Albert carried those jokers. Look at how bad those teams were in their Leading Cast points. David Wright, Chipper Jones and Barry Bonds would be the runner-ups for MVP if ithe award was concernd with truly figuring out who was the most valuable to the team. Jones and Bond? Ugh, how five years ago!

Whos is conspiciously absent? The BBWA (note: I drop the last A because I don't discriminate against baseball writers not of America) choice of Jimmy Rollins does not even make my short list because he was not the VORP leader for the Phillies, instead it was Chase Utley. This goes back to my Joe Gordon rule where an MVP has to first be the most valuable player on his team before he can be most valuable of the league. Another great job by the writers, continuing to make a mockery of the awards voting.

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