Dustin Pedroia wins AL MVP

Or ... maybe ... do it right since people have invested into it emotionally and intellectually. You know, just another way to go ...

 

Agreed all around.

By the way, does anyone else really miss baseball? You know, when we're not forced to dicker over this kind of bullshit? Because this annual crap with the awards reminds me why I miss baseball every Nov. 19.

 

Stare out the window and wait for spring, LJB.

I'm with you.

 

Jealousy?

Unless he's already done so, I'd like to see his explanation of why he didn't even have Pedroia on the ballot. Then I'd like to have Pedroia see it.

Then watch Pedroia hit like .350 with 25 homers and 130 RBI, while stealing 35 bases. Not to compare the two players in their respective sports, but the only other person I've seen play who motivates himself in a similar fashion to Pedroia is Michael Jordan. Again, I'm not saying Pedroia is baseball's Michael Jordan or even the Red Sox Michael Jordan. I'm just saying they motivate themselves to play at their best in very similar fashions.

 

Long haul, my man. In the meantime, we get to ponder why Francisco Rodriguez is on an MVP ballot, after laboring for a team that won its division by umpteen games.

 

You have to be kidding me, right? Rob Neyer is a far more astute baseball observer than 99.9 percent of the hacks that populate press boxes across the major leagues. He's a peer of individuals like Keith Law and Bill James, who have possessed such a keen understanding of baseball that they've been hired to work in the front-office of pro teams. I'd much rather read Rob Neyer than someone like Joel Sherman, Tony Massarotti and Jon Heyman, I'll tell you that.

But I truly hope you're kidding here. If not, how the hell can you knock the credentials of Rob Neyer? Do you even know what VORP is? And if you knew something about sabermetrics, you'd actually know that VORP would not be the first statistic that writers should focus on when voting for MVP. Generally, most sabermetricians would examine UZR to determine the player that proved most valuable to his respective team.

If you aren't kidding around and are seriously knocking Rob, I'd appreciate it if you could explain to me VORP and UZR and why they are inferior qualitative tools.

 

The thing about the MVP vote is that it's not like the Hall of Fame-that has few rules, MVP has none. The word "valuable" and its root "value" are not given a definition by the BBWAA. They mean what the voter thinks. Since there are a lot of different concepts possible in those two words, you get votes with which people violently disagree, and some when almost everyone violently disagrees.
BUT, the voter isn't "wrong" because there is no wrong. And those of you who say "no closers" or "should be on a winning team" or "forget runs scored" are merely using your own definitions.
K-Rod wouldn't have been on my ballot. But closers are important, and he did have a bunch of saves.
I think Grant screwed up and pretty much forgot Pedroia after he picked Youk as MVP. But he wasn't "wrong." And he stood up and took the heat, which is what we all say we admire, right?

 

Olive Oyl --

Who are you asking? I don't respect Neyer's craft, no. I admire his creative approaches, but not the New Philosophy a lot of this stuff is made to nurse.

 

Zeke, just remember, if you release them, you're going to have to clean up their mess later.

 

If you had seen a vote for Ian Kennedy or Joe Borowski or Justin Verlander - wrong?

 

Actually, screwing up and accidently leaving somebody off is pretty damn careless, though I think the calls for him to lose his vote are definitely overdoing it.