Running 2017 MLB regular season thread

Absolutely. And I like him on Nats' games even if others' mileage may vary.

 

Vote splitting is nonsense. You aren't voting for the MVP of one team.

 

That is close to the most detailed information I've ever seen in an injury or medical story. I usually come out of those pieces with more questions than answers.

 

Major League Baseball does not run the players union, although I can see where you'd be confused if you followed the NFL.

Seriously, this isn't complicated. You think the UAW would want a guy in who crossed a picket line to start making Chevys? Even if it was a few years ago?

 

There seems to be this notion here that you can just hit your way out of union purgatory. The status has nothing to do with how well or poorly Kevin Millar or anyone else played subsequently. In fact, that's kind of the point of a union.

 

It isn't nonsense. Depending on the group of voters, which changes from year to year, they could view the Nats candidates differently. You know who leads the Nats in WAR right now? It's Rendon. You know who most people think is their best player? Harper. You know who has the best numbers? Zimmerman. So you could have three voters give first-place votes to all 3 and the overall vote total gets depressed as compared to someone like Bellinger or Goldschmidt, who would benefit.

 

They aren't obligated to vote for someone from the Nats. There doesn't have to be a Nats candidate. Pick the best player in the league and move on.3 guys with similar numbers on 3 different teams could split the vote, why does it matter if they are on the same team?

 

Why is being on the same team a factor here? These are just the issues voters always must confront when comparing players.

 

I think it works more as a means of preventing voters from giving their vote to any of them. Under the mysterious and subjective idea of "value," the argument is that the Nats would have been fine without any one of the three, while another player will be seen as indispensable to his team.

So they don't split the vote as much as cancel each other out.

 

When the team is probably going to have the best record in the league, and perhaps the best record overall, it's going to be a factor because there are voters who feel the MVP has to come from the best team.

 

Are there still voters who feel that way?

 

Out of the 30 who will end up voting, I bet there are two or three who do. Voting has definitely gotten better the last five years but it is a crapshoot on voting -- ie, how many Cy Young voters in a given year still put an emphasis on wins -- based on the rotating voter pool