MLB 2011 season

I understand your position just fine.  I just disagree with it.  The MVP award is not the MVPP award.  It is the MVP award and a pitcher is a player.

Now next year when they give the MVP to CC Sabathia instead of Miguel Cabrera even though he puts up monster numbers again, I will probably have a totally different opinion.

Catcher10 wrote: This whole discussion is absolutely DUMB!!! Calling the AL MVP choice a disgrace makes zero sense....Who did he disgrace??   Also MVP = Most Valuable Player..of the regular season. That is what the award stands for...."Player" can be anyone on the team. There are other awards given for performance, LCS MVP and WS MVP. Slugger Award, Gold Glove even Comeback Player as well as Cy Young.   Clearly Verlander was theee Most Valuable Player of the regular season..regardless of whether the team made it to the WS or not, so it makes very good sense for him to also have been included as the Cy Young and vice/versa if we were arguing the Cy Young choice. Its logical that his name should have been included in both.   I have been playing baseball all my life...and still do. And more times than not, a pitcher has been named the MVP on a lot of teams I have played on in high school, jr college and adult leagues.......And as a catcher I understand why they are chosen.   What is more stupid and a disgrace is to not consider all members of a baseball team for the award of MVP.

This whole discussion is absolutely DUMB!!! Calling the AL MVP choice a disgrace makes zero sense....Who did he disgrace??

Stooge wrote: If pitchers weren't meant to win the MVP, then they should have excluded them from consideration when the award began.  Until they are officially excluded, then the voters can vote however they want.

Of course they can. And they can be really stupid for doing so.

Stooge wrote: My bad on the Gold Glove.  Soon after I typed that, I realized pitchers could also win it.  But saying that pitchers have their own reward is a valid reason for being ineligible for MVP is ridiculous.  I get the fact that they only pitch every fifth day (or every other day for relievers), but a dominant pitcher can still make a big enough impact in those games.  Bottom line is that when a pitcher like Verlander can unanimously win a CY Young, that should at least put him in MVP discussions, especially when there was no clear-cut favorite in the other positions.

Bottom line is he still wasn't the most valuable player. But I don't see why the fact that pitchers have their own awards doesn't exclude them. The idea of the two awards is to highlight the best at what they do. The Cy Young for the best pitcher and the MVP for the best position player.

My bad on the Gold Glove.  Soon after I typed that, I realized pitchers could also win it.  But saying that pitchers have their own reward is a valid reason for being ineligible for MVP is ridiculous.  I get the fact that they only pitch every fifth day (or every other day for relievers), but a dominant pitcher can still make a big enough impact in those games.  Bottom line is that when a pitcher like Verlander can unanimously win a CY Young, that should at least put him in MVP discussions, especially when there was no clear-cut favorite in the other positions.

rushfan4 wrote: The infamous Catch Twenty-Two. The whole point of the season is to make the playoffs (win the World Series but that doesn't come into play with the MVP voting).  If your team doesn't make the playoffs, how valuable were you?   That said, I full accept the argument that he is but 1 player and he can't be blamed for the pitchers drinking in the clubhouse and the 1st basemen going out with a season ending injury, etc. etc. etc.

Yeah. You can put Babe Ruth on the Astros this year and they wouldn't have made the playoffs. Translate pretty much any year of the Babe to now and you have to agree he should be the MVP. The idea of a team is to win as many games as possible. Teams get screwed by divisional effects and strength of schedule when it comes to making the playoffs. One player can't completely affect playoff chances.

Padraic wrote: Stooge wrote: Padraic wrote: I think if pitchers have a separate award, they're not eligible for MVP.  Either that or eliminate the Cy Young award. What about Gold Gloves and Silver Sluggers or the Hank Aaron award?? Nobody cares.

Glad to know that I am a nobody.

Padraic wrote: I think if pitchers have a separate award, they're not eligible for MVP.  Either that or eliminate the Cy Young award.