I Thought That This Kind Of Voting Only Happened In Florida
Ryan Howard? Justin Morneau? Are you kidding me? I honestly thought that Bob was kidding me when he told me that Morneau had been selected as AL MVP.
Justin Morneau is a good player, and I'm sure he's a nice young man. He's still only the third best player on his own team, no matter how many runs he drives in. Ryan Howard had a terrific season, and I'm sure that he's a nice young man also. He is also only the second best player in his league at his own position, by almost any measure that you can come up with.
These were probably two of the most idiot-proof ballots of recent years, and it took a gang of real idiots to screw it up. Barry Bonds and Alex Rodriguez, who regularly win these things despite being hated by a large segment of the electorate weren't in contention, and Albert Pujols and the sainted Derek Jeter had exceptional years. How could the BBRAA miss?
Joe Sheehan at Baseball Prospectus has begun to refer to the BBWAA as the BBRAA, changing the name from Writers to Reporters. He's exactly right. The ranks of the organization no longer accurately reflect the growing number of people who write about the game, just the group that stands in a locker room and asks the same stupid questions to a guy in a jockstrap.
I didn't even have Justin Morneau on my ballot. Bob did, placing him ninth. In the Internet Baseball Awards voting conducted at Baseball Prospectus, Morneau placed sixth and Howard was a somewhat distant second to Albert Pujols. I had Howard forth, although he should have been third, behind Pujols and Carlos Beltran. Bob placed him second, once again behind Pujols, as he clearly should be.
Imagine that you have an MVP vote, and have to pick between these two players. Which do you pick?
I might also mention that these two play the same position, and that A is a good defensive player and B is a slug. If you have an ounce of common sense, you vote for A. The BBRAA collectively voted for B.
One might almost think that this year's choices were so obvious that many in the BBRAA decided to show us how clever they are, and go off other directions. That's giving the organization too much credit. The simple truth of the matter is that reporters see RBIs as bright, shiny objects, and focus all of their attention on them at voting time. That's why Hank Sauer and Dale Murphy and Andre Dawson won MVP awards, and why Hack Wilson and Chuck Klein and Tony Perez are in the Hall of Fame. And these guys think that we are obsessed by statistics?
Justin Morneau is a good player, and I'm sure he's a nice young man. He's still only the third best player on his own team, no matter how many runs he drives in. Ryan Howard had a terrific season, and I'm sure that he's a nice young man also. He is also only the second best player in his league at his own position, by almost any measure that you can come up with.
These were probably two of the most idiot-proof ballots of recent years, and it took a gang of real idiots to screw it up. Barry Bonds and Alex Rodriguez, who regularly win these things despite being hated by a large segment of the electorate weren't in contention, and Albert Pujols and the sainted Derek Jeter had exceptional years. How could the BBRAA miss?
Joe Sheehan at Baseball Prospectus has begun to refer to the BBWAA as the BBRAA, changing the name from Writers to Reporters. He's exactly right. The ranks of the organization no longer accurately reflect the growing number of people who write about the game, just the group that stands in a locker room and asks the same stupid questions to a guy in a jockstrap.
I didn't even have Justin Morneau on my ballot. Bob did, placing him ninth. In the Internet Baseball Awards voting conducted at Baseball Prospectus, Morneau placed sixth and Howard was a somewhat distant second to Albert Pujols. I had Howard forth, although he should have been third, behind Pujols and Carlos Beltran. Bob placed him second, once again behind Pujols, as he clearly should be.
Imagine that you have an MVP vote, and have to pick between these two players. Which do you pick?
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One might almost think that this year's choices were so obvious that many in the BBRAA decided to show us how clever they are, and go off other directions. That's giving the organization too much credit. The simple truth of the matter is that reporters see RBIs as bright, shiny objects, and focus all of their attention on them at voting time. That's why Hank Sauer and Dale Murphy and Andre Dawson won MVP awards, and why Hack Wilson and Chuck Klein and Tony Perez are in the Hall of Fame. And these guys think that we are obsessed by statistics?
posted by Jim at
5:57 PM
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