September 23rd, 2012 at 6:20 am 
by Ron Cervenka In 2011, the Baseball Writers’ Association of America (BBWAA) got the NL MVP Award wrong, and anybody who has issue with this need look no further than the cold hard facts – the statistics themselves. Yet even with the indisputable numbers right there in front of them in black and white, the BBWAA awarded Major League Baseball’s most prestigious individual award to Ryan Braun instead of Matt Kemp. Why? According to the (few) BBWAA members who had the courage to come forward, they voted for Braun over Kemp solely because Braun was on a playoff-bound team and Kemp was not; this in spite of the fact that Kemp led the league in two of the three Triple Crown categories – home runs (39) and RBIs (126) and finished third in the third category (batting average) a mere 8 points behind Braun and 13 points behind Jose Reyes. In fact, Kemp finished ahead of Braun in most traditional and sabermetric categories.
In other words, the BBWAA added their own little unwritten criteria to the MVP voting on a whim, because nowhere is it written that the winner must be on a playoff-bound team – nowhere.
The Baseball Writer’s Association of America have forever tarnished the most prestigious individual award in baseball – the MVP Award. Quite a disgrace to the man who won this one. (Click on photo to enlarge)
Even though Braun finished the 2011 season ahead of Kemp in batting average (.332 to Kemp’s .324), he finished behind Kemp in home runs with 33 (which was tied for 6th) and RBIs with 111 (4th); and this doesn’t even take into account that Kemp also led the league in runs scored (115 to Braun’s 109), total bases (353 to 336) and ahead of Braun in stolen bases (40 to 33). And this most certainly doesn’t take into consideration that Ryan Braun cheated. (Don’t forget that Braun’s PED suspension was overturned on a disputed handling technicality, even though he tested positive for elevated testosterone levels, which he did not dispute).
Yet when the smoke cleared in the NL MVP voting, which is an individual award not a team award, it was Ryan Braun who walked away with the plate instead of Matt Kemp; and there isn’t a single argument, not one, that will ever convince me that this wasn’t one of the biggest travesties in baseball history.
It’s bad enough that the BBWAA awarded the 2011 NL MVP Award to the wrong guy, but it is incomprehensible that Ryan Braun had the nerve (and conscience) to accept it. (Photo credit – Jonathan Daniel)
The fact that the Brewers made the playoffs and the Dodgers did not should never have even entered the equation. Again, this isn’t in the the MVP voting criteria and it never has been. In fact, the last Brewers player to win an MVP title was Hall of Famer and the very deserving Robin Yount in 1989 on a Brewers team (then of the American League) that finished 4th in the AL Eastern Division (the Dodgers finished 3rd in the NL West last season).
The point here is that by virtue of their own ignorance, incompetence, and whim, the Baseball Writers’ Association of America have set a horrible precedent that pretty much compels them to never again award the MVP title to a player who is not on a playoff-bound team, regardless of their numbers – say like Miguel Cabrera, who is in a position to become the first player to win a batting Triple Crown since Carl Yastrzemski did so in 1967, yet unless the Detroit Tigers can get past the White Sox and win the AL Central title, they will not make the playoffs.
Perhaps now you can see just how badly the BBWAA has screwed things up by making this must-be-on-a-playoff-bound-team a requirement to win an MVP title. Yet if they do give the AL MVP award to Miguel Cabrera (and of course they will) they will once again be sticking it to Matt Kemp for making that ridiculous playoff requirement rule a one-time deal – and how fair is that?
The BBWAA has effectively made this once Holy Grail of all baseball awards as meaningless as a participant trophy on a last place Little League team – not to mention that they have completely destroyed what little credibility they had left.
The ironic part about this whole thing is that the guy who most likely should win the 2012 NL MVP title is… you guessed it, Ryan Braun. And even though the Brewers still have an outside shot at making the 2012 playoffs via the newly created second Wild Card, if they do not make it, the BBWAA damn well better get it wrong again and not give the award to Braun, or it will be yet another sticking it to Matt Kemp deal.
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There certainly is irony that Braun is in the MVP mix and might not be on a winning team. If he wins it again and the Brewers are not in post season play, then there had to be another dynamic in play last year. I hate to say it, but perhaps a bias in play that did not favor the west coast.
The MVP award, as you point out, is not a team award. It should be awarded to the player who has accrued the most net benefit to his team during the season. It didn’t take much of an imagination to see where the Dodgers would have been without Matt who did not have Prince Fielder behind him.
It will be interesting to see how it plays out.
Bruan had Prince Fielder hitting behind him. Kemp had Either. No disrespect to Dre but last season he was certainly no Prince Fielder. How can a guy be the MOST VALUABLE when he has a guy like that right behind him?
The fact of the matter is this; if you took Braun and put him in Dodger Stadium with that anemic lineup and against NL West pitching and having to play in AT&T and Petco 20 times his numbers go DOWN.
Put Kemp in Miller Park with Prince protecting him and getting to play against the Astros, Cubs and Pirates nearly 60 times and guess what. Kemp’s numbers not only go UP but he more than likely wins the the Triple Crown.
The award is MOST VALUABLE. That means ‘where would a team be with him on it?’ A Braun-less Brewer team is still making the playoffs with just Fielder. A Kemp-less 2011 Dodgers is the Padres.
Just think how different this season would be if Kemp never got hurt. I don’t just mean hitting the wall in Colorado. I mean the hamstring. He had the best April in history and if he stays healthy all year that 50-50 claim isn’t so tongue in cheek anymore.