NL MVP?

[MVPete]

With Votto missing a large chunk of time with an injury it looks like we are left with a 3 horse race in the NL for MVP. Braun has had an even better season than his MVP season last season but may get spurned by the voters for being caught using PEDs even though it was dropped. Cutch has had an amazing year but has slowed down in the 2nd half and the Pirates have sunk with him. Posey has been the hottest hitter since the ASB and is helping the Giants run away in the West. I'll put "Other" as an option as well if anyone wants to do a write in vote, but I think it's down to these 3 guys.

 

[EmpireWF]

Attaboy Posey!

Lest anyone forget, Posey missed most of the 2011 season after a devastating leg injury on a play at the plate. The 2010 NL Rookie of the Year Award winner returned to health to earn his first All-Star start and has posted a second half without NL peer. Since the break, Posey leads all of baseball with a .392 average, .467 on-base percentage and 1.125 OPS, and leads the NL with 20 doubles during that span, while ranking third in RBIs with 52. He has hit 13 of his 23 homers in the second half.

Not coincidentally, the Giants have stretched out their lead in the NL West despite losing first-half star Melky Cabrera to a 50-game suspension for performance-enhancing drug use.

Meanwhile, guiding the league's No. 2-rated pitching staff, Posey has caught in 107 games, in addition to making 26 starts at first base.

http://mlb.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20120921&content_id=38770154&vkey=news_mlb&c_id=mlb

 

[NAHSTE]

:mccutch: is my vote.

Would not be surprised to see Posey win it, the Braungate backlash and Pirates collapse will help him, and he's got an 80 "win undeserving awards" tool.

 

[ThomasTomasz]

 

[Warner2BruceTD]

Cutch is going to win, but he shouldn't. He folded, and then the Pirates folded. The .252 August (with sub .700 OPS) helped sink his team. This is anecdotal, but I saw first hand too many key AB's during the initial swoon where Cucth came up empty. To me, that's no MVP.

Braun, on the other hand, keeps on plugging along and has picked it up in the second half. Drove in the tying run last night in the 9th, then scored the lead run. Big hit after big hit night after night to keep the Brewers alive somehow in the race. When the stats are this close, i'll take the guy who shows up in the big spot. That's Braun. He won't win because they will punish him for the PED's. But I have to be fair. He deserves it.

 

[Woy]

He deserves more attention in this race. He's set career-highs in almost every hitting category imaginable (20 HR, 70 RBI [lolRBI], .319/.376/.503), improved on the basepaths (12 stolen bases!?), on track to another gold glove by throwing out 47% of runners attempting to steal and tied for first in NL WAR (according to baseball-reference, 6.7 total, 2.7 defensive).

He's been overlooked because of Posey's tremendous offensive year at the position, but there's not a lot of reasoning to completely dismiss Yadi from the race. Does he deserve to win? No, but he doesn't deserve to be ignored either.

e: :niggasinparis: to TT.

 

[Goober]

Carlos Gomez is setting career highs too, is he a MVP candidate?

 

[Woy]

Carlos Gomez is setting career highs too, is he a MVP candidate?

[video]http://mlb.mlb.com/video/play.jsp?content_id=23328515[/video]

 

[Goober]

Ryan Braun NL leaders: HR (1st), TB (1st), XBH (1st), SLG (1st), OPS (1st), RBI (2nd), runs (3rd), hits (4th), AVG (5th), OBP (6th), WAR, (1st), wOBA (1st), wRC+ (1st).

Does anyone have a resume that comes even close to that? Braun has been the best player in the National League this year. He has the Brewers in playoff contention, despite the team trading away their ace in July, and a terrible bullpen. What else could you ask from this standup gentleman?

 

[Slateman]

[video]http://mlb.mlb.com/video/play.jsp?content_id=23328515[/video]

 

[NAHSTE]

Cutch is going to win, but he shouldn't. He folded, and then the Pirates folded. The .252 August (with sub .700 OPS) helped sink his team. This is anecdotal, but I saw first hand too many key AB's during the initial swoon where Cucth came up empty. To me, that's no MVP.

Braun, on the other hand, keeps on plugging along and has picked it up in the second half. Drove in the tying run last night in the 9th, then scored the lead run. Big hit after big hit night after night to keep the Brewers alive somehow in the race. When the stats are this close, i'll take the guy who shows up in the big spot. That's Braun. He won't win because they will punish him for the PED's. But I have to be fair. He deserves it.

:bobbyv:

Bud Selig kept the Brewers in the race. The Brewers have 4 more wins than the Pirates presently. Isn't that about what we expected from both clubs going into the year? We all know that roster is terrible, you are seriously going to penalize Cutch for failing to keep his awful supporting cast afloat for 6 continuous months?

Amazingly, the Pirates are closer to the Brewers in record than the Brewers are to any other playoff team in both leagues combined, 2nd NL WC excluded. The Brewers are 13.5 games back in their own division for Christ's sake.

If you want to give it to Braun based on his performance, go nuts. I just hate when people play the team success card in an MVP vote, especially this year when the "success" in question is keeping your team within 8.5 games of what would be the final playoff spot in any season between '94 and 2011.

But yes, let's all be impressed by Braun keeping his Brewers in contention with that middling 78-73 record. We're all so proud. If only Cutch's team could have kept up with that blistering .517 pace for two more weeks.

 

[Warner2BruceTD]

:bobbyv:

Bud Selig kept the Brewers in the race. The Brewers have 4 more wins than the Pirates presently. Isn't that about what we expected from both clubs going into the year? You are seriously going to penalize Cutch for failing to keep his awful supporting cast afloat for 6 continuous months? The Pirates are closer to the Brewers in record than the Brewers are to any other playoff team in both leagues combined, 2nd NL WC excluded. The Brewers are 13.5 games back in their own division for Christ's sake.

If you want to give it to Braun based on his performance, go nuts. I just hate when people play the team success card in an MVP vote, especially this year when the "success" in question is keeping your team within 8.5 games of what would be the final playoff spot in any season between '94 and 2011.

But yes, let's all be impressed by Braun keeping his Brewers in contention with that middling 78-73 record. We're all so proud. If only Cutch's team could have kept up with that blistering .517 pace for two more weeks.

Yes.

Can't give a guy the MVP who folded like an accordion while his team was falling apart at the seams. Until they remove the word "valuable" from the award, it's open to interpretation what the award is for. I have a major problem with giving the MVP to a guy who played as badly as he did for a month and a half and helped his team play its way out of the race. For me it's not strictly a bean count, when & how you compile the numbers matters.

Braun's numbers are better, and he's helped keep his team afloat. I don't like how he handled himself in the offseason, and it's not like Cutch winning would be a sham, but I have to be fair and Braun is having the better year.

 

[NAHSTE]

Braun's numbers are better, and he's helped keep his team afloat. I don't like how he handled himself in the offseason, and it's not like Cutch winning would be a sham, but I have to be fair and Braun is having the better year.

That is fine with me. I just don't think he should win because the Brewers are having the better year, especially when that's only marginally true.

Also, FWIW, Cutch has 6 HRs in September and is OPSing .930. He had a bad month of August but he's finishing strong.

 

[EmpireWF]

Does anyone have a resume that comes even close to that? Braun has been the best player in the National League this year. He has the Brewers in playoff contention, despite the team trading away their ace in July, and a terrible bullpen. What else could you ask from this standup gentleman?

Check that.

McCutcheon was the best in the NL pre-All Star Game.

Posey has been the best in the NL post-All Star Game.

After Melky's suspension, the Giants are 24-9. After the all-star break, besides Posey, no other Giant has 5 HR. No other batter besides Posey has an .OBP over 400. By the way, the Giants are 26 games over .500 and already clinched the West.

The Brewers?

Braun's 2nd half - 42 R, 81 H, 18 2B, 16 HR, 46 RBI, 25 BB, .325/.388/.598, .987 OPS
Ramirez's 2nd half - 41 R, 77 H, 20 2B, 15 HR, 45 RBI, 13 BB, .330/.380/.609, .990 OPS

 

[Woy]

:bobbyv:

Bud Selig kept the Brewers in the race.

Actually Shyam Das has. Braun should have missed 50 games.

 

[Warner2BruceTD]

Also, Aramis Ramirez is a legit candidate.

 

[moneyman255]

:bobbyv:

Bud Selig kept the Brewers in the race. The Brewers have 4 more wins than the Pirates presently. Isn't that about what we expected from both clubs going into the year? We all know that roster is terrible, you are seriously going to penalize Cutch for failing to keep his awful supporting cast afloat for 6 continuous months?

Amazingly, the Pirates are closer to the Brewers in record than the Brewers are to any other playoff team in both leagues combined, 2nd NL WC excluded. The Brewers are 13.5 games back in their own division for Christ's sake.

If you want to give it to Braun based on his performance, go nuts. I just hate when people play the team success card in an MVP vote, especially this year when the "success" in question is keeping your team within 8.5 games of what would be the final playoff spot in any season between '94 and 2011.

But yes, let's all be impressed by Braun keeping his Brewers in contention with that middling 78-73 record. We're all so proud. If only Cutch's team could have kept up with that blistering .517 pace for two more weeks.

Bud Selig kept them in the race? Wut?

MLB wanted to suspend Braun including Selig but an independent arbitrator ruled in his favor. This has nothing to do with MLB or Selig.

Braun in August and September:

61-188 (.324 AVG) 12 HR, 15 2B, 17 BB, 39 K, 10 SB (8 in SEPT)

McCutchen in August/Sept:

48-182 (.263 AVG) 8 HR, 6 2B, 25 BB, 42 K, 5 SB

Posey in August/Sept:

61-168 (.363 AVG) 10 HR, 13 2B, 28 BB, 32 K, 0 SB

This race should really be between Braun/Posey with Posey having a slight lead. If Milwaukee somehow sneaks in, than I can see Braun winning it, and deservedly so.

 

[moneyman255]

Also, Aramis Ramirez is a legit candidate.

The whole offense has been on fire. They are averaging like 6 runs per game since there big streak.

Aoki, Weeks, Braun, A-Ram, Segura, Lucroy etc have all been on fire.


Sept #'s:

Aoki: .346 AVG, .418 OBP, 3 HR, 7 SB
Weeks: .271 AVG, .333 OBP, 7 HR, 6 SB
Braun: .342 AVG, .404 OBP, 4 HR, 8 SB
A-Ram: .314 AVG, .380 OBP, 4 HR, 1 SB
Hart: .308 AVG, .357 OBP, 5 HR, 0 SB (Aug. #'s, been hurt most of Sept.)
Lucroy: .300 AVG, .328 OBP, 1 HR, 0 SB
Segura: .370 AVG, .453 OBP, 0 HR, 3 SB

 

[ThomasTomasz]

Ryan Braun NL leaders: HR (1st), TB (1st), XBH (1st), SLG (1st), OPS (1st), RBI (2nd), runs (3rd), hits (4th), AVG (5th), OBP (6th), WAR, (1st), wOBA (1st), wRC+ (1st).

Does anyone have a resume that comes even close to that? Braun has been the best player in the National League this year. He has the Brewers in playoff contention, despite the team trading away their ace in July, and a terrible bullpen. What else could you ask from this standup gentleman?

 

[NAHSTE]

Bud Selig kept them in the race? Wut?

MLB wanted to suspend Braun including Selig but an independent arbitrator ruled in his favor.

I am not talking about the Braun suspension, I am talking about the new playoff format. I am fine with Braun winning, he has had a great year. I just don't subscibe to the "he's carrying a contender" narrative.