2010 SB Nation Awards: American League MVP
by Al Yellon on Nov 23, 2010 1:30 PM CST
in Chicago Cubs News
Email
Print
I can just hear the Josh Hamilton story now -- again. So I won't bring it up. Anyway, SB Nation voters named him the AL MVP. BCB, as a NL blog, did not have ballots in this voting. If I did have a ballot, I probably would have voted the ten names on my ballot pretty much the way this one came out. The BBWAA voters had it pretty close to the same, except for voting Robinson Cano higher and Evan Longoria lower.
There's some Yankee bias here that I don't understand. A fourth-place vote for A-Rod after he put up the lowest OPS he ever had as a Yankee? And what's Brett Gardner doing on this list? Despite the stolen bases, he had an OPS+ of 106, pretty average.
American League
| Rk | Player | Team | 1st | 2nd | 3rd | 4th | 5th | 6th | 7th | 8th | 9th | 10th | Pts |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Josh Hamilton | Texas Rangers | 22 | 5 | 1 | - | - | 1 | - | - | - | - | 277 |
| 2 | Miguel Cabrera | Detroit Tigers | 4 | 4 | 7 | 3 | 3 | 2 | 3 | 1 | - | 1 | 197 |
| 3 | Evan Longoria | Tampa Bay Rays | 3 | 3 | 6 | 9 | 2 | - | 1 | 1 | 2 | - | 191 |
| 4 | Robinson Cano | New York Yankees | 6 | 4 | 5 | 4 | 3 | 4 | 1 | 1 | 1 | - | 182 |
| 4 | Jose Bautista | Toronto Blue Jays | - | 7 | 4 | 3 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 2 | - | - | 182 |
| 6 | Adrian Beltre | Boston Red Sox | - | 4 | 4 | 7 | 2 | 5 | 3 | 1 | - | 1 | 170 |
| 7 | Carl Crawford | Tampa Bay Rays | - | - | 2 | - | 5 | 3 | 5 | 1 | 2 | 4 | 92 |
| 8 | Joe Mauer | Minnesota Twins | - | - | - | 1 | 3 | 1 | 2 | 8 | 4 | 5 | 75 |
| 9 | Paul Konerko | Chicago White Sox | - | - | - | - | 2 | 4 | 2 | 1 | 7 | 3 | 60 |
| 10 | Shin-Soo Choo | Cleveland Indians | - | - | 1 | - | 2 | 2 | - | 5 | 2 | 5 | 54 |
| 11 | Felix Hernandez | Seattle Mariners | - | - | - | - | 1 | 4 | 1 | 2 | 1 | - | 38 |
| 12 | Cliff Lee | Mariners/Rangers | - | - | - | - | - | - | 2 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 17 |
| 13 | Alex Rodriguez | New York Yankees | - | - | - | 1 | - | - | - | - | - | - | 7 |
| 14 | Jim Thome | Minnesota Twins | - | - | - | - | 1 | - | - | - | - | - | 6 |
| 14 | Vladimir Guerrero | Texas Rangers | - | - | - | - | - | - | 1 | - | 1 | - | 6 |
| 14 | Mark Teixeira | New York Yankees | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | 2 | - | - | 6 |
| 17 | Brett Gardner | New York Yankees | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | 2 | 1 | 5 |
| 18 | Justin Verlander | Detroit Tigers | - | - | - | - | - | - | 1 | - | - | - | 4 |
| 19 | Vernon Wells | Toronto Blue Jays | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | 1 | - | - | 3 |
| 19 | CC Sabathia | New York Yankees | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | 1 | 1 | 3 |
| 21 | Daric Barton | Oakland Athletics | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | 1 | - | 2 |
| 21 | Delmon Young | Minnesota Twins | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | 1 | - | 2 |
| 21 | Elvis Andrus | Texas Rangers | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | 1 | - | 2 |
| 21 | Luke Scott | Baltimore Orioles | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | 1 | - | 2 |
| 21 | Billy Butler | Kansas City Royals | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | 2 | 2 |
| 21 | Ichiro Suzuki | Seattle Mariners | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | 2 | 2 |
| 27 | David Price | Tampa Bay Rays | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | 1 | 1 |
39 comments
|
0 recs |
Do you like this story?
Comments
It's too bad that
the Cubs didn’t hold onto him. What a mistake…
"Every player should be accorded the privilege of at least one season with the Chicago Cubs. That's baseball as it should be played - in God's own sunshine. And that's really living." ~Alvin Dark
by DamonBerryhillsMitt on Nov 23, 2010 1:47 PM CST reply actions
Sorry, I couldn't help myself
"Every player should be accorded the privilege of at least one season with the Chicago Cubs. That's baseball as it should be played - in God's own sunshine. And that's really living." ~Alvin Dark
by DamonBerryhillsMitt on Nov 23, 2010 1:53 PM CST up reply actions
OK ... Let it out
This meme is never going to die, is it?
by jerry morales rules on Nov 23, 2010 2:52 PM CST up reply actions
never ever forever
He's my Hossa
HO-HO-HO-HO-HOSSA
by jesus christos on Nov 23, 2010 5:20 PM CST up reply actions
Itis just one of many things Jim has done that does not make sense or comes back to bite the Cubs in the ass....
I will admit at the time, however, that though I did not want the Reds being helped, I didn’t think a washed up junkie (at the time) was that big of a deal.
In his defense, Hendry probably does not make that move if he had known what was coming.
That said, I think Jim cares too much about his rep with other GMs. It would be nice to be on the winning end of a trade once in a while. I think the last one was Derrek Lee? 7 years ago?
Are we not counting
Silva for He-Who-Shall-Not-Be-Named then?
by Limey Cub Fan Jay on Nov 24, 2010 3:35 AM CST up reply actions
That is bad contract for bad contract and trying to clean up his own mess.
Though it was nice to get the 5 mil thrown in and to get rid of Bradley.
BUT, Silva still has a big contract and the whole thing should not have happened in the first place.
DeRosa for Archer
May come back a big time plus. The Harden deal has to be seen as a plus at this point as well.
Regardless, neither of those have anything to do with this as has been hashed, re-hashed, the re-re-hashed some more. We can agree that’s a lot of hashing over a supplemental draft choice.
by jerry morales rules on Nov 24, 2010 9:10 AM CST up reply actions
And besides, that $50,000 we got for him paid the salary of a few beer vendors!
That was a huge help! And at least the Rangers and Reds will think that we are swell guys!
Brett Gardner is defensible
He had a really good year. He was the best defender in all of baseball by UZR, posted a .349 wOBA (good for a 119 wRC+, which does a better job than OPS+ if correcting the bad math in the OPS calculation), and stole 50 bases. All in all he qualified as the 9th highest WAR in the AL.
I’d have Gardner and Hernandez higher, and I don’t think I’d have Vlad or Texieria anywhere near there. Elvis Andrus is almost laughable.
Rays/Cubs fan - AnotherCubsBlog.net
47 SB, not 50.
Still… it’s a stretch. Agreed on Andrus.
"You can observe a lot just by watching." ~ Yogi Berra
You're right, I was looking at projections for 2011
But his wOBA was higher than I listed, .358, and his wRC+ was 123. I’m going to need more explanation on how it’s a stretch, as he was the best defender in the majors AND he’s the ninth-highest WAR in the AL. Maybe you don’t agree in that valuation, but a system that many people look to as a starting point clearly has him as one of the Top 10 players in the league, especially noting he takes a positional hit for playing a less demanding position.
http://www.fangraphs.com/leaders.aspx?pos=all&stats=bat&lg=al&qual=y&type=6&season=2010&month=0
Rays/Cubs fan - AnotherCubsBlog.net
Someone voted Josh Hamilton 6th?
I’d like to see who the 5 he voted on in front of him were.
"I don't care who the manager is OR who they sign in the off-season...I just want a frickin' World Series winner" - Easy Ed
Also...even tho I despise the White Sox...
…I think Konerko shoulda got a bit more “love” from the voters.
"I don't care who the manager is OR who they sign in the off-season...I just want a frickin' World Series winner" - Easy Ed
He plays 1B and a bad one at that...
Makes it hard when you’re not even the best at your position in your division, and he actually ended with a lower total WAR than Morneau who played half a year.
Rays/Cubs fan - AnotherCubsBlog.net
Which is why numbers are not the be-all and end-all of this type of voting.
Konerko’s not THAT bad a 1B. Great? No. But he’s no Adam Dunn, either.
"You can observe a lot just by watching." ~ Yogi Berra
Um, K.
Most metrics agreed that he was pretty poor in 2010. What am I supposed to rely on, reputation? My eyes? Defense isn’t perfect but triangulation helps here.
Also, what DON’T the numbers tell you?
Rays/Cubs fan - AnotherCubsBlog.net
I don't want to start another firestorm here.
Let’s just say that I don’t evaluate players strictly by lists of numbers. The statistics are helpful and advanced metrics are useful. But they are not the only factor. Team leadership means something, and no, it cannot be measured.
"You can observe a lot just by watching." ~ Yogi Berra
If it can't be measured reliably, than you are just introducing bias in your analysis.
Because there’s no way you can accurately comment on the “leadership” of all the players eligible. Is Konerko a diamond leader despite being a butcher at his position?
Rays/Cubs fan - AnotherCubsBlog.net
Different divisions but Dawson won his MVP in '87 with a WAR of 2.7
while another right fielder, Tony Gwynn boasted an 8.1
Dawson was a pretty dang awful pick for MVP that year
Eric Davis was also right up there with Gwynn
Rays/Cubs fan - AnotherCubsBlog.net
I am sure there are some homer votes goin on here
alot of them actually…
I think the fact that there are 0 Cubs on this list speaks volumes to the cheapness of Ricketts, if only he would have spent more money, fired Hendry and Lou day 1 there would have been a Cub as the undisputed #1 MVP for the AL, hands down, no contest type deal…
I'm sure that they are plotting the team's return to respectability as we speak!
Kerry Wood, Adam Dunn….they must be coming soon even though we’ve heard zero rumblings from the Cubs….right?….
Just because you don't hear anything doesn't mean things aren't being done.
Or seriously, do you expect Jim Hendry to give you an hour-by-hour progress report?
"You can observe a lot just by watching." ~ Yogi Berra
Jim Thome with a 5th place vote
bothers me way more than Brett Gardner with a couple 9th/10th place votes…Gardner at least put up 5+ WAR, Thome was a nice story but should not have been anywhere near an MVP ballot
worf's exile has not improved his posting I see
still an idiot
I always turn to the sports section first. The sports page records people's accomplishments; the front page has nothing but man's failures.
~Earl Warren
by lookingdeadred on Nov 28, 2010 9:41 AM CST up reply actions
Comments For This Post Are Closed
Secondary Sidebar
User Tools
Related FanPosts on Bleed Cubbie Blue
FanPosts
Community blog posts and discussion.
Recommended FanPosts
Recent FanPosts
FanShots
Quick hits of video, photos, quotes, chats, links and lists that you find around the web.
Recommended FanShots
Recent FanShots
Cubs By The Numbers
Cubs By The Numbers is a history of the ballclub by uniform number, but the biographies help trace the history of our beloved team in a new way. For everyone who's a Cubs fan, anyone who ever wore the uniform is like family. Cubs By The Numbers reintroduces readers to some of their long-lost ancestors, even ones they think they already know.
Click here to order your copy, available now!
Recent Stories in Chicago Cubs Game Threads
Recent Stories in Ticket Exchanges
Baseball Nation Recent Stories
In Association With
Big League Stew - MLB - Yahoo! Sports
- College player makes impossible over the fence catch to save tournament game (Video)
- Security!: Camden Yards guard collides with Royals’ Mike Moustakas
- The Juice: Nelson Cruz matches career high eight RBIs, Pujols stays hot in Seattle
- Benches clear at Fenway as Red Sox-Rays rivalry heats up
- Keeping good company: Albert Pujols becomes fourth-youngest player to hit 450 home runs
