Verlander MVP?

[thehippo73]

The only way Verlander has a legitimate shot is to throw a brilliant no hitter on national tv today. Even doing that may not be enough since he is a pitcher.

 

[Mitchrapp]

Pitchers have won it before.

 

[thehippo73]

Mitch[/color]]Pitchers have won it before.

They have but I think many sportswriters have changed their way of thinking. Guys have achieved the triple crown in baseball and not won the MVP. I cannot imagine a situation where that player would not win in today's game. We are much more statistically oriented when voting for awards than in the past.

 

[Mitchrapp]

He sure gets talked about though. You never knew but it doesn't matter to me if he got an MVP. Get to the playoffs, win a shit load of games and grab the CY Young award. In that order.

 

[thehippo73]

Mitch[/color]]He sure gets talked about though. You never knew but it doesn't matter to me if he got an MVP. Get to the playoffs, win a shit load of games and grab the CY Young award. In that order.

Agreed 100%. Just like the debate/conversation.

 

[interiminequities]

The only way Verlander has a legitimate shot is to throw a brilliant no hitter on national tv today. Even doing that may not be enough since he is a pitcher.

I tend to agree with this, to be honest. I'm a Tigers fan, so I think he should win it anyway, but two no-hitters in one year would be something "special." The analysts on ESPN really like to babble on about "special" things.

 

[spockmaster]

http://insider.espn.go.com/mlb/blog?name=olney_buster&id=6906158


Olney said that if he had a vote today, he'd choose Verlander:




We may never have seen an MVP race quite like what we're seeing in the American League this year, because of the diversity in the field of possible winners. There is a candidate for many different constituencies, from the SABR crowd, to the rival camps of Red Sox and Yankees fans, to fans who believe that a great starting pitcher is the most valuable commodity in the game.

The debate won't only be about the best MVP candidate, but also what exactly defines the Most Valuable Player. In recent years, there has been an evolution in the Cy Young voting, away from the win column and toward other metrics. Because there is such a broad cast of MVP candidates in the AL, some clarity will probably be found this year in exactly how voters, in 2011, weigh the varying strengths of players as they cast their ballots.

If the voters want to pick the guy with the best numbers, there is a clear front-runner. If they want to pick the best player with the best team, there is a nice array of possibilities. If they want to consider how much one player's success impacts whether his team makes the postseason, there is an excellent candidate.

During Sunday Night Baseball, I sent out a tweet asking followers to present their MVP front-runners, and the results looked like something out of an early Iowa caucus, with the votes cast all over the place, like corn stalks.

With 4

 

[jdeb]

well said