Cheech Tremendous

And he's Hispanic, so he fits with the team model.

Sorry that I do nerdy stuff like look at stats to determine the best player in the league. They're only a measure of a player's actual contributions on the field. Next year I'm forgetting about VORP, OPS and win shares. It's all about heart, hustle, grittiness and being fucking calm-eyed.

What abou the best wisdome bestowed upon this year, courtesy of Dane Cook: "There is only one October."

WARP does account for defense, although it's based on historical models instead of PBP data. It's even noted in Sheehan's post that John Dewan had Holliday, Pujols and Wright as plus defenders at their positions as well. You can't just give Rollins exta credit for defense when the other candidates were all premium defensive players. And while VORP doesn't specifically measure defense, it does measure your offensive contribution relative to your peers at your defensive position. So playing a premium position only gets you so far. As I've said here and will continue to say, Rollins had a very good year. It was the best of his career and it helped his team win a division. He just wasn't the best and there is little argument for voting him over Wright or Holliday or several other candidates.

Maybe next year David Wright will stop worrying about putting up his 1.000 plus OPS from August through September and concentrate on making his pitchers not suck. Perhaps then he can get the award he deserves.

I am appalled that we can't keep a civilized level of discourse in the Raw thread. Who woud have ever thought that it would come to this?

Homer. Might I point out that you put him 4th on your own ballot in our awards thread and said that you couldn't make an argument for him just because he was your guy.

I have nothing against Jimmy Rollins. He's a good player and he had a great season. But we're not discussing good players, we are discussing MVP here, and he just wasn't the best player in the league. He wasn't the best on his team. In fact, he wasn't even the best SS in his division. He had a bunch of hits and runs scored, but that's because he was the leadoff hitter for the best offense in baseball. I have a hard time accepting an argument for him over David Wright or Matt Holliday.

Jimmy Rollins Philadelphia Phillies 16 7 4 4 1 — — — — — 353 Matt Holliday Colorado Rockies 11 18 1 1 — 1 — — — — 336 Prince Fielder Milwaukee Brewers 5 6 17 3 — — — 1 — — 284 David Wright New York Mets — 1 4 12 7 1 1 2 — — 182 Ryan Howard Philadelphia Phillies — — 2 6 3 3 3 2 — 3 112 Chipper Jones Atlanta Braves — — 1 3 3 7 5 1 1 — 107 Jake Peavy San Diego Padres — — — 2 5 5 4 1 4 1 97 Chase Utley Philadelphia Phillies — — 1 — 5 2 6 4 1 3 89 Albert Pujols St. Louis Cardinals — — — — 1 2 2 3 6 5 50 Hanley Ramirez Florida Marlins — — — — 3 2 — 4 4 1 49 Eric Byrnes Arizona Diamondbacks — — — — — 1 3 4 7 — 43 Alfonso Soriano Chicago Cubs — — 1 — 1 2 2 1 1 2 39 Aramis Ramirez Chicago Cubs — — — — 2 2 1 2 2 — 36 Jose Valverde Arizona Diamondbacks — — — — 1 2 — — 1 1 19 Miguel Cabrera Florida Marlins — — — 1 — — 2 — — 3 18 Jose Reyes New York Mets — — — — — 1 2 — 1 1 16 Brandon Webb Arizona Diamondbacks — — — — — — 1 1 2 4 15 Troy Tulowitzki Colorado Rockies — — 1 — — — — 1 — 2 13 Carlos Lee Houston Astros — — — — — — — 1 1 2 7 Adrian Gonzalez San Diego Padres — — — — — 1 — — — 1 6 Carlos Beltran New York Mets — — — — — — — 2 — — 6 Brandon Phillips Cincinnati Reds — — — — — — — 1 — — 3 Aaron Rowand Philadelphia Phillies — — — — — — — 1 — — 3 Brad Hawpe Colorado Rockies — — — — — — — — 1 — 2 Ryan Braun Milwaukee Brewers — — — — — — — — — 2 2 Carlos Marmol Chicago Cubs — — — — — — — — — 1 1

Here are his NL ranks: 8th in Win Shares 5th in Runs Created 9th in VORP Didn't make the top 10 in OBP, Slugging, OPS, OPS+, HR, or Win Probability Added. He was first in outs though!

Good! It's well-deserved. There were only 102 players in MLB this year with a higher OBP (but I guess only 41 in the NL). Well-deserved, indeed!

Ridiculous. But I knew it was coming, so whatever.

If a deal for good pitching is out there, they could trade Gomez. But you don't move a player like that in the first deal that comes along. He and Martinez are the only positional prospects worth a damn in the entire Mets system. On a team with a lot of bad contracts they are going to need good, pre-arb talent to fill out the squad in coming years. Do they really have a lot of bad contracts? Beltran is an All-Star caliber player, so is Billy Wagner. Moises Alou and Carlos Delgado are committed only for this coming season. Pedro should be off the books after this season, correct? I can't think of a single bad contract they have after this season. You are right. For some reason, I was thinking that the team had a lot of money wrapped up in a few aging players. I guess that's not the case. But I guess my point still stands. If they are going to have to replace multiple positions in the next few years through free agency, it might be worthwhile to hang on to the few legitimate prospects that they have to keep the payroll from spiraling out of control.

One of the guys who voted Magglio for MVP: “The Yankees may very well still have made the playoffs without A-Rod, where the Tigers wouldn’t have even been close to being in contention,” Hawkins said. “A-Rod had a far more spectacular year with the home runs, but I felt Magglio had a more consistent year.”

I saw the pic in the Raw folder. I don't know if gay is the word I would use, but he certainly looked awful.

My favorite McCarverism of the year:

If a deal for good pitching is out there, they could trade Gomez. But you don't move a player like that in the first deal that comes along. He and Martinez are the only positional prospects worth a damn in the entire Mets system. On a team with a lot of bad contracts they are going to need good, pre-arb talent to fill out the squad in coming years.

Carlos Gomez is the team's third best prospect and is projected by Baseball America as the team's centerfielder of the future. They better not trade him unless they get something really good in return.

The only shock is that he didn't win unanimously. How could you try to argue with a straight face that Magglio Ordonez had a better year than A-Rod?

I've never been much of a Lowell guy, so re-signing him wasn't that high on my wish list for Boston this offseason. But I've been really wrong on him in the past, so I'll go with this. Even if he starts declining, the commitment is short enough that it won't cause any problems. With the exception of the inevitable Coco Crisp trade or an Eric Gagne replacement, Boston's offseason appears to be done.

Ok but he's a GG shortstop like Derek Jeter is a GG shortstop. We let an overrated player with marginal defense, no bat and a bad attitude go to a team that paid him entirely too much money.

It seems extremely petty to intentionally injure someone because his team is better than yours. I sort of see where you guys are coming from in terms of sending a message, but taking away a fellow player's livelihood out of spite seems incredibly short-sighted and vindictive. How could you rationalize that sort of action?

That was overly harsh on my part. He's somewhere in the middle of the pack as a fielder. It was an overreaction mostly because I have to constantly hear from Boston fans about how we let a Gold Glove SS go for Edgar Renteria. Cabrera's defense is overrated.

If by interesting you mean "Kenny Williams is a really bad GM and makes trades that make his team worse." I don't see the point in trading a 28-year-old starter who's a lock to throw 200 innings every year for a 33-year-old SS who can't really hit or field. This opens up a lot of possibilities for the Angels. They have an extra starter now that could be used as part of a trade for Miguel Tejada or Miguel Cabrera. Also opens a spot for Brandon Wood if he can handle the SS position defensively.