Comments on: And now a positive note about the MVP award voting

By: jjpileggi

jjpileggi — Sat, 17 Nov 2012 17:47:55 +0000

Come on, Sosa corked his bat, and lost his ability to speak english when asked about PED. He deserves to be left off of HOF ballots. Bonds was a sure candidate before the PED scandal, and arguably one of the greatest all around players in history, so he should go in. Clemens beating a perjury rap does not change anything, but he was also a sure candidate before he became the post-40 miracle. Bagwell has never been credibly accused. He should be in on first ballot.

John Pileggi

By: bepee2002

bepee2002 — Sat, 17 Nov 2012 02:50:53 +0000

Do the Giant’s make the playoffs without Cabrera’s PED usage?
Brauns numbers were better and he was a gold glove finalist, so was his defense really that bad? Bottom line is the voting process needs to change or MLB needs their own awards and not leave it up to the writers

By: itsonlyaspeedbump

itsonlyaspeedbump — Fri, 16 Nov 2012 23:24:55 +0000

And since its a stretch to say my last post was on topic, I’ll say this: Im glad Posey won, not because I think Braun is a cheater, but because Im a Giants fan

By: itsonlyaspeedbump

itsonlyaspeedbump — Fri, 16 Nov 2012 23:11:04 +0000

To me, the stupidest thing about Mitch’s article was the whole ‘victory over the nerds’ angle. Every GM in baseball is using these metrics because even if you are like me and dont believe numbers to be the end-all in personnel decisions, you would be simply foolish to not recognize their value. The GM of an MLB franchise is not foolish. So is Albom saying one of the most powerful men in a franchise is a nerd?

Plus, even a scout who isnt interested in metrics would tell you that Trout is a much better base runner and defender than Cabrera–he’s the proverbial “5 tool player” maybe the best since Ken Griffey or even (gasp) the Say Hey Kid himself. That type of ability jumps out to even a casual fan, no need for metrics to tell you that. So stubbornly refusing to accept a different way to look at baseball, the writers passed an opportunity to reward the next WILLIE FREAKING MAYS. How is that ‘beating the nerds?’

By: nothanksimdriving123

nothanksimdriving123 — Fri, 16 Nov 2012 22:59:57 +0000

My fave example: In 1972, Steve Carlton was 27-10 with a 1.97 ERA, for the Phillies who went 59-97. Carlton’s major fault that year was that he could only win when he pitched.

By: brewcrewfan54

brewcrewfan54 — Fri, 16 Nov 2012 22:50:33 +0000

So as a Giants fan you hate Melky now but you probably used to cheer on Bonds pretending he wasn’t on steroids right?

By: vpettibone57

vpettibone57 — Fri, 16 Nov 2012 22:46:47 +0000

ok all you braun lovers out there, i get it your all upset at posey winning, but have you bothered to watch him, im sure you probably wouldnt want to. but if you did you would realize that posey was clearly most deserving of the award. i wouldnt be surprised posey when he does retire that he becomes a manager like bochy. he has that kind of leadership and he is very smart. hell johnny bench himself is in awe of posey. im just saying.
go giants#.

and on another note im so glad milky is gone Canada can have your a##.

By: dlindstedt2

dlindstedt2 — Fri, 16 Nov 2012 20:53:29 +0000

No Braun got robbed by the individual that took it upon himself to announce the test which is supposed to stay a secret unless it was proven without a shadow of a doubt that it was positive.

So really, Braun is getting robbed not us.

By: muskyhunter2542

muskyhunter2542 — Fri, 16 Nov 2012 20:48:21 +0000

That is your opinion… Show me the proof.

By: brewcrewfan54

brewcrewfan54 — Fri, 16 Nov 2012 20:43:36 +0000

Good god just get over it.

By: smoothmartiniup

smoothmartiniup — Fri, 16 Nov 2012 20:37:36 +0000

Last year Braun was the better PED user. Thats was why he won

By: mrfloydpink

mrfloydpink — Fri, 16 Nov 2012 20:18:40 +0000

scoser: Good point.

By: stew37

stew37 — Fri, 16 Nov 2012 20:10:32 +0000

And by your logic, he never needed PEDs in the first place, so…. what, he never took them? Or maybe he always has been? Or maybe he took them that one year and they had no noticeable impact on his performance?

Whichever way, no need to be an asshole about it.

By: scoser

scoser — Fri, 16 Nov 2012 20:06:28 +0000

mrfloydpink: Politics.

By: paperlions

paperlions — Fri, 16 Nov 2012 19:51:28 +0000

Remember that post earlier today about defending your opinion? Well, step up. Present me some evidence that I am wrong and I’ll admit that I’m wrong. I wish you good luck.

By: jeffa43

jeffa43 — Fri, 16 Nov 2012 19:50:43 +0000

No! Braun robbed baseball last year.

The fans got robbed by fraud, a juicer.

By: paperlions

paperlions — Fri, 16 Nov 2012 19:50:08 +0000

Having good defense for a LF is not as valuable/useful has solid CF defense and is dwarfed by plus catcher defense. LFers are easily the worst defenders on the field, and the last couple of years Braun has been an average LFer.

You may love his arm, but the fact remains that guys run on Braun and make it more than they do on average LFers, yes there are reliable stats for that….more fun with facts….over the last 4 years Brauns arm rates LAST among all LFer that played the position at least 1000 innings.

He’s been okay for a LFer the last couple of years….but that isn’t really a compliment.

By: muskyhunter2542

muskyhunter2542 — Fri, 16 Nov 2012 19:44:20 +0000

Plain and simple. Braun got robbed because some small di*k beat writers just couldnt get over that Braun beat the failed system.

By: muskyhunter2542

muskyhunter2542 — Fri, 16 Nov 2012 19:42:33 +0000

You clearly have never watched Brauns defense either… He has a great arm and has great range. I think he was just as deserving for his defense as his offense.

By: paperlions

paperlions — Fri, 16 Nov 2012 19:28:11 +0000

I don’t really see any argument for Braun being better than Posey or McCutchen this past year. Braun’s offense wasn’t good enough to outweigh the advantage the other guys have on defense…especially a plus catcher. One 1st place vote seems about right to me…or one too many.

By: mrfloydpink

mrfloydpink — Fri, 16 Nov 2012 19:27:59 +0000

Well put! Is there any other field in which willful ignorance of current research/trends would be tolerated and even flaunted? Can you imagine a doctor that still recommends lobotomies to his patients that suffer with depression, or a computer programmer that’s still writing programs for Windows ’95, or a lawyer that hasn’t yet gotten around to reading Brown v. Board of Education?

By: paperlions

paperlions — Fri, 16 Nov 2012 19:25:27 +0000

No, they don’t. Most PEDs don’t have direct effects that last longer than a day, and the benefits derived from PED use fade fairly quickly.

If a guy used steroids all off-season to add 20 lbs of muscle but stopped when he went to spring training. He’d be lucky to see any effect of that work by then end of May (4 months later), and even then he’d have to continue to hit the gym extra hard to slow the loss of muscle mass….and then it would be hard to disentangle the benefits from PEDs versus the benefits of the extra workouts in an attempt to keep the muscle gains.

By: eagles512

eagles512 — Fri, 16 Nov 2012 19:22:06 +0000

Although I obviously have my doubts, I’m glad he wasn’t punished for something unproven. But can Craig explain why not voting for proven cheaters in the Hall is stupid?

By: bepee2002

bepee2002 — Fri, 16 Nov 2012 19:10:28 +0000

Posey is deserving of the award but I feel Braun should have gotten more 1st place votes,2 of the 3 he got were from Milwaukee writers. If making the playoffs holds that much weight in the voters mind how did King Felix ever win a Cy Young?

By: brewcrewfan54

brewcrewfan54 — Fri, 16 Nov 2012 19:10:24 +0000

A great player still has impact even when they don’t make the playoffs. Trout had a great impact on a non playoff team. Great players have a huge impact no matter how good a team is. To think otherwise is ridiculous.

By: dannomac21

dannomac21 — Fri, 16 Nov 2012 18:53:16 +0000

K. Harker – By your logic then, he’s been riding a wave for his entire MLB career. Its not like he all of the sudden became good. He’s been a stud MVP caliber player his entire career. idiot.

By: smcgaels1997

smcgaels1997 — Fri, 16 Nov 2012 18:42:06 +0000

MVP is more than hitting 40+ jacks on a non playoff team…Braun’s is overall a great player but your teams success also plays a part too..how big of an impact do you have when your team misses the playoffs

By: brewcrewfan54

brewcrewfan54 — Fri, 16 Nov 2012 18:28:39 +0000

Obviously I’m a Braun guy. I still think his year was betterthan Posey’s but the margin is pretty thin so I certainly wont argue the choice, Posey was very deserving. Add the fact that Kemp probably should have gotten the award over Braun last year so this is just evening things out to me. What I don’t like is the fact that the MVP has to come from a playoff team now. It’s B.S. To be MVP it shouldn’t be a prerequisite to be on a good team. By saying that they’re basically making it into a team award, which it isn’t.

By: Jeff J. Snider

Jeff J. Snider — Fri, 16 Nov 2012 18:25:50 +0000

I agree in general, Craig, but I think it would have been more interesting if Braun had clearly been the best player in the league. I still don’t really think the writers would have voted him MVP after last offseason. And when you think about it, he had a lot of the numbers that MVP voters tend to like, lots of homers and RBI and runs. My personal opinion/guess is that given the exact same performances from all the players, if not for last offseasons debacle, Braun would have won the NL MVP this year. (Which would have been two years in a row coming in first when he deserved second, but I’m not here to talk about the past.)

By: Gamera the Brave

Gamera the Brave — Fri, 16 Nov 2012 18:21:56 +0000

I’m not here to talk about the past, but if I WAS, it would be to say that the word “patootie” is underused in the American lexicon…