2011 NL MVP Award Winner Announced

In what amounted to a two horse race, Ryan Braun was named the National League Most Valuable Player over Matt Kemp. The two outfielders had similarly explosive statistical seasons with the slightest of edges leaning to Matt Kemp. But I correctly predicted that Braun would win the award anyway, simply based on his team’s competing for the post-season whereas Kemp’s team did not. (Yes, I did just toot my own horn!)

Top Ten NL MVP vote Getters (Courtesy of the BBWAA.COM website):

Ryan Braun, Milwaukee Brewers – 20 1^st place votes         – 388 points

Matt Kemp, Los Angeles Dodgers – 10 1^st place votes        – 332 points

Prince Fielder. Milwaukee Brewers – 1 1^st place vote         – 229 points

Justin Upton, Arizona Diamondbacks – 1 1^st place vote      – 214 points

Albert Pujols, St Louis Cardinals                                          – 166 points

Joey Votto, Cincinnati Reds                                                 – 135 points

Lance Berkman, St Louis Cardinals                                     – 118 points

Troy Tulowitzski, Colorado Rockies                                     – 69 points

Roy Halladay, Philadelphia Phillies                                       – 52 points

Ryan Howard, Philadelphia Phillies                                      – 39 points

The rest of the field in order of points received: Jose Reyes, Clayton Kershaw, Shane Victorino, Ian Kennedy, Cliff Lee, Hunter Pence, Pablo Sandoval, John Axford, Michael Morse, Carlos Beltran, Miguel Montero, Yadier Molina, Starlin Castro, Craig Kimbrel, Carlos Ruiz and Mike Stanton.

Braun, along with his 20 1^st place votes, received 2^nd place votes on the remaining 12 ballots. Braun, Kemp, Fielder and Upton were the only players to be names on all 32 ballots. The 28 years old Braun’s MVP makes him only the third different Brewer to win the Award. Robin Yount in 1982/1989 and Rollie Fingers in 1981 were the other two.

As a quick aside, Albert Pujols did it again. He placed in the top 5 in voting for the tenth time in eleven seasons! The other season he placed 9^th in voting. It’s simply amazing how Pujols constantly performs at a level of greatness each year. He is a three-time MVP winner (2005, 2008 & 2009), placed 2^nd four times, 3^rd once, 4^th once and 5^th once. Albert is the King for a reason!

OK, so what would it have taken for Matt Kemp to win the MVP instead of Braun? Either of two things, the first and easier one being his Dodgers to have been competitive instead of placing 3^rd in their division with an 82-79 record. The second, obviously harder of the two, would have been Kemp pulling off the fabled Triple Crown. Which he had a sincere shot at accomplishing most of the season. The Triple Crown (leading the league in AVG, HR and RBI’s) transcends almost any discussion for MVP voting. The last Triple Crown winner was Carl Yastrzemski (yes, I spelled his name right) way back in 1967.

Is it weird that Roy Halladay did better in the MVP voting over the reigning CY Young Award winner Clayton Kershaw? I definitely think so. Why wasn’t Kershaw (or even Halladay) further up in the voting anyway? The voting for the NL MVP has always been slanted worse against pitchers, in general, than the AL MVP. It’s easy to see just by how many more times the AL has voted a pitcher the MVP in the past 35 years over the NL. It’s all AL in a 7 versus 1 landslide!

In conclusion, I have to say congrats to Ryan Braun on winning and give it up to the Milwaukee Brewers. So far, the huge contract extension they gave to Braun (he is amazingly signed through 2020!) is paying off handsomely. I look forward to many more productive years from the Hebrew Hammer!