As he will eventually win 25 games this year most in decades, winning the triple crown, he has even gotten a no hitter to his credit, the most valuable player by far for a playoff team. Sure batters have good years but no where near as good a year as Verlander. People will mention Pedro in 1999 but nobody this year even has as good of years as the contenders for the MVP that year, just look at Manny Ramirez for instance that year .333 44 HRs and 165 RBI and he was 4th that year behind Pedro
No, he shouldn't. He plays in maybe 50 games a year. He has an award he can win and that is all he should win. He's not even the most valuable player on his own team, Cabrera is.
No... A Cy Young is considered the MVP award for pitchers. A batter cannot win the Cy Young, therefore they give him the MVP award.
I've been saying Verlander should win it for 2 months now. I've said it for the same reason I've argued in favor of positional players against others in the past. The award is called "Most Valuable Player" and therefore isn't "Who is the best player for x-y-z reasons." Stats are pretty. They tell great stories. They don't always tell the effect that the player has. Without Justin Verlander's performance this year, the Tigers are likely still fighting for a playoff spot, rather than shooting for home-field. No other player, not Granderson, not Gonzalez, not anyone has had that much of an affect on his team's ability to compete this year. Justin Verlander deserves the Cy Young this year for what he's done on the mound. Justin Verlander deserves the MVP this year for what he's done on the field.
He shouldn't win it. If he wasn't on the team they would have another ace who maybe wins 18-20 wins a year, 5 less than he will. They still win their division by 8-10 games. He is good, he is no MVP.
You make it sound like Aces like Verlander grows on trees, which is clearly false. Why do you think those pitchers make so much money? Without Verlander they aren't even a wild card team. One could argue that at least with big hitting teams like the Yankees or the Red Sox if one of those high position players goes down for a decent while there will be others to pick up the slack. If an ace goes down it completely fucks up a team there is no replacing a pitcher like that. Just imagine if Sabathia were to go down right now, and see the Yankee fans already kissing the season goodbye. And he isn't even nearly as important to the Yankees as Verlander is to the Tigers.
Yeah, that'd be nice and all... except your definition of the award isn't the standard definition of the award. In fact, there is no standard definition for what "Most Valuable Player" means. So "actual value" matters. The number of games played matters, too.
Exactly. Fair enough. But "actual value" is like beauty, which lies in the eyes of the beholder. When looking at number of games played, I think Olney made a good point weeks ago. Verlander was directly involved in just as many at-bats as any positional MVP candidate, meaning he pitched to as many batters as any positional player had at-bats. It's reasonable to say that he has just as much time logged as, say, Granderson, even counting fielding plays, since Verlander is active on every single pitch of every single at-bat, whereas Granderson has surely seen his share of balls where he didn't even swing. It has always been a tricky award, and it really should have defined terms, but it doesn't. This is probably the only year I've ever advocated a pitcher winnning, and I still want Granderson to win. I just think Verlander deserves it more.
He's not even the MVP of the Yankees. Verlander will get it, the Tigers do not win the Central without him. He's probly a difference of 10+ wins.
Your second comment I agree. The first though, I don't. I can't think of a single positional player on the Yankees that has been better than Granderson all year. Granderson had a brief slump recently, but otherwise, he's been consistenly great. You could argue Cano, but his first half wasn't anywhere in the vicinity of his second half. Granderson was good all year.
I would say CC is the MVP of the Yanks, simply because whenever he went to the mound, there was a very good shot they were winning. Granderson was damn good, don't get me wrong, but he's not the type of player that strikes fear in opposing teams every appearance.
Great points, as usual! If they didn't have Verlander, so what? Pffft, no problem...some other 20-game winning ace would pop out of a unicorn's asshole.
I'm not a big baseball fan but Ill say this: Verlander may only play every 5 games but he has probably a 50% impact on whether his team wins or loses that given day. Granderson will play every game but his impact is only 10% or there-abouts.
He is not the most valuable player in the American League. Not according to stats or impact on the team. AL Central is pitiful, the Tigers firmly control that division with or without him. Tigers had the biggest divisional lead in baseball and clinched their division first. Red Sox, for as much as they're falling apart now, would be no where near the playoffs without Ellsbury. The Tigers put in a halfway instead of Verlander and they are still leading their division by 5+ games easy. Edit: And Pedro was more dominant against harder competition in a tighter race in '99 and didn't win. Not to mention Perdo was a pitched better in '00.
I pulled the percentages out of my ass but you're insane if you think the impact a 25 game winner has on an individual game is equal to that of a big bat/outfielder.
CC hasn't been CC in a few months, but he still gives the Yanks the best chance to win. I think Verlander should/will win it. Granderson has had an amazing year, and the best year production/stats wise on the yankees, but he is clearly not the best player on the team(batters wise) It's Cano. These two guys will screw each other in a sense, out of the MVP. Same goes with AGon/Ellsbury. Jose Bautista gets screwed for being on a team that hasn't been anywhere near the Yanks/Sox in overall talent, leading the division, playoffs, etc. He also gets screwed for all the hits/homers nobody is on base, and people generally just walk the guy all the time. Alot of writers will just dismiss him for being on a mediocre team in a tough division. Verlander has nobody that will fuck with him really. The only thing that can is people not wanting to vote for a pitcher, but if you look at what he has done..it's almost impossible not to give it to him. Verlander deserves it.
