The Pitcher for MVP Debate
About a month ago, Roy Halladay was leading the entire National League in Wins Above Replacement, and this prompted all the stat geeks to herald Doc as the NL MVP. The whole “revolution” gained steam and random dudes in the blogosphere were busy writing posts about why it would be a travesty if Halladay didn’t win the award. Fast forward to oh, about now, and it is Matt Kemp who leads the NL in WAR over Halladay. People are still arguing that either Halladay or Kemp’s teammate Clayton Kershaw should win the MVP award, but the stat that the argument was based on now favors a hitter again.
Now, there are people who will never give the pitcher an MVP, as they believe that pitchers already have their own award (the Cy Young). Well, hitters actually have their own award too, and it is the less prestigious Hank Aaron Award. The reason why it is held in lower esteem is because hitters almost always win the MVP, so why care about this other award? Pitchers and hitters should be held to an equal standard in the MVP award, as both of them have their own separate awards too.
What bothers me is that people misuse WAR in MVP voting and take off wins from players on lousy or so-so teams (Jose Bautista). This is absolutely insane because WAR already takes into account your team’s wins and gives your value for your respective team. There need not be any penalties for the guy who basically carries the team, and there shouldn’t be rewards for a table-setter who reaps the benefits of having superstars driving him home.
It is important to realize that pitchers and hitters have about the same impact during a full season. Although pitchers face more batters than hitters face pitchers- it amazes me how many people don’t know this- position players also have far heavier defensive and baserunning duties. The argument of “one position does more than the other” is one that isn’t applicable because of these facts that should become known fact soon.
The difference between Kemp’s and Halladay’s seasons haven’t been huge gaps, but they almost never are in the MVP races. But the difference is enough for us to be able to say with a certain amount of confidence that Matt Kemp has been the better player in 2011. In the American League, Jacoby Ellsbury‘s 9.4 WAR season easily trumps Verlander’s 7 WAR season. In fact, CC Sabathia‘s WAR is 7.1. That amount is negligible, but look for a post in the near future that will discuss as to who has actually been the better pitcher this season.