| Ghoulish Delight |
11-23-2011 03:18 PM |
On that subject, we had a discussion earlier about the role of a team's status as a playoff contender in Cy Young voting, but what about MVP?
I actually lean towards agreeing that being on a contending team should carry some weight. Sure, a contending team tends to have better players, meaning their contribution to the team my not be as "valuable", and I understand the whole "protection" argument (Bruan's going to get more balls to hit because the pitcher is loathe to walk him and have Prince Filder come up with a man on). But on the flip side, when the next best RBI total on the Dodgers after Matt Kemp was half of Kemp's total, I don't think pitchers are spending too much time worrying about pitching around Kemp. Even with his amazing numbers, he averaged less than 1 RBI per game. So when no one else is a threat to produce a run, who cares if he's making contact? So you give up a run to him every couple games, big deal.
And then there's the whole pressure/meaningfulness factor. Would Kemp have attempted as many stolen bases had an out here or there meant the difference between playoffs and an early autumn vacation? Would he have been uppercutting as many swings to get homeruns if games actually mattered? Would he have kept his numbers up under the pressure of a late season playoff battle? Those are pretty important what-ifs. It's "easy" to put up big numbers when you're just messing around, with your only goal really being to put up big numbers and nothing else on the line.
Kinda contradicts my thoughts on the Cy Young side (though my earlier comments were kinda facetious really). But I feel like it's a little different. Pitchers really do seem to live more in-the-moment, with individual games being more important than the overall picture. Obviously there's added pressure in must-win situations, but since they can't go out and fail 60% of the time and be considered great, then I have an easier time saying that a pitcher who pitches well through the season on an overall crappy team deserves the same consideration as one on a great team.
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