Monday, November 23, 2009

Aaron Hill, Adam Lind Pick Up MVP Votes

Awesome! For the most part. Whichever ink-stained wretch slotted Aaron Hill in as the fifth most valuable player in the American League, god love ya but come on. Hill had a wonderful season hitting the ball over the fence, but he's not the most valuable Blue Jay, is he? Roy Halladay failed to garner a single MVP vote once again, despite votes going to fellow hurlers Grienke, Verlander, Mo Rivera, Sabathia, and Hernandez.

The down-ballot stuff gets extra wacky on the MVP vote, as the 10 spots allow for lots of improvisation and/or wink wink nudge nudge bonus activation. Luckily Aaron Hill has no such provision in his contract, so the brave soul that tossed Hill a bone did so out of the goodness of his heart.

Nice to see Adam Lind MVP love, albeit on a smaller scale than Hill. Also interesting to see Kendry Morales, Jason Bay and Bobby Abreu rack up much higher tallies despite similar/inferior numbers. I'm loathe to do the player ABCD trick, but here goes.
  1. 43 2B, 34 HR, 108 RBI, 7.5% BB, 20.7% K, .355 OBP, .569 SLG,.924 OPS, .263 ISO, .382 wOBA, +5 UZR, 4.2 WAR

  2. 46 2B, 35 HR, 114 RBI, 9.0% BB, 18.7% K .370 OBP, .562 SLG, .932 OPS, .257 ISO, .394 wOBA, -8 UZR, 3.7 WAR

  3. 29 2B, 36 HR, 119 RBI, 15.0% BB, 30.5% K, .384 OBP, .537 SLG, .921 OPS, .269 ISO, .397 wOBA, -13 UZR, 3.5 WAR

  4. 29 2B, 15 HR, 103 RBI, 14.3% BB, 20.1% K, .390 OBP, .435 SLG, .825 OPS, .142 ISO, .367 wOBA, -11 UZR, 2.5 WAR

Needless to say, the MVP award is about more than just wins above replacement. I'm sure Bobby Abreu's influence on the Angels did increase his value to the team. That doesn't mean to suggest the gulf between this group of players (many of whom were surrounded by better players on winning teams) is as great as the writers would suggest.

That said, who cares. The down-ballot stuff isn't worth crying over, given how the right man got the award. Good to see the Jays silver sluggers getting a little bit more due.

In case you weren't sure ABCD = Morales, Lind, Bay, Abreu.

1 comment:

  1. I know UZR has its flaws, but I can't take anything serious when people advocate Bay over Lind at left field because Lind can't handle left field (true), but Bay can be satisfactory. Guess that Canadiana content really permeates the mind.

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