MVP Crowdsourcing

29 Replies

I can’t think of a better crowd from which to source annual baseball awards than this site’s readership. Let’s kick off a series of groupthink ballots with a conversation about who should win the MVP award in each league. Your mission, should you chose to accept: List the ten players most worthy, in order, of winning the MVP in either league, or both. Feel free to elaborate on why you chose these players or just leave the ballot there in the comments.

My task: counting the votes. I’ll do it a week from tomorrow: Friday, 11/13. I’ll use the same 14-9-8-7-6-5-4-3-2-1 scoring that MLB uses. Also, after the jump, I’ll throw some stats out, since that’s what this site is about, right?

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Dr. Doom

8 years ago

I’ll hop to it first. I already voted in Baseball Prospectus’ Internet Baseball Awards, so I’ll just re-use my ballots from there: AL MVP: 1. Mike Trout 2. Josh Donaldson 3. Lorenzo Cain 4. Manny Machado 5. Dallas Keuchel 6. Kevin Kiermaier 7. David Price 8. Mookie Betts 9. Chris Davis 10. Adrian Beltre NL MVP: 1. Bryce Harper 2. Jake Arrieta 3. Clayton Kershaw 4. Zack Greinke 5. Paul Goldschmidt 6. Joey Votto 7. Max Scherzer 8. AJ Pollock 9. Jason Heyward 10. Kris Bryant My basic methodology is to take the composite of bWAR and fWAR and use… Read more »

Author

Bryan O'Connor

8 years ago

Reply to Dr. Doom

Vote changes will be accepted as replies to the voters’ own original votes.

mosc

8 years ago

Reply to Dr. Doom

did you account for Greinke’s bat? I think if you did you would have put him above Arrieta and Kershaw

oneblankspace

8 years ago

Recall the playoff seeding (listing teams .500 or better only):

AL
1. KC
2. TOR
3. TX
4. NY
5. HOU
===============
6. LAA
7. MIN
8. CLE
9. BAL

NL
1. StL
2. LA
3. NY
4. PIT
5. CUB
==============
6. SF
7. WAS

Dan Hirsch

8 years ago

AL
1 Trout
2 Donaldson
3 Cain
4 Machado
5 Kiermaier
6 Keuchel
7 Betts
8 Beltre
9 Price
10 C Davis

NL
1 Harper
2 Goldschmidt
3 Arrieta
4 Greinke
5 Kershaw
6 Votto
7 Rizzo
8 Pollock
9 Heyward
10 Scherzer

no statistician but

8 years ago

At the risk of sounding cynical, I’ll venture this comment: Was there really an MVP in the AL this year? The WAR figures indicate Trout and Donaldson as the main contenders, but how really valuable were they in the more generally accepted sense of the word? The Angels went nowhere despite Trout, and the Jays were underachieving in spite of Donaldson’s big numbers until August when Revere and Price joined the team. A case could be made that things would have been worse for their teams without them, but that argument could be made for a great number of players.… Read more »

David P

8 years ago

Reply to no statistician but

NSB – On the one hand, I generally agree with what you’re saying. The MVP ends up being given to an individual for what is essentially a team accomplishment. That really doesn’t make much sense.

On the other hand, Donaldson put up a 1.132 OPS during August, a month in which the Blue Jays went 21-6 and went from 6 games down to 1 1/2 up.

On the third hand, Jose Bautista put up a 1.008 OPS in August and Edwin Encarnacion a 1.379 (!). So back to the first hand…

Author

Bryan O'Connor

8 years ago

Reply to no statistician but

Interesting take, nsb. I kind of see it the opposite way. The championship is a celebration of randomness. Put the teams who had the best seasons (or were in the right divisions) in a tournament and see how the ball bounces. The individual awards, on the other hand, are a celebration of excellence, mostly disconnected from the championship. They recognize what happened over 162 games, mostly independent of small-sample size-flukes. Sure, a player’s job is to help his team reach the playoffs, and it’s reasonable to recognize that in voting for an MVP, but I see value as contributing to… Read more »

Brent

8 years ago

AL: 1) Donaldson, 2) Trout 3) Cain 4) Machado 5) Keuchel 6) Price 7) Kiermaier 8) Beltre 9) Kinsler, 10) Wade Davis

NL: 1) Harper 2) Goldschmidt 3) Rizzo 4) Greinke 5) Arrieta 6) Votto 7) Heyward 8) Kershaw 9) Pollock 10) Carpenter

Tom B.

8 years ago

AL:
1. Josh Donaldson
2. Mike Trout
3. Lorenzo Cain
4. Manny Machado
5. Prince Fielder
6. Dallas Keuchel
7. Wade Davis
8. Kendrys Morales
9. Dellin Betances
10. David Price

NL
1. Bryce Harper
2. Anthony Rizzo
3. Paul Goldschmidt
4. Jake Arrieta
5. Joey Votto
6. Andrew McCutchen
7. Zack Grienke
8. Clayton Kershaw
9. Mark Melancon
10. Yoenis Cespedes

David P

8 years ago

I’ll do NL in a bit but for now here’s my AL ballot:

1) Trout
2) Donaldson
3) Keuchel
4) Kain
5) Machado
6) Price
7) Grey
8) Cabrera
9) Betts
10) C. Davis

David P

8 years ago

Reply to David P

And now for my NL Ballot:

1) Harper
2) Greinke
3) Goldschmidt
4) Arrieta
5) Votto
6) Kershaw
7) Pollock
8) Scherzer
9) Rizzo
10) Bryant

Hartvig

8 years ago

I’ve been mulling this over for a couple of days & a few things have occurred to me. First is that much like the Hall of Fame, the MVP Award is a poorly defined institution. Can you be an MVP if you played for a last place team? If so, aren’t we actually talking about the Best Player Award instead? But the bigger question for me is right there in the awards name: value. Is it reasonable to take a players salary into account when voting? After all, Jake Arrieta was paid almost $29,000,000 LESS than Clayton Kershaw. Doesn’t that… Read more »

Hartvig

8 years ago

Reply to Hartvig

I have no idea why this posted but to complete my final thought:

Adrian Beltre has mostly been more highly regarded by the advanced metrics crowd than the traditionalists but it seems to me that by the time he is finished he will likely have checked at lot of the HOF boxes for both.

1500 runs, 3000 hits, 600 doubles, 450+ home runs, 1600 RBI’s all appear to be within fairly reasonable reach.

Paul E

8 years ago

Reply to Hartvig

Hartvig, I believe the Sporting News used to have a “Player of the Year Award” in lieu of the MVP and its vague description. I imagine Bryce Harper would have been there selection for 2015 if the award still exists/exited. In any event, I am going to submit a ballot because everybody loves to make lists. Harper McCutchen Posey Bryant Goldschmidt Votto Rizzo Granderson Carpenter Brandon Crawford Trout Cain Donaldson Machado Choo C. Correa Altuve Chris Davis Bautista Nelson Cruz I just think Donaldson got a lot more help from teammates like Bautista, Encarnacion, Pillar, Revere than Trout got from… Read more »

brp

8 years ago

NL (caveat: Cubs fan)
1) Harper
2) Arrieta
3) Rizzo
4) Goldschmidt
5) Greinke
6) Kershaw
7) Scherzer
8) Votto
9) Posey
10) Pollock

mosc

8 years ago

AL:
1. Donaldson (TOR) 8.8
2. Trout (LAA) 9.4
3. Cain (KCR) 7.2
4. Beltre (TEX) 5.8
5. Keuchel (HOU) 7.2
3. Kiermaier (TBR) 7.3
6. Machado (BAL) 7.1
7. Kinsler (DET) 6.0
8. Betts (BOS) 6.0
10. Price (2TM) 5.8
NL:
1. Harper (WSN) 9.9
2. Greinke (LAD) 9.9
3. Heyward (STL) 6.5
4. Goldschmidt (ARI) 8.8
5. Rizzo (CHC) 6.2
6. Arrieta (CHC) 9.0
7. Kershaw (LAD) 7.5
8. Votto (CIN) 7.6
9. Scherzer (WSN) 7.6
10. Pollock (ARI) 7.4

Hub Kid

8 years ago

1. Cain
2. Donaldson
3. Trout
4. Hosmer
5. Beltre
6. Betts
7. Keirmaier
8. Machado
9. Miguel Cabrera
10. David Ortiz (homer pick!)

1. Greinke
2. Arrieta
3. Harper
4. Bryant
5. Rizzo
6. McCutcheon
7. Heyward
8. Goldschmidt
9. Votto
10. Kershaw

brp

8 years ago

AL vote
1) Trout
2) Donaldson
3) Cain
4) Machado
5) Keuchel
6) Machado
7) Beltre
8) Cabrera
9) C. Davis
10) Kiermaier

Dalton Mack

8 years ago

AL:
1) Donaldson
2) Trout
3) Cain
4) Kiermaier
5) Machado
6) Keuchel
7) Beltre
8) Price
9) C. Davis
10) N. Cruz

NL:
1) Harper
2) Greinke
3) Arrieta
4) Goldschmidt
5) Kershaw
6) Heyward
7) Votto
8) Pollock
9) Scherzer
10) Rizzo

no statistician but

8 years ago

Can anyone verify this for me: The latest post I can access is the 10 Worst Hitters one on Greg Myers. Are there any later posts?

It seems to me that there are still glitches in the site, at any rate.

Dr. Doom

8 years ago

Reply to no statistician but

That’s the latest post I see, as well. Comments seem to be coming through fine, though. I guess it’s just been slow because it was the weekend.

Hartvig

8 years ago

Reply to no statistician but

That is the most current post that I am seeing as well

Teddy BB

8 years ago

NL:
1) Harper
2) Goldschmidt
3) Greinke
4) Arrieta
5) Votto
6) Kershaw
7) Cepedes
8) Arenado
9) Carpenter
10) Posey

AL:
1) Donaldson
2) Cain
3) Trout
4) Keuchel
5) Bautista
6) Beltre
7) Betts
8) Kiermaier
9) Altuve
10) Machado

Brendan Bingham

8 years ago

AL
Trout
Kiermaier
Donaldson
Cain
Keuchel
Cabrera
Machado
Lindor
Correa
Cespedes

NL
Harper
Goldschmidt
Greinke
Arrieta
Pollack
Votto
Kershaw
Heyward
Posey
Stanton

Hartvig

8 years ago

I was going to weigh in on this but since I dropped DirectTV last winter & replaced it with an antenna & Amazon Prime/Netflix I no longer see enough major league games to have an informed enough opinion. Mostly I was trying to come up with ways not to vote for Trout & Harper- since I suspect that eventually they’ll both end up with a fistful or more MVP’s and that gets kind of boring- but I just couldn’t find a logical enough excuse not to do so. It did however give me an idea to create an all-alphabet team… Read more »

Richard Chester

8 years ago

Reply to Hartvig

If you are handy with Excel spreadsheets it can be done this way. Copy and paste the BR WAR leaderboard into a spreadsheet. Then by using the text to column feature split the first and last names into separate columns. Then sort by the last name column from A to Z and the list is alphabetic. Do that for position players and pitchers. And you’re already short a man, there are no surnames beginning with X. You can also use the PI, select the initial letter of the surname and sort by WAR but you will have to do that… Read more »

Hartvig

8 years ago

Reply to Richard Chester

Actually no X’s makes for a more traditional 25-man roster so that’s all good, I guess.

Author

Bryan O'Connor

8 years ago

Thanks for playing, folks. I’ll include my own ballots here before compiling and posting the results:

1. Trout
2. Donaldson
3. Cain
4. Machado
5. Kiermaier
6. Kipnis
7. Cruz
8. C.Davis
9. Keuchel
10. Price

1. Harper
2. Greinke
3. Arrieta
4. Kershaw
5. Goldschmidt
6. Votto
7. Rizzo
8. Posey
9. Pollock
10. Bryant

Details here.