Major League Baseball announced the National League Most Valuable Player award on Thursday night. Andrew McCutchen finished third behind the Dodgers’ Clayton Kershaw(winner) and Giancarlo Stanton in voting. He was looking to win back-to-back MVP awards, which was last done in the NL by Albert Pujols in 2008 and 2009. He was also trying to become just the second Pittsburgh Pirates player to win multiple award, following Barry Bonds in 1990 and 1992. McCutchen received four first place votes, ten second place votes and 15 third place votes.
McCutchen had a .314/.410/542 slash line this year and led the league in both OBP and OPS. He hit 38 doubles, six triples, 25 homers, drew 84 walks and scored 89 runs. For the third straight year, he had the highest Offensive WAR(7.8) in the NL.
Josh Harrison finished ninth in the MVP voting, receiving 52 total points and ending up as high as fourth on one ballot. Russell Martin had the 13th highest vote total, finishing seventh on two ballots.
John started working at Pirates Prospects in 2009, but his connection to the Pittsburgh Pirates started exactly 100 years earlier when Dots Miller debuted for the 1909 World Series champions. John was born in Kearny, NJ, two blocks from the house where Dots Miller grew up. From that hometown hero connection came a love of Pirates history, as well as the sport of baseball.
When he didn't make it as a lefty pitcher with an 80+ MPH fastball and a slider that needed work, John turned to covering the game, eventually focusing in on the prospects side, where his interest was pushed by the big league team being below .500 for so long. John has covered the minors in some form since the 2002 season, and leads the draft and international coverage on Pirates Prospects. He writes daily on Pittsburgh Baseball History, when he's not covering the entire system daily throughout the entire year on Pirates Prospects.
This isn’t about the players it’s about the writers.
Writers all like to think they are free thinkers and are pushing the envelope.
If they can do something that is out of the norm and create some controversy …great.
This is about their egos not baseball.
Here’s why I don’t consider Pitchers legitimate MVP candidates:
1. Only play in 20% of games. How can one seriously be considered the leagues MVP when he spends 4 days out of 5 on his butt?
2. They only contribute in one way. They don’t run, play defense worth a crap (in most cases), hit for average or power. Even the best are glorified one-trick ponies.
3. They have a post-season award already all to themselves. Maybe we should consider Catchers for the Cy Young since they usually put together the game plan and its implementation for the Pitcher.
Kershaw pitched 13.5% of the Dodgers innings, McCutchen took 10.4% of the Pirates at-bats, and unlike last year didn’t provide value in the field and base paths.
Its award so we can argue about without ever coming to an agreement but I fine with this result.
That’s a senseless narrow argument, AB vs hitters faced. They should vote after the playoffs because Kershaw folded like a cheap suit.
They should vote after the playoffs because Kershaw folded like a cheap suit.
fwiw, only Biertempfel, ESPN’s Jayson Stark and P. Mooney from CSN Chicago cast votes for all three Bucs. Bill Brink didn’t vote for Martin.
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I don’t get Stanton over Cutch, but whatever. I actually just got convinced to be okay with Lucroy over Cutch even. But Stanton? Ehhh.
But I really don’t care that much. We know that Cutch was awesome. Even the guy who voted him 6th knows he’s awesome. It doesn’t make one difference on what Cutch will be in 2014. It doesnt hurt the Pirates.
The fact that you are OK with Lacroy and not Stanton would suggest you have not watched enough Marlin games or are to consumed in WAR stats. He was pretty awesome this year until he took one on the Chin, He made everyone around him better in the order.
Wow, talk about stupid. Lets start putting position players in for the CY Young award. I mean that makes sense, right? If you can give a player that only plays 35 times a year a MVP award that should go to the player that plays every day and consistantly helps his team.
Kershaw actually missed a month and only had 27 starts I think. But totaled just over 200 innings. I will confess to be torn by this. Kershaw puts his team in position to win 18-20 games a year. Not sure any position player could ever get close to that. Trout is about a 10 WAR player – Anderew 7-8… But they have the Cy Young and I think that is enough – MVPP may be needed
He didn’t pitch 200 innings
Wow – nothing better to do?
198 is close enough to 200 in my book
Well you said he pitched over 200 innings and he didn’t. You’re the one with nothing better to do than post 500 times a day on every article on here. You must be lonely.
Or just recognize the legitimacy of the Hank Aaron Award that is purely for hitting.
We love awards – why not just add a new one “Most Valuable Pitcher”
Heck – I would be good with….
“Most Valuable Pitcher”
“Most Valuable Bat”
“Most Valuable Glove”
Kershaw faced more batters than McCutchen had at bats, is the argument. And it’s kind of a valid one. A starting pitcher has the potential to single handedly win 30 games for a team, but no hitter can really do that, so he can be most valuable. Now with that said, I think it is fair to have a pitchers award and a hitters award.
That’s a senseless narrow argument, AB vs hitters faced. They should vote after the playoffs because Kershaw folded like a cheap suit.
Its a regular season award, and they give MVPs for each series in the playoffs. Dumb argument.
@ lack of understanding Lukas. My response was to “Janesko’s” argument that batters faced was an relevant determinant. I SUGGESTED, made the argument, that the award should be awarded after post season. Do you understand?
thanks dad, now i get it. Gee wiz you are wise. My point was that you cant change a REGULAR season award like that without getting rid of all of the postseason awards and changing things drastically. There is a point to having awards be regular season, which is why most sports does it like they do.
Hitters have an award, the Hank Aaron Award. But it’s basically a fan vote and has little prestige or awareness. If the BBWAA, which votes for the CY, also voted for the Aaron, that would help with awareness and legitimacy.
That would be the best option. CY Young would be only pitchers, Hank Aaron would be only hitters, and the MVP could be both.
I just don’t think its right that a pitcher can win both awards. If a pitcher has a breakout season (like Kershaw this year) you can pretty much kiss the MVP hopes goodbye for a position player because if you saw the total voting Kershaw had a pretty good lead ahead of Stanton and McCutchen. Also not trying to sound rude or anything but obviously a pitcher is going to face more batters than a batter will get at-bats unless the pitcher can’t last more than 5 innings or has a injury for about 2 months. They should have a CY Young (pitchers only) MVP (postion players and pitchers) and a fancy name for the top offensive player of the year that would only let hitters win.
The award is called Most Valuable Player, not Most Valuable Hitter. The Cy Young was only invented in the first place because pitchers so rarely won MVPs.
What. 3rd.. he’s obviously on the downside of his career. We should trade him for ross while he still has some value