Cy Young Awards

"Remember, the Cy Young award has nothing to do with team performance, only the individual pitcher's performance."

Take note, the Most Valuable Player award may have nothing to do with team performance.

With that said, the Baseball Writers Association of America (BBWAA) send out a letter to voters which states: “There is no clear-cut definition of what most valuable means. It is up to the individual voter to decide who was the most valuable player in each league to his team.”

The definition of 'most valuable' is not defined and the criteria have never changed.

Since 1931, the MVP winner need not come from a playoff team. Every player is eligeable including starting pitchers, relief pitchers and designated hitters. The BBWAA say that voters should take into consideration offense, defense, number of games played, character, disposition, loyalty and effort.

Bottom Line: National League MVP IMHO could be Kemp or Braun. My vote is Braun. For the AL MVP, I guess the top contenders are Bautista and
Curtis Granderson. However what is clear to me is the Dodgers and Detroit aces will be getting MVP point totals. Whereas rest assured Kemp, Braun, Bautista and Granderson will not be tallying Cy Young vote totals.

Of course throughout those years since 1931, many voters do take team finish into consideration for the MVP, some saying the team must make the playoffs, some saying the player should at least come from a contender, some ruling out pitchers entirely, etc.

I'm leaning toward Kemp over Braun for the simple reason that he plays a more difficult premier position like a gold glover while Braun is average at best in left field. Also Braun at least had a great hitter(Prince) to bat behind him while Kemp had no one. But I will not be disappointed with either guy. Their individual numbers were very close and great across the board. Kemp did strike out a lot more but the Major Leagues now considers that just another out and the stigma attached when I was young no longer applies for K's. In the AL I am leaning towards Ellsbury since he alone was fighting all the way to the finish. Granderson stopped hitting the last two or three weeks in September and the gap behind Bautista narrowed a lot as he had a below average second half season. I don't vote for pitchers (Verlander) unless they totally dominate, which he did, but also only if there are not really any viable regular starting candidates, which there were at least four or five this year including Young and Cabrera.