Today, Brewers outfielder Ryan Braun was named the National League MVP. He won a very close vote over Dodgers outfielder Matt Kemp. This vote came down to a classic debate over how much your teams record should matter in deciding the MVP. Kemp beat Braun in almost every category but didn’t win the trophy because his team was 14 wins worse and didn’t make the playoffs like Braun’s team. The question is: should the team's record factor into an individual award?
Over the past few years in all sports, people seem to discount guys that are not on winning teams from MVP consideration. I know that the V stands for valuable, but can’t you say that without a guy like Kemp the Dodgers might be the worst team in the league. Just because most of the team isn’t good doesn’t mean you should punish a guy for it. MVP is an individual award and should be treated that way by the voters. The guy who had the best year should win the award, no matter what team he is on. Maybe in the NBA team record should matter, but since baseball is mostly an individual sport, team record shouldn’t matter much. Here are the stats of the two players:
Ryan Braun- .332 avg, 109 runs, 33 HRs, 111 RBIs, 33 SBs
Matt Kemp- .324 avg, 115 runs, 39 HRs, 126 RBIs, 40 SBs
While their numbers are close there is one thing that Kemp got this year that Braun didn’t, and that’s a Gold Glove. Kemp also plays centerfield, which is a more important position than left field. The gold glove is a huge factor in this, and I think it puts Kemp over the top. If you win the award for being the best hitter and win a Gold Glove in centerfield, then you should be the MVP. Braun has a great year, but Matt Kemp just had a better one.
Matt Kemp did get to date Rihanna at one point, so I guess he is the real winner in all of this.
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