The Voters, They Be Crazy

The NL MVP Voting results were announced today. Jimmy Rollins wins. David Wright finishes 4th. Let's take a looksee at some stats, shall we?

Jimmy Rollins - MVP
AVG... HR... RBI... OBP... SLG%... Steals... Doubles... OPS... Runs
296,... 30, ... 94,... 344,.... 531, .... 41, .... .. 38, .... 875,... 139


David Wright – 4th in Voting
AVG... HR RBI OBP SLG% Steals Doubles OPS Runs
325 ... 30 107 ...416 ...546 .... 34 . ...42 .. ...962... 113

(please ignore the dots, I can't figure out how to post a table)

Can somebody please explain this to me? How does Rollins win the award despite being behind Wright in nearly every category? Of course he had more runs, he was a leadoff hitter. He had more steals, fine. He had more hits, fine. He also had 49 walks to 94 for Wright.

It all boils down to what seems to be Jimmy talking smack before the season about how the Phillies were the team to beat. Yes, they won the division, but that was more due to the Mets sucking for the last month than anything the Phillies did.

Let’s look at September for a second (AVG, OBP, SLG, OPS):
Rollins – 298, 333, 542, 875 (this following an August of 296, 371, 487, 858)
Wright – 352, 432, 602, 1.034 (this following an August of 394, 516, 657, 1.173)

The ONLY month Rollins outperformed Wright was April (they were close in July.) So tell me, during the stretch, who was more valuable? Wright was hurt by the Mets pitching staff suddenly morphing into a bunch of Jose Lima clones.

And Philly fans, don’t pull out the “well, we made the playoffs” argument. That’s bullshit. Ryan Howard won it the year before over Pujols, whose team made the playoffs.

Jimmy Rollins had a nice season. Yet, it is not even as good as the 2006 season Jose Reyes put up, and Reyes finished 7th in the voting that year.

Matt Holliday put up some sick numbers, but people take Coors Field into account in discounting his stats. Fine, I have no problem with that. But they fails to do the same for Rollins when it comes to his splits, where Rollins only improves his OBP on the road, and everything else is better in the bandbox that is CBP.

So the lesson apparently is this, Wright must make a comment about how the Mets are the team to beat, then put up sub-par numbers compared to everyone else. So long as the Mets win the division and Wright flaps his gums, he should win the MVP.