NL MVP

Ryan Braun of the Milwakee Brewers was named the National League Most Valuable Player. After finishing the year with a .332 average, 33 home runs, and 111 runs batted in, Braun takes in his first MVP award. At the age of 28 Braun has already accomplished more than many would hope to accomplish in an entire career. While helping the Brewers to their first National League Championship Series in close to thirty years, Braun truly was the most valuable player to his team. But was he the most valuable player in the National League? The answer is no.

With the year that Matt Kemp had in Los Angeles this year, Braun obviously gained more votes for the award because of the success of his team. Unfortunately for Kemp, the Dodgers overall were simply awful and had not played a meaningful game since May. That being said, voters should not have ignored such an impactful season that Kemp had. He batted.324 ( only .08 points less than Braun), hit 39 home runs (6 more), drove in 126 (15 more), and stole a ridiculous 40 bases. So why didn't Matt Kemp win the MVP? The overall success of his team.

I personally believe that the most valuable player award goes out to the most valuable player in the entire league. What voters are saying by voting Braun as the MVP is that the award will go to the most valuable player on a contending team. I believe that it is unfair to label Braun more valuable than Kemp, who's numbers don't lie. Had a player come close to having the same type of season as Kemp did, I would then suggest taking the team's overall perfomance into consideration, but I do not believe that this was a situation in which it needed to be done. Although both are tremendously talented young athletes, the wrong message was sent across baseball. The award voters are the ones who set the precedents for future voting. Unfortunately, they are setting the wrong ones.