Braun legitimate MVP candidate?

[DannoMac21]

You can not honestly tell me we would even be close to 62 wins if we were still platooning Graffanino/Counsell at 3rd. This guy has had such a major impact on this team, it's remarkable. He has to be in the MVP chatter somewhere.

 

 

(added tags --1992)

[Brian the Automator]

It all depends on where the voters' cutoffs are for plate appearances in their minds. But yes, if he's elligible, he should absolutely be in the running.

[Ennder]

Team MVP sure, league MVP I doubt it. Fielder is a much more likely candidate.

[ttsather]

If only he started the year in the majors, we'd have a triple crown candidate.

 

 

*puts down kool-aid*

 

 

EDIT -- To address the actual question, my intuition says that he's deserving but will be looked over for someone who was solid all year (Holliday?) He and Prince could take some votes from each other.

[jlau20]

Sure, Braun's an MVP candidate. The problem is Prince is also an MVP candidate. The way I see it if the voters are looking at the Brewers for an MVP they vote Prince, he's been up all year and all that. Braun definitely should be a candidate, but barring him playing even better than he has been so far he won't be the MVP.

I do think it's a good point though that if we still had Counsellino platooning third, we probably wouldn't still be in first and we probably wouldn't have 62 wins. Considering that, Braun is really valuable, but as of now Prince would probably have to be most valuable because without him we'd be battling it out with the Reds and Pirates for 4th.

[BadgerFan]

If we win the division, Fielder is the hands down MVP (barring some unforseen events). If not, I think Brandon Webb will win the Cy Young and MVP.

[King Rhabuf]

Braun's defense hurts his stock.

[UeckerAddict]

I've got Matt Holliday, Prince Fielder, and Miguel Cabrera as the major candidates at this time.

[Crazyk1294]

Realistically there are too many other big-name kind of guys in the race this season, including Prince. He's still got ROY locked up.

Maybe the Brewers can have the MVP and ROY in the same season.

[kgbaseball]

I think the Brewer have to win the division for either of them to get good consideration. Who cares if you hit a bunch of HR and have 100 RBI if your team doesn't win anything. The voters have been all over the place recently (last year's AL MVP voting was a joke), so who knows.

[uwisfan]

I'll just copy my earlier post:

 

If the brewers make the playoffs, in spite of Prince's early pub and leading the NL in HRs..it would be hard not to vote Braun MVP based on the numbers. He is on track to win the batting title, is second in the league in OPS, has a 40-pt first place lead in slugging, and is leading the league in HRs since his callup.

 

To add to the list, he was named NL player of the month..so it's not like he's not getting MVP-type consideration already.

[endaround]

Braun has 59 RBIs. Unless Weeks and Hart have something like a OBP of .500 over the rest of the season, Braun has little chance at MVP. You need 100 RBIs to even be considered.

 

Now as to things that actually give you an idea of how good Braun actually is, his VORP is 43.6 which is lapping the other rookies. Pence is second in the NL with 29.5. AS for overall in the NL:

 

1). H. Ramirez 67.2

2). Cabrera 62.7

3). C. Jones 53.9

4). Utley 53.8

5). Fielder 50.9

6). Wright 49.8

7). Bonds 49.7

8). Holliday 48.4

9). Pujols 46.6

10). Reyes 45.7

11). Renteria 43.9

12). Braun 43.6

 

Yes it is disheartening that none of the top 3 has a real chance at MVP. Ok, if Jones carries the Braves to a division title over the next 6 weeks, he has a small chance. All things considered, If I had a vote it would be Utley in order for my vote to have weight. That said Fielder is the favorite right now, but if Howard takes the home run lead Howard could get it.

 

 

(fixed accidentally posted emoticon --1992)

[BrewCrewForever]

I think if Ryan had played the entire season he would be considered. And if that was the case he would probably have almost better numbers then Prince. But since he was not called up till end of May, he will have to settle for ROY this season and Prince will be MVP.

 

Edit: I'm not worried, Braun will have himself a few MVP's before his career ends, as will Prince. This season if Prince does not win it, I think in the NL its got to be Hanley Ramirez, Matt Holliday or Chipper Jones.

[bigbrewkahuna]

Kirk Gibson won an MVP with only 25 homers and 76 rbi's .

Willie Stargell won an MVP(co-MVP actually) with only 82 rbi's.

It is possible for Braun to win an MVP without bigger numbers than his competiton.

The requirement for MVP is most "valuable",not who has the biggest stats.

Why not strongly consider Braun?

[kmcasper23]

If the Brewers win the Central, then Fielder will be MVP. He will more than likely be the only player in the league with 50 HR's, 125 RBI's. If Braun were up the whole season, who knows. His numbers with his average would probably be better than Fielders. The team may also have started even better than 24-10. Who knows?

[RyDogg66]

Braun's defense hurts his stock.

Jason Giambi won an MVP. As I understand it, no matter how bad you are I dont think they hold it against you unless you are a DH (an helping your team by NOT being out there).

[uwisfan]

Holliday has great stats, but he's in Colorado, which offers a significant haircut. Bonds has great numbers again, but he won't win it for many reasons. A lot of the players on that list won't be in the playoffs.

[Ennder]

I think the Brewer have to win the division for either of them to get good consideration. Who cares if you hit a bunch of HR and have 100 RBI if your team doesn't win anything. The voters have been all over the place recently (last year's AL MVP voting was a joke), so who knows.

 

The problem is generally all the voters care about are HR/RBI. The MVP is almost universally the person who ranks the best in those categories regardless of whether the team is in the playoffs. The only other things that give you real consideration are an AVG way about everyone else in the league or a ton of SB's while still putting up good numbers elsewhere. Defense barely matters, being all around good at everything isn't usually enough.

[endaround]

Kirk Gibson won an MVP with only 25 homers and 76 rbi's .

Willie Stargell won an MVP(co-MVP actually) with only 82 rbi's.

It is possible for Braun to win an MVP without bigger numbers than his competiton.

The requirement for MVP is most "valuable",not who has the biggest stats.

Why not strongly consider Braun?

The biggest stats (if the right ones) tell you who has been most valuable. Braun hasn't been. And its due to the fact he missed 2 months. And those 2 months are important.

 

[Roscoe Chill]

I've got Matt Holliday, Prince Fielder, and Miguel Cabrera as the major candidates at this time.

 

You mean that same Matt Holliday that some guys said wouldn't even be an upgrade in the Brewers outfield when discussing a (bogus) rumor a couple weeks back?

[BrewCrewForever]

I've got Matt Holliday, Prince Fielder, and Miguel Cabrera as the major candidates at this time.

 

You mean that same Matt Holliday that some guys said wouldn't even be an upgrade in the Brewers outfield when discussing a (bogus) rumor a couple weeks back?

 

Some actually said that about Holliday? Wow, I find that hard to believe considering he is one of the best hitters in the NL period. I think Hanley Ramirez's season has been great, if Florida was winning more people would be taking notice. Still hard to believe that Hardy made the All-Star team over Hanley.

[naivin]

Yeah, as great as Braun has been, someone who will have played the entire season is more deserving. Holliday and Fielder, in that order, right now.

[UeckerAddict]

I've got Matt Holliday, Prince Fielder, and Miguel Cabrera as the major candidates at this time.

 

You mean that same Matt Holliday that some guys said wouldn't even be an upgrade in the Brewers outfield when discussing a (bogus) rumor a couple weeks back?

 

Yes, the same guy. It wasn't me who said those things.

 

As far as needing the best RBI/HR numbers and/or needing to be in contention to win MVP, my question would be how did Yount win it in 1989? He didn't have any of those things.

[endaround]

Holliday away from Coors is hitting .300/.363/.470. At home he's hitting .376/.436/.699. There is a big question about his true power level.

 

As for Yount, he had over 100 RBIs. Yes its possible to win with less than 100, but it almost never happens.

[UeckerAddict]

Holliday away from Coors is hitting .300/.363/.470.

 

 

Is that supposed to be bad?

 

And yes, Yount had 21 HRs and 103 RBIs on an 81-81 team. A good season, but not in line with the "HRs- RBIs- and/or playoff contention= MVP" line of thinking.