Conventionalism Finally Thrown out the Window

With the announcement of Justin Verlander as the AL MVP something struck me: the BBWAA is finally swaying the other way from conventionalism. Justin Verlander is the first pitcher to win the MVP since 1992 (Eckersley) and the first starting pitcher to win since 1986 (Clemens). It shows me that the crochety staunch baseball writers are being more objective and starting to come around to more statistical analysis than conventional wisdom.

The people that live by the "pitchers have their own award" mantra are clearly ill-informed, uneducated and narrow-minded. Position players have their own awards too: Hank Aaron Award (Most Outstanding Offensive Player in each league), Silver Sluggers (Top Offensive Performers by position), and Gold Gloves (Best Fielders by position). The Most Valuable Player Award should be given to the player that represents the most overall value to their team and this year their was no player who provided more value than Justin Verlander.

Here are Justin Verlander's peripheral stats:


Justin Verlander made 34 starts. He pitched in 251 of 306 possible innings in his 34 starts, assuming a 9 inning game. (55 innings that Verlander didn't pitch divided by the number of starts (34) is approximately 1 2/3 or five outs). Detroits bullpen was asked to get five outs per game on the days he pitches. That is tremendously valuable both on the day that he pitches and for the two days after it. Think about that Red Sox fans, he threw into the 8th inning on average every start this year, that is by definition, a Horse.

I am a believer that leading a team to the postseason should weigh heavily on your candidacy for Most Valuable Player. The Tigers had the second best record in the American League and won their division by 15 games. If an average pitcher wins 10-12 games (we'll say 10 for arguments sake) he won 14 more games than a regular pitcher and propelled his team to the post season. He was 16-3 after a Tigers loss. Unfortunately for Ellsbury, his team finished 3rd in the division and did not qualify for October baseball. Maybe Ellsbury should head out and by a few pale ales for Beckett and Lester for all their help in his MVP campaign?

Another (weak) argument against Verlander is that he pitched in a light-hitting AL Central division and therefore padded his stats. You can't discount a player for his schedule, he didn't choose it. You wouldn't take Ellsbury's numbers against Baltimore's AAA pitching staff and throw them out the window, would you? Here are Verlander's averages against the other 3 playoff teams and the Red Sox from 2011:

Just for kicks and grins, let's look at Ellsbury's numbers with and without the Baltimore numbers just to see the stat padding at the hands of the Uh-O's.

With Baltimore

Without Baltimore

While still a fine statistical season, Baltimore bolstered his statistics spectacularly and his sans-Baltimore numbers look far more good, than great. So the schedule nazi's should probably pipe down.

I will not even begin to argue that pitching every 5 days is more grueling and taxing on the body than playing 162 games (or close to it), because it's not. But it should take a special case for a pitcher to win the MVP award and Verlander was that special case. And everyone here at The Couch, knows it.

Stay Tuned

Norton