Posnanski: On MVP awards and WAR
From Joe Posnanski at Joe Blog on November 21, 2012:
So, how about a little thought experiment? The Miguel Cabrera-Mike Trout MVP balloting exposed a pretty deep divide in how people want to look at awards. We can probably all agree on at least that. There will be plenty more over the next few years to say about that divide, what valuable means, and so on. But for now I have a different question:
Which kind of award do you prefer?
That is to say: For you, as a fan, do you prefer an award that goes to the player who has the best narrative — which is what the MVP award usually represents? Or would you rather have an award that goes to the best player statistically, period, regardless of position or style of play or team performance or your favorite intangible?
I went back to 1995 — each year I picked the league MVP (Most Valuable Player, of course) and I picked the HOW (the league’s Hero of WAR — that is, the player with the highest Wins Over Replacement based on Baseball Reference WAR, Fangraphs WAR, Baseball Prospectus WARP and Win Shares).
The question for you then is: Which choice do you as a baseball fan like better?
Read the full article here: http://joeposnanski.blogspot.com/2012/11/mvp-and-how.html
Related link: Joe Posnanski is a Featured Speaker at the 2013 SABR Analytics Conference; register today!
Originally published: November 21, 2012. Last Updated: November 21, 2012.