August 21, 200718 yr For me, choosing an MVP is a complicated calculus, but I wouldn't hesitate to use team success as a tiebreaker when choosing between two roughly equivalent players. Limiting the voting to only playoff-bound players is ridiculous, though. If any one player has clearly had a better season than everyone else, he should be MVP. That isn't the case with either Marlin, though, so neither is going to win (nor should they). As a side note, if I have two equivalent players, one on the best team in the league, and one on a team that just sneaks into the playoffs, I would give the MVP to the player on the best team without hesitation. I understand the argument given by those who would do it the other way around, but I disagree with it wholeheartedly. The goal is to be the best, not to sneak into the playoffs. I agree with you, and the perfect example of that is Sammy Sosa -- whose Cubs made it to the playoffs -- beating out Mark McGwire in 1998. But who is having a better offensive season than Cabrera in the NL? Fielder, who appears to be the leading candidate, has lots of homers (39), but Cabs is batting 50 points higher than him, has a better OPS & on-base percentage, & is nearly equal to him in RBIs. And, if you want to use sabremetrics, Cabrera's VORP is 65.6; Prince's is 52. I'll also throw in that Cabrera is batting .357 w/ RISP; Prince is at .248. My point is Cabrera (and Hanley) should be considered; I don't expect either one of them to win. Perhaps Miggy could win the Hank Aaron Award, along with the Silver Slugger.
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