Major League MVP Candidates

As the season has ended, its time to start filling out your ballots for MVP, Cy Young, and Rookie of the Year for both the Major and Superior Leagues. My colleague, Lyman L. Lewis will be sending out the voting format in the next few days, but it will be the same as last year. For MVP, vote for your top 5 players, and for Cy Young and Rookie, and vote for your top 3. I believe points will be tallied in a 7-4-3-2-1 and 5-3-1 type format, but Lyman will confirm.

For the Major League, I thought it would be interesting to compare the top candidates, and look at the arguments for and against each player being MVP. This writer now presents his top 8 candidates, organized alphabetically by team:

Stan Marsh, 1B, Denver Rabbits
Argument For: Stan hit a whopping .312-43-127 and was in the top 5 in many statistical categories including 5th in Avg, 2nd in SLG, T-1 in OBA, 3rd in Runs, 2nd in RBI's, and 2nd in HR. Stan also led the league with 142 runs created, and finished 2nd in the league with 8.7 runs created per game.

Argument Against: Stan's team only won 83 games, and they finished 7 games out of the playoffs. Stan also plays the easiest defensive position on the field, 1B.


Miguel Tejawa, SS, Hollywood B's
Argument For: Miguel's team made the playoffs, as they cruised to a Western Division title by 13 games. He hit .26-30-118 and played all 162 games to be the new league iron man. Did I mention he hit 30 homers and plays Shortstop, one of th more demanding positions? Also, he helped the B's to a season best 14 game winning steak, which ended up being a streak of 19 out of 20 as well (hello Miguel Tejada circa 2002?).

Argument Against: Since he played every day, he was 7th in the league with 473 outs made. He also led the league with 271 runners left on base, making his RBI total a little less impressive. He also committed 27 errors, and had the 2nd lowest RC/G (6.7) amongst the players mentioned in this article.


Geoff Favre, RF, Hollywood B's
Argument For: .284-36-99, great defense in RF (24 baserunner kills), and per game, the best offensive player on the Hollywood B's (7.8 RC/G - 4th in the league), and tied for 3rd with 36 HR.

Argument Against: Only 99 RBI's, played only 138 games, not quite the offensive punch as Marsh and White, not quite the tough defensive position as the middle infielders.


Hank Crowell, 3B, Los Angeles Shockers
Argument For: In April and May, it looked like he would run away with this award (and repeat his 2006 MVP season) as he was the dominant offensive force in the league on the surprising 1st place LA Shockers. He finished with a .297-27-105 stat line and played great defense at 3rd Base.

Argument Against: The second half. He came back to earth, and the Shockers finished 13 games out of first place. His RC/G fell back to "only" 7.3.


Chad White, CF, New York Cobra
Argument For: Helped New York to the best record in the league and hit .301-34-130. Played error-free baseball in Centerfield and had yet another 30-30 season (34-37). Chad led the league with 130 RBI.

Argument Against: Chad was 3rd in the league with 492 outs made. People are starting to say his speed is slipping, as evidenced by his league leading 27 GIDP. Also, only 6.0 RC/G, lowest for the players mentioned as candidates.


Brett Solo, SS, New York Cobra
Argument For: .293-36-111, and great defense at shortstop for the best team in the league. 3rd in the league with 36 HR, and 3rd in the league with 7.9 RC/G.

Argument Against: Really, no weaknesses at all this year. Except he isn't as good as A-Rod yet.


Jimmy Taylor, 2B, Philadelphia Grays
Argument For: .319-17-64 and 143 runs scored. Finished 2nd in the league in batting, losing out on the batting title to Leon Wolf (who won despite 500 plate appearances thanks to the Tony Gwynn rule). Also, helped lead Philadelphia to their first ever post-season appearance by playing every day until the wild card was clinched. Had 669 AB and led-off all season. Also 44 2B, 9 3B, and 25 SB. Impressive 7.1 RC/G led all 2B and 2nd to Brett Solo among middle infielders. 3rd in the league with 123 runs created.

Argument Against: 468 outs made. Was an average defensive shortstop last year, and made the switch to 2B to alow Philadelphia to sign a great defensive SS in Ruiz. At 2nd, Taylor's offense did flourish but he was average to below average defensively. Some folks think that Ruiz is a big reason for the team's turnaround, as the entire pitching staff excelled this year.


Paul White, 1B, Philadelphia Grays
Argument For: .288-49-124 and led the league in Homeruns and Runs Created per game (9.0). Also had 49 doubles for a league leading 98 extra base hits. Led league in SLG at .632, 2nd in runs created at 140, and 3rd in RBI.

Argument Against: An average defensive first baseman with absolutely no value on the basepaths. Were being nitpicky here, but hey.


This voter's opinion: Can't tell you, but I think the best player in the league will win. We'll see if I'm right.