from Amazon
Friday, September 30, 2011
MVP
I gave Poz some unsolicited advice, and he really got into the spirit of what I was trying to say:
Anyway, Tom Tango has a little different take on the MVP. His feeling is that if you put everyone from 2011 into a draft, the No. 1 player selected should be the MVP. Now, we’re talking about a real draft here—not a fantasy league draft. I suspect many readers here have played Strat-o-Matic or APBA baseball or something like that. So imagine every season from 2011 was available in card form. But include all you want—leadership, hustle, whatever qualities you want. You can’t game the system—can’t start Justin Verlander more times than he started, can’t put just Jose Bautista in center field, can’t do any of that stuff. You only have their 2011 season. Who would you take first in the draft? Who would you build your team around.
This doesn’t necessarily make the choice any easier, but it does give the choice a lot more context. For instance, Curtis Granderson leads the American League in runs scored and RBIs. He’s having a fabulous year. BUT … if you took him first in the draft, could you count on him to lead the league in runs and RBIs for YOUR team with YOUR lineup around him? His on-base percentage is eighty points behind Bautista. His slugging percentage is almost 50 points behind. Would you take Granderson ahead of Bautista? I’m not saying that’s the wrong answer. Maybe because of defense you would. Maybe you think Granderson would hold up under pressure better. Maybe you think Bautista’s on-base percentage would drop since he has been intentionally walked a league-leading 24 times and that wouldn’t happen with your team.
Like I say, this doesn’t make the choice any easier, but I think it does remove some of the excess noise and give the choice clarity.
So, even things like having some sort of clutch skill, etc, would be included. It forces you, as an evaluator, to develop some sort of plan, some form of framework.
Basically, we all have our own smushing system, but the preference is for you to document and justify your smushing system so that it can be applied consistently and over a period of years.