Congratulations to Ryan Braun for beating out Matt Kemp for the 2011 NL MVP. A big assist to the other Milwaukee Brewers for being better than the Los Angeles Dodgers, thereby making Braun more valuable. At least I guess that’s how that worked.
Braun received 20 of the 32 first place votes, Kemp got 10 and Prince Fielder and Justin Upton each got a single first place vote. Overall, Kemp was second, followed by Fielder, Upton, Albert Pujols, Joey Votto and Lance Berkman. It’s interesting that Clayton Kershaw was 11th after having a pretty dominant kind of year. Was the difference between his season and Justin Verlander’s really 10 slots on the ballot? An interesting philosophical question. Also: Michael Young got boned. He was such a great leader that he should have gotten some NL votes too.
Anyway, as said before, Braun had an outstanding season. I think Kemp’s was better once you factor in defense and the quality of pitching he had to face over the course of the year, but you really do need to be a special kind of person to get truly outraged here. I would have voted differently, but this is way closer to tomato/tomahto territory than it is to travestyland.
Congratulations Ryan Braun.
