I watched a TV Special recently about Juan Marichal, the former SF Giants pitcher, and I was surprised to learn that he had never won the Cy Young Award.
Justin Verlander
And then again last week a discussion was had on whether an MVP could, or should, also be named a Cy Young winner. This was concerning Justin Verlander of the Detroit Tigers who holds most of the AL pitching records this season. The reasoning was that the MVP should be awarded to a field player who’s generally on the field every day, compared to the pitcher who pitches every four or five days on a rotation. Supposedly that’s the reason the Cy Young Award came about ~ to be able to honor the pitchers who are not visible on a daily basis.
Juan Marichal
The Marichal program was still very much in my mind when I came across an article (referenced below) about the worst MVP “snubs” in baseball history. I found it very interesting that so many of the most popular players were slighted as MVP’s back then. Maybe they weren’t as popular in their day as they’ve become later on, and posterity has been kind to them. But probably not. The MVP selections always seem to provoke some sort of controversy each year and its understandable. Those pesky statistics always seem to get in the way of those you and I consider to be the most valuable. Not always of course, but sometimes.
Here’s a link to the article, submitted by Tim Handorf, 10 Worst MVP Snubs in Baseball History published at bestonlinecolleges.com . Take a look and see what you think!
Related articles
- Baseball’s current system for selecting MVP is broken (cbssports.com)
- Justin Verlander: Comparing Him to the Only 4 Pitchers in the Cy Young-MVP Club (bleacherreport.com)
- How to Fix the Flawed Mvp Award (elmaquino5.wordpress.com)
- MVP Debate: Why Braun and Granderson Are Your Winners (bleacherreport.com)
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