I am not a member of the BBWAA, but I am a member of the Internet Baseball Writes of America, the IBWAA. This article discusses the chance of Anthony Rendon winning the NL MVP, and I did vote for Rendon.
Anthony Rendon does not garner the same kind of attention — in part because he actively avoids it, in part because his all-around game doesn’t attract it. He wasn’t an all-star this season. He has actually never been one at the major league level. But the Nationals third baseman went on to complete a strong case for the MVP award as the most consistent player on a club that overcame a slew of injuries to finish with the fourth-best record in baseball.
“It’s good recognition,” Rendon said last week of the MVP buzz. “Trea [Turner] tells me every day what’s going on. But I mean, that’s not what I’m out here playing for. I mean, I couldn’t care less. As long as we just win ballgames, I think all the personal accolades will come with that.”
Here is my list for NL MVP:
- Anthony Rendon
- Giancarlo Stanton
- Kris Byrant
- Charlie Blackmon
- Max Scherzer
- Joey Votto
- Corey Seager
- Nolan Arenado
- Paul Goldschmidt
- Tommy Pham
It’s a really strong field. Rendon, Stanton, and Bryant are very close, and it any of them win I will be happy. Rendon being the great and steady player on a great team put him over the top in my mind.
Votto simply has to be top-3. He played every game — started all 162 games — and led the league in OPS. There is simply NO way there were 5 more valuable players in the entire MLB, let alone in the NL.
Can’t really argue with Rendon. Great season for him & has really helped the Nats. But, like Tim, I’m also surprised you ranked Votto so low. I was actually expecting he’d do really well on anyone’s ballot this year. He’s 4th in fWAR (in the NL) & 2nd in rWAR (in the NL). Only Trout over in the AL had more WPA than Votto. His BB% & K% were much better than the players you list above him. So, I’m left wondering what I might be missing… why did you rank him so low?
Devon » Blackmon had an incredible season as a lead-off hitter, so I was rewarding that. Also, Scherzer had a great year in a tough season for pitchers. Scherzer had the highest fWAR among NL pitchers by a wide margin, and that seemed pretty valuable to me. There are good reasons to put Votto fourth, but it’s not like I’m putting him sixth when everyone else was putting him first. There’s plenty of room for subjectivity in the MVP voting.
I can the sense better now, thanks. I’m always interested in why voters vote the way they do, especially when I didn’t see it the same way they did. Blackmon definitely sparked that offense in Colorado.