While no-one is debating that Santana should have won the AL Cy Young (13-0 in 2nd Half) and Showalter should have won the Manager of the Year, it brings up a question. Do you think the season-long awards should be voted on before or after the postseason?
Definitely before the postseason. They have MVP's for each playoff series, anyways. Otherwise, you would've had Mark Lemke getting serious consideration for the 91 and 92 NL MVP.
As far as I know, it's always been done this way. But here's a funny story: I read Willie Stargell's autobiography a few years ago and he complains that his postseason performance in the mid-70's cost him a few MVP's.
It should be before the postseason begins. Otherwise, players that happen to be on winning teams get another added advantage that people on losing teams don't have. By the way, I don't think that players ought to be disqualified, so to speak, from MVP consideration because they playe on a poor team. Just doesn't seem right. I'd also like to seem them give out just one playoff MVP award (like the Conn Smythe trophy (at least I think that's the name of it)) rather than one for the World Series and one for each of the LCS.
I'd contend that players on poor teams get recognition. Andre Dawson, Cal Ripken, Robin Yount, Ernie Banks, Alex Rodriguez and Larry Walker all won the MVP while playing on bad or mediocre teams.
The old line about "a player's value to his team" often leads to playoff teams having an MVP candidate. In that regard, the MVP isn't exactly a "best stats" race like some of the other awards. A guy with "best stats" can win... but contending teams receive a boost with the intangible "value to team" category (Terry Pendleton and Barry Larkin come to mind).
I think that the classic example of this arguement is one of my favorite player, Miguel Tejada. Back two years ago, Tejada had numbers that were, I hate to say, inferior, by a wide margin, to those of A-Rod. But Tejada's team won the division while A-rod's team finished last in the same division. Of course, this year, Tajada had numbers that were better than those that he had in 2002, and in fact stacked up well with those of anyone in the AL, but because he played for a team that was mediocre at best, he'll probably finish somewhere around ninth.
Originally posted by TigerFan55While no-one is debating that Santana should have won the AL Cy Young (13-0 in 2nd Half) and Showalter should have won the Manager of the Year, it brings up a question. Do you think the season-long awards should be voted on before or after the postseason?
Yes, just when should regular season awards be voted on? An intriguing debate!
Helen Keller was largely useless, and look how we remember her.
Moss was/is the three man. He started off gangbusters, but got stopped by a brick wall. He should even out. He's nowhere near as good as he was when he won five of six decisions to start the year. He's also not as bad as he's been lately.
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