Dustin Pedroia's recognition by the press as the American League's Most Valuable Player proves that the repugnant stench of neo-liberalism (the philosophy of the Democrats, not to be confused with Liberalism) has wafted its way into the Sports Desk. Perhaps this has happened because the stench had filled the hallways of most major newspapers in the country and just now finally broke down the door into the sports room. More likely, this is a result of downsizing in the newspaper industry that is throwing sportswriters into the same room as the news desk from which the stench emanates.
Regardless of how we got here, it is now fact that the sports media is buried in neo-liberal philosophy. Sportswriters gave the most significant award, the currency of media-player relations, to the little guy. Just as one would expect out of the President-Elect's excuse for a policy initiative, this award was given to a player smaller in stature and less productive than others upon whom this currency could have been spent. Below is a table of Adjusted *OPS+ results for a list of
| Player | Adj. *OPS+ |
| Bradley | 162 |
| Teixeira | 146 |
| Mauer | 145 |
| A. Rodriguez | 140 |
| Quentin | 139 |
| Youkilis | 134 |
| Morneau | 133 |
| Kinsler | 129 |
| | 129 |
| Pena | 124 |
| Sizemore | 124 |
| Huff | 124 |
| Guerrero | 122 |
| Ibanez | 120 |
| Pedroia | 120 |
| Cabrera | 118 |
| Longoria | 114 |
| Dye | 113 |
| Suzuki | 110 |
| | 88 |
Even if we discard Teixeira’s numbers since they include time with the Braves and Longoria’s numbers since he did not quite play a complete season, Pedroia still finishes low on this list. In fact, Pedroia was not even the best hitter among
Of course, we all love Pedroia’s feel-good story. What neo-liberal wouldn’t love a guy who brings his lunch pail to work every day and just puts his head down and works. Further, what union (or neo-liberal Democrat) wouldn’t do everything in its power to ensure that his pay matches that of his more competent peers in other industries?
Unfortunately, meaningful awards like MVP are left to be voted on by people who are largely uneducated about how to adequately assess a player’s value. On the bright side, at least this is just baseball. Could you imagine how messed up this country would be as a whole if its decisions were left to be voted on by people who have no idea how to adequately assess the economic effects of broad policy proposals but found a solution that made everyone feel good? Thank God at least that’s never happened….
6 comments:
I can see having a beef with this pick, but I think it could have been a lot worse. It's my opinion (and VORP's) that Cliff Lee was the AL MVP. But for some reason it has been decided along the way that pitchers should be excluded. But I digress...
One huge disadvantage, to me, of using *OPS+ to dismiss Pedroia's case is that it's a rate stat and doesn't, unlike VORP, factor in % of team plate apperances and production relative to other players at the same position. I could even see an argument for using WARP to factor in contextual production.
Using these metrics, Pedroia becomes much more valuable (4th in WARP, 5th in VORP). In addition, Pedroia was above average as a baserunner and a defender.
Given that, the BBWAA could have done much worse (*Cough*, K-Rod). Three voters did, however, vote for Edinson Volquez as NL Rookie of the Year despite the fact that he wasn't a rookie.
where does bradley wind up in WARP and VORP? Although Adj. *OPS+ is admittedly skewed toward the pure ability to handle the bat, Bradley absolutely blows away the competition in that stat.
Maybe it's because I'm not as much of a sabremetrist (or whatever) as you guys, but who else was the most VALUABLE to their team this year? Pedroia put up numbers normally unheard of from a second baseman. He scored 118 runs, stole 20 bases, hit 54 doubles, 17 homers, and had 83 RBI. He played 157 games on a team ravaged with injuries and dissention in its hitting core. And he played a magnificent middle infield. Without him, the Red Sox DO NOT make the playoffs. They would have been out of it in August. Your argument for Cliff Lee is off mark, considering that the award is for the most VALUABLE player. The Cleveland Indians sucked, and with Lee they sucked less. Sure the award could have gone to other stars on contenders. K-Rod with the Angels, Morneau with the Twins, etc. The REAL surprise is that the Rays' top vote-getter was Carlos Pena, at NINTH. Not that Dustin Pedroia won the MVP.
Philosophical question: if you could determine for sure (which would never happen, but stay with me on the hypothetical) that taking Bradley away from the Rangers would cost them 15 wins and taking Pedroia away from the Red Sox would cost them 8 wins, but those 8 wins cost the Sox a playoff berth, does that make Pedroia more valuable? Perhaps the playoff berth is more valuable than the 7 win difference, given that the whole purpose of wins is to make the playoffs. I'm not sure how I feel about this...any thoughts?
My approach is to consider each player in a team-neutral context. The value of a player is no greater or smaller based on what team he plays for. His value is tied up in his skills. His skills do not change if he is traded.
But if you wanted to argue on these terms, you could probably make a case that as teams get better, the marginal wins added by a great player begin to diminish (even a team with the best players at each position wouldn't win 162 games). Therefore, Cliff Lee probably added more wins to the Indians than he would have to, say, the Red Sox.
And Steve, Bradley was 5th in VORP... and top 10 in WARP, don't remember exactly where. He also DHed most of the year... have no idea about his baserunning (though I imagine he might have been slowed by his constantly ailing body. If I didn't have to wake up 6 hours from now for a 14-hour workday, I'd look. Anyway, if he didn't miss significant time, he would have been a shoo-in for me.
if we determine value as VORP, using the concept of value added over replacement, then you probably could assume that replacement level is different depending on the team. Then Pujols would mean more to the Pirates than he would to the Phillies (especially if replacement is Howard).
Post a Comment