BBWAA MVPs

The BBWAA voted Giancarlo Stanton MVP of the National League and Jose Altuve MVP of the American League. The announcement came Thursday evening.

Stanton won a very close vote, with Stanton and Joey Votto each receiving 10 first place votes. Stanton received more second and third place votes than Votto to win the award 302 to 300 points.

Giancarlo Stanton of the Marlins edged Joey Votto of the Reds to win the National League MVP in one of the tightest races ever. The two-point margin was the third closest in NL MVP balloting and the fourth overall.

There was a tie in the NL in 1979 when first basemen Keith Hernandez of the Cardinals and Willie Stargell of the Pirates each received 216 points.

There have been two one-point margins, one in each league. In 1944, Cardinals shortstop Marty Marion won over Cubs outfielder Bill Nicholson, 190-189. The closest American League vote was in 1947 when Yankees center fielder Joe DiMaggio edged Red Sox left fielder Ted Williams, 202-201.

Anthony Rendon finished sixth, despite tying Stanton for the league lead in fWAR. He received one third and one fourth place vote. Kris Bryant, who had a better year than in 2016 when he won the MVP, finished seventh despite his club winning a division. He did receive one first place vote.

Altuve won going away, receiving 27 first place votes and three second place votes, with Aaron Judge getting two of the other first place votes and 27 second place votes. I thought this would be closer:

Jose Altuve of the Astros is the fifth American League second baseman to win the MVP, which has been awarded only 11 times to a second baseman.

Other AL winners were the Tigers’ Charlie Gehringer in 1937, the Yankees’ Joe Gordon in 1942, the White Sox’ Nellie Fox in 1959 and the Red Sox’ Dustin Pedroia in 2008. The award has been won by a second baseman in the National League six times, including two-time winner Joe Morgan of the Reds in 1975 and 1976. The others were the Cardinals’ Frankie Frisch in 1931, the Dodgers’ Jackie Robinson in 1949, the Cubs’ Ryne Sandberg in 1984 and the Giants’ Jeff Kent in 2000.

No position has had fewer MVP winners.

He was a very deserving candidate, but so was Judge.

If you look at the voting and go down the diagonal, there was good agreement 1-4. Even lower than that, the position of finish saw the player get the most votes in that slot often. It seems there was no mystery in the AL this season as to where the players ranked.

Congratulations to Altuve and Stanton on their well deserved honors!

from baseballmusings.com http://ift.tt/2hFQgOc