Posey and Cabrera Win MVP Awards

Buster Posey and Miguel Cabrera earned MVP honors last night, officially wrapping up the MLB awards season. Here are some notes from the announcement:










National League
- 27 of 32 first place votes went to Posey
- Three first place votes went to Ryan Braun and two to Yadier Molina
- Posey is just the fifth catcher in the National League to win the MVP award - Roy Campanella (1951, '53 and '55), Johnny Bench (1970 and '72), Ernie Lombardi (1938) and Gabby Hartnett (1935) are the others.
- Posey is the third catcher in baseball history from either league to win both Rookie of the Year, joining Johnny Bench and Thurman Munson.

American League
- 22 of 28 first place votes went to Cabrera
- Mike Trout received the other six first place votes
- Cabrera, who has placed in the top five in MVP voting in each of the past five seasons, won the award this year after switching to third base
- His win marks the sixth time in history that a third baseman has won the MVP award in the American League - the others, Alex Rodriguez (2005 and '07), George Brett (1980), Brooks Robinson (1964) and Al Rosen (1953).
- Cabrera is the first Venezualan native to win an MVP award.


While Cabrera winning the AL MVP award is not a huge surprise - he became the first Triple Crown winner from either league in 45 years and led the Tigers to a division title - the fact that he won the award so easily is a little bit shocking. In recent years, we've seen a shift towards advanced metrics for most awards but the MVP has not abandoned the traditional methodologies.  Last year, Matt Kemp was edged out by Ryan Braun for the award despite leading the NL in WAR and adjusted OPS+ largely because of where the Brewers finished (earning a postseason berth while winning the NL Central).  This year, the award was given to the player that led the most traditional of statistical categories - batting average, home runs, runs batted in and team finish. Listening to the media folks that actually had votes, it was clear that none of them were saying that Cabrera had the better season. On the contrary, many of them, like Jon Heyman, cited that Trout, perhaps, was the best all-around player in 2012 but not the most valuable... an important distinction for someone that voted against Trout (asserting that team finish has some relative value when it comes to selecting the MVP award winner).  Regardless, this debate is likely to be one that will live on for years.

Recapping Awards season, here are the BBWAA picks for the four major awards, the BBA picks for their similar awards and our official FBJ ballot choices, side by side.  

Congratulations to all of this year's award winners - Mike Trout, Bryce Harper, Bob Melvin, Davey Johnson, Jim Johnson, Craig Kimbrel, Fernando Rodney (BBA), David Price, R.A. Dickey, Justin Verlander (BBA), Miguel Cabrera and Buster Posey.