FG on Fox: How The Players Would Vote
The end of the season means it’s time for the playoffs, of course. But it also means that it’s time to vote on awards that reward regular season work. The players also vote on awards — and since they’re voting on their peers, they have a unique perspective on the exercise.
The players vote on something called the Player’s Choice award. And since I’m tasked with voting for the Player of the Year at FanGraphs, I thought it would make sense to ask the players for advice.
I asked two questions of a wide variety of players. The first was about their general process in deciding on their vote. I wanted to know what stats they looked at how they made their decision. The second was whether or not they thought a starting pitcher could rival a position player as the best player in baseball.
Let’s take the questions, one at a time, and see what the players said.
Read the rest on Just a Bit Outside.
With a phone full of pictures of pitchers' fingers, strange beers, and his two toddler sons, Eno Sarris can be found at the ballpark or a brewery most days. Read him here, writing about the A's or Giants at The Athletic, or about beer at October. Follow him on Twitter @enosarris if you can handle the sandwiches and inanity.
Hunter Descartes Pence
“I think you should pick whoever you believe. Go with whoever you believe deserves it. It’s all an opinion. It’s just an opinion, so it can never be true. Whatever you feel is right for you is the perfect choice.” -Hunter Pence
Winnie the Pence
Very interesting how much respect the pitchers have for the position players. Not surprising perhaps, but interesting.
I agree with Lester’s view regarding the MVP and CY Young, however just out of curiosity I wonder what he would say if he were asked a follow up question regarding whether pitchers and hitters should be paid differently because of how he perceives their relative contributions as indicated by the following quote.
“Through 162 games, it’s harder for me to put more value on 33 games than 155.”
He says they don’t provide equal value, but would he stick to that this fall, when it’s time to negotiate his next contract?
On the other hand, there are five starting pitchers vs. eight starting position players (nine on an AL team), plus a mess of relievers, so if the total salary dollars are getting divied up proportionately that goes some way to balancing it out.
It would be an interesting follow-up question, I agree.
My QB is the highest scoring player for me every year in fantasy football, but I almost never draft a QB first. Similar concept. Contract value is affected a lot by value relative to other players at a given position, and by scarcity.
Interesting how many players argued whether intentionally or not for some sort of WOWY analysis, especially for pitchers.