NL MVP 2011: Brewers' Ryan Braun Robs Dodgers' Matt Kemp of Honor

One day after making a colossal mistake with the American League MVP award, the BBWAA is back at it again, giving the National League MVP to Milwaukee Brewers left fielder Ryan Braun. 

Braun finished first with 388 points and 20 first-place votes. He finished 56 points ahead of runner-up Matt Kemp, who received 10 first-place votes. The other two first-place votes were split between Braun's teammate Prince Fielder and Justin Upton, who finished third and fourth, respectively. 

The same argument/narrative that was used to give Justin Verlander the AL honor on Monday is going to be used with Braun today. He was the best player on one of the best teams in the National League, therefore he deserves the honor. 

Meanwhile, Los Angeles Dodgers center fielder Matt Kemp had a great season for a team that didn't make the playoffs, which means that voters have a natural bias against him. They can deny it all they want, but they know it's true. 

Braun had a great season, no one can take that away from him, and I am not trying to take that away from him. Anyone who hits .332/.397/.597 with 32 home runs and 33 stolen bases deserves plenty of MVP votes. 

But there are two things that voters are not looking at or just do not care about. The first is that Braun is a terrible defensive player. There is no metric that has ever supported him being even an adequate left fielder. 

The second thing is that Kemp's season was clearly better and he did it playing center field, which is a much more difficult position than left field.

Kemp hit .324/.399/.586 with 39 home runs and 40 stolen bases. Those numbers would be great for any player, but when you factor in the position he plays it makes him even more valuable. 

To those that say Kemp is not a good defensive player, I can't argue that point. He has never been average in center, but he is better at his position than Braun is at his, and Kemp plays the more demanding position. 

Kemp had a substantial lead over Braun in Wins Above Replacement this season (8.7 to 7.8 on Fangraphs, 10.0 to 7.7. on Baseball Reference).

So Braun can take his trophy and go home. Kemp can rest easy knowing that he was the best player in the National League in 2011. (That $160 million contract doesn't hurt either.)