The West Coast Myth: How Players on the Pacific Still Receive Attention

I recently read an article about how Kendry Morales, the first baseman for the Los Angeles (I guess) Angels should be considered more heavily for the MVP award. While I think that Morales should definitely receive more credit for his play this season, I reject the idea that it is because of an "East Coast bias." 

It is definitely true that Mark Teixeira, the man that Morales replaced, is receiving more attention, though Teixeira is only out-producing Morales by a small margin (though he is out-producing him nonetheless, so the whole argument should be moot).

However, the idea that Morales would be an MVP candidate in New York, for instance, is unlikely. The lack of attention for Morales has more to do with the fact that he is young and had not made a splash up until this year and the fact that he makes much less money than Teixeira, more than it is because of where they play.

But I'm not particularly interested in explaining why Kendry Morales won't win MVP. I'm much more interested in debunking the myth that players out west don't receive the same attention.

Let's start with the Cy Young award.

A quick look at the winners of the NL Cy Young award this century reveals this:

• 2008 - Tim Lincecum, SFG
• 2007 - Jake Peavy, SDP
• 2006 - Brandon Webb, ARI
• 2005 - Chris Carpenter, STL 
• 2004 - Roger Clemens, HOU
• 2003 - Eric Gagne, LAD
• 2002 - Randy Johnson, ARI
• 2001 - Randy Johnson, ARI
• 2000 - Randy Johnson, ARI

(And yes, Randy Johnson also won it in 1999).

So, out of nine NL Cy Young award winners this century, seven of them played for teams in the West division. And exactly none of them played out east, for that matter. 

What about the American League, you ask? Well, here's what that looks like:

• 2008 - Cliff Lee, CLE
• 2007 - CC Sabathia, CLE
• 2006 - Johan Santana, MIN
• 2005 - Bartolo Colon, LAA
• 2004 - Johan Santana, MIN
• 2003 - Roy Halladay, TOR
• 2002 - Barry Zito, OAK
• 2001 - Roger Clemens, NYY
• 2000 - Pedro Martinez, BOS

The American league features a list that is clearly not as favorable for the West, though it is worth noting that it still is not heavily biased towards the East, which is where the bias supposedly lies. The two AL East winners are simple; Roger Clemens is Roger Clemens, and Pedro Martinez is Pedro Martinez.

And seriously, if you want to be amazed, take a look at Pedro's numbers that year. Absolutely absurd.

And why is Bartolo Colon's name bolded? Oh, because he is one of my favorite examples of a lot of things, including why this myth is ridiculous. It's also my favorite example of thievery in the Cy Young voting.

If people voting for these awards aren't paying attention to what's going on out west, then they must not be paying attention to anything.

Out of the top six vote-getters for the AL Cy Young award that year, only two pitchers (Cliff Lee and Chicago's Jon Garland) had higher ERAs than Colon's 3.48. Johan Santana actually finished third with a 2.87 ERA, and struck out seventy-nine more batters than Colon.

Not to mention the fact that he bested Colon in categories such as complete games, innings pitched, and oh, well, everything except walks (Santana walked 45 compared to Colon's 43). Colon won 21 games compared to Santana's 16, so of course the voters selected him. 

So as if it wasn't enough for the West to essentially dominate the NL Cy Young voting, one of the Angels' own actually stole one of the awards in one of the most egregious displays of voting error. So clearly the voters are paying attention to the Halos.

Oh, but what about the MVP award, the award for which we are concerned with Morales? I'll admit that that side doesn't look as good for the West, but here goes:

NL MVP Award winners this century

• 2008 - Albert Pujols, STL
• 2007 - Jimmy Rollins, PHI
• 2006 - Ryan Howard, PHI
• 2005 - Albert Pujols, STL
• 2004 - Barry Bonds, SFG
• 2003 - Barry Bonds, SFG
• 2002 - Barry Bonds, SFG
• 2001 - Barry Bonds, SFG
• 2000 - Jeff Kent, SFG

Aside from, you know, the first half or so of the century, there hasn't been an NL MVP winner from the West. And I'll let the whole Bonds thing slide, because, well...well I'm not even gonna touch that right now.

But even Bonds' teammate Kent won in 2000. And since Bonds left the bay, there haven't really been that many prolific sluggers out near the Pacific...and it really is hard to compete with Pujols. I don't think that's voter bias—I think that's just facts. 

As for the AL...

• 2008 - Dustin Pedroia, BOS
• 2007 - Alex Rodriguez, NYY
• 2006 - Justin Morneau, MIN
• 2005 - Alex Rodriguez, NYY
• 2004 - Vladimir Guerrero, ANA
• 2003 - Alex Rodriguez, TEX
• 2002 - Miguel Tejada, OAK
• 2001 - Ichiro Suzuki, SEA
• 2000 - Jason Giambi, OAK

Now, while it's true that the last two winners played for the Red Sox and Yankees, respectively, which happen to be two of the biggest names in the sport and play on the East Coast, it is also true that Rodriguez had an obscenely good year in 2007 and it's pretty difficult to argue with that voting.

But if you look beyond that, the first half of the decade were players from—where else?—the AL West. Sure, you could argue that an AL West player was overlooked in 2001 (Giambi), but another player from the West was still chosen. And just for kicks, we'll look at the '90s too:

• 1999 - Ivan Rodriguez, TEX
• 1998 - Juan Gonzalez, TEX
• 1997 - Ken Griffey Jr., SEA
• 1996 - Juan Gonzalez, TEX
• 1995 - Mo Vaughn, BOS
• 1994 - Frank Thomas, CHW
• 1993 - Frank Thomas, CHW
• 1992 - Dennis Eckersley, OAK
• 1991 - Cal Ripken Jr., BAL
• 1990 - Rickey Henderson, OAK

Now, I'll concede that things could have changed over time, but I will point out that 60 percent of these AL MVP winners played on the West Coast. 

So all in all, I don't think it's really fair to act as if the people voting for the major awards ignore the West divisions. They do make errors in judgment and vote based on silly ideas of what makes players good, but it is relatively unrelated to what time their games air.

Kendry Morales will not win the MVP, but I'd look at other reasons aside from where he plays.

COMPARING MORALES AND TEIXEIRA

And just to clarify; while I don't think Teixeira should necessarily win MVP, I do still think he has an edge over Morales. Morales may be making more contact than Teixeira, but I think it's a reasonable thing to think that reaching base overall is a more valuable asset, and as of Sept. 2, 2009, Teixeira's OBP is .380 compared to a .358 mark posted by Morales.

Teixeira is of course out-homering Morales also, although only by two. But you can't argue that Morales is better just because he's close to Teixeira, he's still under him. Teixeira also creates more runs in general, as he leads the league in RBI (Morales doesn't lead the league in any category) and has scored more runs than Morales as well.