Mercifully Not MVP: 2008's Most Overrated MLB Players

MVP voting has come and gone. And for the first time ever, I am happy about both MVP selections.

Hell, I am happy about both Cy Young award winners.

But unfortunately, the voters once again showed their inability to let go of archaic numbers that provide nothing but talking points towards a players worth. So for all you fans of "big Septembers", "RBI", "grit", and other crappy reasons for arguing a player's worth, this list is for you.

Ryan Braun, LF, Brewers: MVP of the Brewers' lineup? Definitely. But despite being outside of the top 15 in the NL in VORP and trailing such elite players as Russell Branyan and Denard Span of the Twins in EqA, managed to find himself third in MVP voting.

To be fair to Braun, he adjusted well to left field, but his sub-average OBP was worth third? Knowing players like Hanley Ramirez and Chipper Jones could not even break the top 10, I am not buying it.

Ryan Howard, 1B, Phillies: Yes, he was a key player in September. Yes, he had a big World Series.

But make no mistake, this was not the .313/.425/.659 monster of 2006. Factoring out September, his numbers were very average, and even factoring in September, his .339 OBP was below the league average.

Howard was 29th in NL VORP, and while his home runs were very valuable, the fact that 12 of 32 voters determined that a team would be better off with Howard (6.4 runs created/game) than Pujols (11.8 RC/g) is an absolute joke.

Francisco Rodriguez, CL, Angels: Someone needs to tell MVP and Cy Young voters that a standard MLB save is pitching one inning and giving up no more than one less run than the lead your team had before you entered.

K-Rod just happened to be on a team that provided him with many one to three run leads to convert into yet another save. He finished sixth in MVP voting, and third in Cy Young voting, despite having a not-so-stellar 3.09 defensive independent component ERA (DICE).

In turn, Cliff Lee had a 2.70, and Roy Halladay had a 2.90, as starters, and finished behind K-Rod in MVP voting. And K-Rod gave up 3.72 more walks per nine innings than Mariano Rivera, who had a DICE of 1.90. K-Rod had a first place MVP vote. Rivera, in turn, did not receive a single MVP vote.

Justin Morneau, 1B, Twins: Came dangerously close, again, to swiping the MVP. Despite finishing outside the top 10 in AL VORP, again, he finished second in AL MVP voting.

Ahead of Kevin Youkilis, who had a higher OBP, SLG, OPS+, EqA, VORP, etc, both playing first base. And more outrageously, ahead of teammate Joe Mauer, who, just like he did in 2006, finished far ahead of Morneau in VORP.

First base and catcher are on opposite ends of the spectrum in terms of offensive expectation, yet they both had 137 OPS+'s. Yes, Morneau is a good player and plays good defense, but you could get the same good defense from both Youkilis and Mark Teixiera. With better offensive numbers.

Is there any catcher in MLB that can routinely get on base over 40% of the time? Victor Martinez, Brian McCann, and Russell Martin are yet to approach Mauer's 2006 or 2008 OBP production.