Matt Kemp, Your Real 2011 National League MVP

Because, you know, he was the best player in the NL this season. And if you're the best player, and have the best season, you provide the most value to your team. You know there's a serious disconnect and major issues with who gets to vote when most of the voters begin their explanation with "Matt Kemp was the best player, but....". There is no but; the award is for the best - and hence the most valuable - player. Simple. This is quickly heading off into the realm of ridiculous Bill Plaschke logic (and even The Argyled One picked Kemp, though he used traditional statistics in the process of coming to the correct conclusion). Ryan Braun had a great, great season. Matt Kemp had a phenomenal season.

I did a wee bit of analysis a while back showing why Kemp was the proper choice, but I'm not really all that surprised by the voting. Apparently, who your teammates are is an appropriate and major factor in winning the award. Could have fooled me....it's an individual award based on individual performance. At least, that's what intelligent voters understand. Hell, even the BBWAA guidelines stipulate a team's performance does not matter.

Anyways, congrats to Ryan Braun, who at least is a more than worthy candidate and was second in the real world where you don't get penalized for having terrible teammates. The biggest travesty though is that Ryan Howard got a fourth place vote and three fifth place votes en route to finishing in the top ten. Talk about crazy. Oh, and that beautiful Kemp at the top was an eBay score, for less than the price of a blaster. Picked it up many moons ago. A great addition to my Kemp PC, and easily one of my favorite cards - Kemp or otherwise - in my collection. It's my seventh Kemp autograph, and second of the on-card variety.