Thursday, November 13, 2014

Matt Kemp Should Have Won MVP. Clayton Kershaw Should Win MVP.

Some of you may remember a time when I went by the handle "KempKershaw." It was a time long ago, when I considered myself young and could barely grow a beard. Though that moniker has long since been retired, my love for Matt Kemp and Clayton Kershaw (as both players and individuals I've had the pleasure of meeting numerous times) has never wavered. So it's only fitting that a card featuring both of their John Hancocks finally enters my collection.


Damn, what a sexy piece of cardboard. It's surprising that The Bison and Kid K aren't paired for a ton of autographs on cards, but this offering from the Winning Combos subset of 2011 Panini Contenders is one I've come across often. I had lost out a number of times on dual autos of theirs -- including a couple that in retrospect went crazy cheap -- but I finally took one down months ago before Kemp signature prices had rebounded to the extent they did late in the 2014 campaign. It's numbered 13/25 and ran me right around $51, a price I'm more than happy to pay for the latest addition to both my Kemp and Kershaw Collections.


One-touched to perfection. I've never considered a dual card such as this to be applicable to multiple player collections but until I land another auto of both on one card, this will happily fill a place in both PCs. Mattycakes should have won the NL MVP in 2011 over Ryan Braun. Putting steroids aside, Kemp was the most valuable player that year, period. Kershaw has tough competition for the NL MVP award that will be announced later today, but I do have him number one on my list over both Giancarlo Stanton and Andrew McCutchen.

3 comments:

  1. I Just don't picture a scenario in which Kershaw doesn't win it. It would be great to see McCutchen get his 2nd but I don't think his season was as good as Kershaw's. Stanton would have been interesting if he hadn't missed the last month.

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  2. To this point, I don't have a single argument or complaint for any of the award winners. Clayton deserved the MVP along with the Cy. No one really stood out enough to win MVP over him. You can argue that he doesn't play every day, but that's crap when you consider the days he played were pretty much a guaranteed W in the left column.

    And bullsh*t WAR aside (it's a BS, made up stat that means nothing in the long run), Trout got what he earned this year. He was head a shoulders above anyone in the AL.

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