Posted by wylie715 on 10/5/2016 12:48:00 PM (view original):
and how do you define "strength of offense and defense"? Is a guy who hits .240 with 30 HRs and 100 RBIs more valuable that a guy with a .375 OBP, 50 steals and 100 runs scored? If so, why? Is a SS with great range more valuable than an OF with a great arm? If you say the voter gets to decide, than it is not clear. It is vague. If it was clear there would be nothing to decide.
This is kind of the point.
This is how the instructions are designed to be subjective and unclear. Over the past few decades a startlingly large number of stupid voters have instead chosen to often frame the MVP debate between a player who had a clearly superior season for a 70-win team and a player who had a clearly inferior season for a 95-win playoff team. To me, it is fairly clear that the ballot writers never intended such a debate. The debate
should be about what makes a player valuable, what contributions were more impressive, what wins baseball games. There's still plenty of ambiguity there.