Well, Jose Bautista was the best offensive player in baseball yet he still finished third in the AL MVP. I can live with Justin Verlander winning the award (Bautista and Verlander were actually tied in WAR) but Jacoby Ellsbury finished just ahead of Bautista in the voting. Some of this stuff is just absurd. Someone gave Bautista a ninth place vote. Then again, someone gave Ellsbury a tenth place vote and another person completely left Verlander off the ballot.
Last year Bautista came in fourth place despite hitting 54 home runs so I’m not surprised by the lackluster performance. Still, until the voting gets under control (one Texas reporter gave Michael Young a first place vote and in 2007, when A-Rod was by far the best player, you had a couple of Detroit reporters giving Magglio Ordonez some first place votes) this crazy stuff is going to happen.
