I will not be taking bets on this one…
Of all the categories this year, this is likely the one with the most obvious of winners. I need not draw you a picture, I presume. But this is still a worthwhile endeavor, even if the outcome seems almost certain. Don’t forget, it’s an honor simply to be nominated, and there are going to be four other players who get on to the ballot. This category is open to both position players and pitchers, and the SnakePit has previously shown themselves to be more amenable to giving it to pitchers than the BBWAA. They haven’t given MVP to a pure pitcher since Clayton Kershaw in 2014. The SnakePit awards went to Merrill Kelly and Zac Gellen for three consecutive years, from 2020 through 2022.
However, I have a feeling that, no only will there be no pitcher winning for 2024, we may not even see one on the final ballot. After all, it wasn’t the pitchers who powered the team to the highest total of runs in the majors, far and away setting a franchise record for OPS+, etc. But I am prepared to listen to debate in this department. As a rough and ready guide, the chart below shows all twenty Diamondbacks who posted a value of at least one win in either bWAR or fWAR. The final column is the average of the two systems.
It’s interesting to see the similarities and, perhaps more interestingly, the differences. On the pitching side, the most obvious cause is fWAR using FIP (fielding independent ERA) rather than ERA as the basis for its value. That’s why Brandon Pfaadt – ERA 4.71, but FIP more than a run better, down at 3.61 – is massively better seen through the lens of fWAR. But on the position player side, there are some significant disparities as well: Jake McCarthy was almost twice as valuable by fWAR as by bWAR. As mentioned during our player review, the most likely cause is a difference in how the two system view and value McCarthy when it comes to defense.
It’s also interesting to compare and contrast these rankings to where the players came in our ratings. Two of the top five in the latter were relief pitchers (A.J. Puk and Justin Martinez), but in the WAR rankings, none of those were in the first fifteen. While there was agreement at the top – and that’s why I fully expect the poll to be more of a procession than a true battle – WAR runner-up Corbin Carroll was ranked all the way down at seventeenth in our player ratings. As we saw with the pitching, I think the ratings tend to grade on a curve, with how we expected the player to perform, being in some way more important than their objective performance.
Anyway, for the last award this season, the usual rules apply. Should you need a refresher – and you likely do not – here you are:
- Go to the comments section.
- If your choice is already mentioned there, give it a “rec”.
- If your choice is NOT mentioned, leave their name as a new comment, and make your case for them.
- One nomination per comment
- Duplicate nominations will get deleted.
- On Wednesday, I’ll tally up the recs, and use those as a guide towards a list of five or so nominees.