The Cabrera voter was from Seattle, believe it or not.

Via @KenDavidoff

http://twitter.com/KenDavidoff/status/5984854758

“Keizo Konishi of Kyodo News, based in Seattle, voted Miguel Cabrera first.”

“He was an inspirational horse.  Nobody was tougher with the season on the line.”

Oh wait, that was Justin Verlander.  Cabrera is the guy who stayed out all night, got drunk with members of the opposing team, had an altercation with his wife, and tanked the last weekend of the season, thereby helping to ensure that the Tigers missed the playoffs.

From fangraphs Dave Cameron

For Jon Heyman and the rest of the reactionary “Keith Law should lose his ballot” crowd, I present the following comparison between Joe Mauer and Miguel Cabrera.

Singles: Mauer +2
Doubles: Cabrera +4
Triples: Mauer +1
Home Runs: Cabrera +6
Runs: Cabrera +2
RBI: Cabrera +7
Walks: Mauer +8
Outs: Cabrera +87

In terms of raw production, you’d be hard pressed to find two guys who had more similar years than Mauer and Cabrera. The differences in practically all of the counting stats is single digits, making those numbers a virtual tie. The only counting stat where there is much in the way of differentiation is outs. Essentially, the difference in playing time was entirely consumed by the equivalent of Cabrera enduring the worst slump baseball has ever seen.

If Mauer had played through his back problem in April without reaching base once, going zero for the month, then Cabrera and Mauer would have had approximately equal offensive seasons.

Seriously, there is no argument for a first place vote for Miguel Cabrera. Mauer’s team made the playoffs, beating out Cabrera’s team for the last spot. Mauer hit better. Mauer fielded better. Mauer played a more important position.

None of those facts are disputable. A vote for Cabrera being more valuable in 2009 is like a vote for the sum of two and two being five. It’s not an opinion - it’s a lack of understanding.

@dbhammel - More to the point, though, is that if Cabrera had shown up for the final series against the White Sox, there’s a good chance no play-in game would have been necessary.

According to many reports, because of that 1st place vote, Miggy ranked 4th in the MVP voting, thereby earning him $200K.  Someone better watch the bank wires.

Not for nothing, but what does “deraded” mean?

The right guy won.  I’ll never understand the quest for unanimity in these things.  What principle is being upheld, and whose honor defended?

Bill Simmons bugs me sometimes, but I agree with him about one thing—baseball is becoming a sport about which you’re not allowed to have opinions anymore.

A quick glance at the Kyodo News Sports sections shows like 10 articles on International volleyball and only one story even remotely related to the MLB. They don’t even have Mauer’s MVP as a story. Why does this guy have a vote?

I don’t think Cabrera was necessarily the “most valuable”, but I can understand why someone might select him.

Just take one look at the Twins leaderboards offensively in HRs, RBIs, batting average, and OPS and you’ll see three different players. Take a look at the Tigers and you’ll see one player.

The Twins had five players with an .800 or higher OPS with at least 500 at bats. Tigers had one, two if you do 500 plate appearances.

Twins had two players with 100 RBIs, neither of which were Mauer, and four players with 90 RBIs. Tigers had one, Cabrera.

Twins weren’t exactly the Yankees offensively, but the Tigers were basically Cabrera. They had three players with 500+ PA’s with an OPS over .730. The Twins, had five.

I noticed Rivera being placed higher on the ballot than Grineke, really strange.  I think there are too many ballot spots for the MVP and too few for the Cy Young. 

Most teams employ 10-11 pitchers on their 25 man roster.  So for a population of players that is 2/5ths of the league has a voting system that only has 3 lines to write names into.  This makes no sense, it should at least be 2/5ths the size of the MVP ballot (4).

Also, sorry for spelling your name wrong.