Josh Donaldson Wins AL MVP Award

In a close vote Josh Donaldson beat out Mike Trout for AL MVP.

Watching walk-off home runs videos today, I heard Buck Martinez say, just after Josh hit a walk-off, that 'that's what wins you MVP awards'. It had me wondering if 3 walk-off home runs would sway voters more than any other 3 home runs. You would kind of think that home runs that actively win games would be something that help.

Donaldson and Trout had very similar stats. Both had 41 home runs, batting average is .002 apart. Trout has a .031 edge in OBP and .032 edge in Slugging. He is ahead in fWAR 9.0 to 8.7. I'll admit, I think if we are just giving awards just on WAR, we are likely doing something wrong. It should be part of the argument, but not the whole thing. Really, either could have won, but I think the Writers got this one right.

Bryce Harper wins in the NL, taking all the first place votes. . Papilbon might disagree, but he's very good.

Congratulations Josh.

Whoops...that cut off Wade Davis, David Ortiz, Alex Rodriguez and Mark Teixeira who each had 1 10th place vote.