SBN Awards: Player of the Year

John Baragona

1. Buster Posey
2. Ryan Braun
3. Andrew McCutchen
4. Chase Headley
5. David Wright
6. Yadier Molina
7. Gio Gonzalez
8. Jason Heyward
9. Michael Bourn
10. Aaron Hill

For most this is probably a decision between Posey, Braun and McCutchen for the top spot. Looking purely at the numbers, it was hard not to give the top spot nod to Ryan Braun. Last year was last year when he had a great year and then had the whole PED issue, not to mention having Prince Fielder protecting his backside. This season he didn’t have Fielder and he still posted a huge season, plus he led the Brewers on a strong late season push for the playoffs that just came up short. I wanted to downgrade him for the whole PED mess but I just couldn’t do it. But I still didn’t give him the top spot.

On my ballot it came down to Posey and Braun. McCutchen was a stud all year long with very little lineup protection. He simply ran out of gas down the stretch as teams just stopped pitching to him. Posey on the other hand didn’t have much lineup protection either batting 4 th in the middle of a fairly anemic Giant offense. But he still posted a terrific year with a .955 OPS and a 7.8 WAR. On top of that he played the toughest of all positions at catcher, though he did play a number of games at 1B to give him a breather and keep his bat in the lineup. So Posey gets my vote in the top spot, Braun gets my second spot and McCutchen gets third.

I placed Chase Headley in the 4th spot for his terrific season carrying a Padres team that really played well in the second half, and in a pitcher’s ballpark. Gio Gonzalez was the only pitcher who made my list. David Wright and Yadier Molina get my 5th and 6th spots. Two Braves in Jason Heyward and Michael Bourn get 8th and 9th on strong seasons and A+ defensive metrics. Aaron Hill gets my 10th spot being a consistent hitter near the top of the Diamondbacks lineup who produced all year long.

Zavada's Moustache

1. Buster Posey
2. Ryan Braun
3. Andrew McCutchen
4. Chase Headley
5. David Wright
6. Jason Heyward
7. Yadier Molina
8. Ian Desmond
9. Aaron Hill
10. Michael Bourn

John and I didn't collaborate on this, I promise. As personally abhorrent as I found voting for a Giant for MVP, it's difficult to deny Posey earned it. .336/.408/.549 while playing his home games in a ballpark that literally eats home runs. Literally. And, oh yeah, he happens to play the most important defensive position in baseball at what seems like a high level (quantifying catcher defense is like). Add in the narrative factor of him getting his leg snapped nine months before the season started and making a full recovery, and Posey's my winner, Giant or not.

Anyone who voted against Braun because they think he's still on steroids (if indeed he ever was) underestimate the herculean level of stupidity required to keep juicing after getting out of his charges on the ticky-tackiest of ticky-tack details last year. And anyone who voted against Braun because he did steroids at one time sort of missed the point of the exercise. If we had voted at the beginning of August, McCutchen would have appeared first on my ballot, but his thoroughly mortal .253/.354/.425 line for the last two months of the season while his team freefell in the standings was too much to ignore.

Chase Headley is the new Adrian Gonzalez, in that only the NL West and hipster baseball writers know who he is, thanks to the Padres and Petco Park. Obviously this means that he'll get traded out of the division to a big-market team, be a disappointment, and eventually get traded back to the NL West to the chagrin of everyone else in the division who thought they'd gotten rid of him for good.

[And here are the American League results]