I don't have much of a capacity to get worked up about the major awards anymore, and I won't waste too many keystrokes telling you what you already know. But, by selecting Justin Verlander as the American League Most Valuable Player, the Baseball Writers Association of America has made quite a deviation from the status quo.Justin Verlander of the Detroit Tigers became the first starting pitcher in a quarter of a century to be selected most valuable player, adding to the Cy Young Award he won last week.
Verlander was selected American League MVP on Monday, receiving 13 of 28 first-place votes and 280 points in voting announced by the Baseball Writers' Assn. of America.
"Obviously, pitchers are not just written off all of a sudden because they're pitchers," Verlander said.
Boston Red Sox center fielder Jacoby Ellsbury was second with four first-place votes and 242 points, followed by Toronto Blue Jays right fielder Jose Bautista with five first-place votes and 231 points, New York Yankees center fielder Curtis Granderson with 215 and Detroit first baseman Miguel Cabrera with 193.
"Not even in my wildest dreams had I thought of this," Verlander said. "I want to say this is a dream come true. I can't say that because my dream had already come true … to win a Cy Young. And the next dream is to win a World Series. This wasn't even on my radar until the talk started. And then all of a sudden it was a this-could-actually-happen type of thing."
Verlander won the AL's pitching triple crown with a 24-5 record, 2.40 earned-run average and 250 strikeouts, the most wins in the major leagues since Bob Welch had a 27-6 record in 1990 with the Oakland Athletics. Verlander pitched his second career no-hitter at Toronto on May 7.
Last week, he was a unanimous Cy Young Award winner. On Monday, he became the first pitcher to be selected MVP since Oakland's Dennis Eckersley in 1992 and the first starting pitcher since Boston's Roger Clemens in 1986.
"I think that a starting pitcher has to do something special to be as valuable or more so than a position player," Verlander said. "Obviously, having the chance to play in 160-some games in the case of Miguel, they can obviously have a huge impact every day. That's why, I've talked about on my day, on a pitcher's day, the impact we have is tremendous on that game. So you have to have a great impact almost every time out to supersede [position players] and it happens on rare occasions, and I guess this year was one of those years."
The 2006 AL rookie of the year, Verlander joined Don Newcombe of the Brooklyn Dodgers as the only players to win all three major awards in their careers.
"I think this set a precedent," Verlander said. "I'm happy that the voters acknowledged that, that we do have a major impact in this game and we can be extremely valuable to our team and its success."
Verlander appeared on only 27 ballots and was omitted by Jim Ingraham of the Herald-News in northeastern Ohio, who voted Bautista first. Sheldon Ocker of the Akron Beacon Journal voted Verlander eighth.
Ingraham doesn't think pitchers should be eligible for MVP.
"I'd wrestled with this for a long time. If I was ever going to vote for pitcher for MVP, it would be him this year," Ingraham said. "He hasn't appeared in 79% of their games; any starting pitcher really doesn't appear in 79% of his team's games in a year.
"Would you vote for an NFL quarterback for MVP if he only appeared in three of his team's 16 games, which would be 21%? So that's part of it. Another part of it is I think they're apples and oranges. The guys that are in there every day, there's a grind to a season that a starting pitcher doesn't, I don't think, experience the way the everyday position players do playing 150, 160 games."
Other pitchers to win MVP and the Cy Young in the same year were Newcombe (1956), Sandy Koufax of the Dodgers (1963), Bob Gibson of the St. Louis Cardinals and Denny McLain of Detroit (1968), Vida Blue of Oakland (1971), Rollie Fingers of Milwaukee (1981) and Willie Hernandez of Detroit (1984).
Since Mickey Cochrane (1934), Hank Greenberg (1935, 1940) and Charley Gehringer (1937), all Tigers selected MVP have been pitchers, with Verlander joining Hal Newhouser (1944 and 1945), McLain and Hernandez.
Although Verlander earned a $500,000 bonus for winning the Cy Young Award, he didn't have an MVP bonus provision. Tampa Bay third baseman Evan Longoria receives $25,000 for finishing 10th.
The National League MVP winner will be announced Tuesday.
Verlander was selected American League MVP on Monday, receiving 13 of 28 first-place votes and 280 points in voting announced by the Baseball Writers' Assn. of America.
"Obviously, pitchers are not just written off all of a sudden because they're pitchers," Verlander said.
Boston Red Sox center fielder Jacoby Ellsbury was second with four first-place votes and 242 points, followed by Toronto Blue Jays right fielder Jose Bautista with five first-place votes and 231 points, New York Yankees center fielder Curtis Granderson with 215 and Detroit first baseman Miguel Cabrera with 193.
"Not even in my wildest dreams had I thought of this," Verlander said. "I want to say this is a dream come true. I can't say that because my dream had already come true … to win a Cy Young. And the next dream is to win a World Series. This wasn't even on my radar until the talk started. And then all of a sudden it was a this-could-actually-happen type of thing."
Verlander won the AL's pitching triple crown with a 24-5 record, 2.40 earned-run average and 250 strikeouts, the most wins in the major leagues since Bob Welch had a 27-6 record in 1990 with the Oakland Athletics. Verlander pitched his second career no-hitter at Toronto on May 7.
Last week, he was a unanimous Cy Young Award winner. On Monday, he became the first pitcher to be selected MVP since Oakland's Dennis Eckersley in 1992 and the first starting pitcher since Boston's Roger Clemens in 1986.
"I think that a starting pitcher has to do something special to be as valuable or more so than a position player," Verlander said. "Obviously, having the chance to play in 160-some games in the case of Miguel, they can obviously have a huge impact every day. That's why, I've talked about on my day, on a pitcher's day, the impact we have is tremendous on that game. So you have to have a great impact almost every time out to supersede [position players] and it happens on rare occasions, and I guess this year was one of those years."
The 2006 AL rookie of the year, Verlander joined Don Newcombe of the Brooklyn Dodgers as the only players to win all three major awards in their careers.
"I think this set a precedent," Verlander said. "I'm happy that the voters acknowledged that, that we do have a major impact in this game and we can be extremely valuable to our team and its success."
Verlander appeared on only 27 ballots and was omitted by Jim Ingraham of the Herald-News in northeastern Ohio, who voted Bautista first. Sheldon Ocker of the Akron Beacon Journal voted Verlander eighth.
Ingraham doesn't think pitchers should be eligible for MVP.
"I'd wrestled with this for a long time. If I was ever going to vote for pitcher for MVP, it would be him this year," Ingraham said. "He hasn't appeared in 79% of their games; any starting pitcher really doesn't appear in 79% of his team's games in a year.
"Would you vote for an NFL quarterback for MVP if he only appeared in three of his team's 16 games, which would be 21%? So that's part of it. Another part of it is I think they're apples and oranges. The guys that are in there every day, there's a grind to a season that a starting pitcher doesn't, I don't think, experience the way the everyday position players do playing 150, 160 games."
Other pitchers to win MVP and the Cy Young in the same year were Newcombe (1956), Sandy Koufax of the Dodgers (1963), Bob Gibson of the St. Louis Cardinals and Denny McLain of Detroit (1968), Vida Blue of Oakland (1971), Rollie Fingers of Milwaukee (1981) and Willie Hernandez of Detroit (1984).
Since Mickey Cochrane (1934), Hank Greenberg (1935, 1940) and Charley Gehringer (1937), all Tigers selected MVP have been pitchers, with Verlander joining Hal Newhouser (1944 and 1945), McLain and Hernandez.
Although Verlander earned a $500,000 bonus for winning the Cy Young Award, he didn't have an MVP bonus provision. Tampa Bay third baseman Evan Longoria receives $25,000 for finishing 10th.
The National League MVP winner will be announced Tuesday.
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