Ryan Braun became a little hotter back in September when he officially became a 30-30 player. Nothing turns us on more than an impressive stat line.
But now that he's won the National League's Most Valuable Player award, we can hardly contain ourselves.
After helping lead his Milwaukee Brewers to their first division title in nearly 30 years, the left fielder received 20 of the 32 possible first-place votes and 388 total points from the Baseball Writers Association of America. He beat out Los Angeles Dodgers center fielder Matt Kemp, his teammate first baseman Prince Fielder, Arizona Diamondbacks right fielder Justin Upton, and St. Louis Cardinals first baseman Albert Pujols. Not a lot of chumps, so Braun should feel proud.
Braun led the NL with a .597 slugging percentage and had a shot at stealing the batting title from Jose Reyes with a couple games left in the season, but finished second with a .332 average. Still pretty awesome. The 28-year-old four-time All-Star led the league with 77 extra-base hits and crushed 33 homers, 111 RBI, and stole 33 bases as Milwaukee went on to win a franchise-best 96 games last season. He became the first Brewer to earn the honor since Robin Yount in 1989, back when Milwaukee was still in the American League East.
Many fans, even the ones outside of Los Angeles, may feel like Kemp was totally robbed here, considering he damn near won the NL triple crown with a league-best 39 longballs and 126 RBI while also winning the gold glove at center, but the Dodgers weren't anywhere near contention polishing off the season third in the NL West. Voters are under the impression the majority of the time that the MVP must play for a decent team.
Anyway, congratulations Brauny!
[Brew Crew Ball]
1 comment:
He deserved it. Not only was he the most valuable player on his team (the Brewers would not have made it that far without him) he was one of the most MVPs in the league. Way to go Brauny!
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