He’s a writer, as I pretend to be, and looks for a story. So every player on his MVP ballot is put there more as some sort of creative tale to tell of their abstract value. It’s more about what’s interesting than what’s correct.

The funny thing is that I understand it, but, unlike Heyman, I stopped looking at MVP arguments that way once I hit an age where logical thought became relevant. Heyman hasn’t grown to that point yet.

I do believe he was also linked to a shady trainer. But again, so what? His body looked pretty large a few years back. Certainly bigger than now.

The problem with this entire discussion is, people want facts, proof, documentation, but it may not exist. I’m a baseball enthusiast, and I have little to gain by discussing how phony all the players and their records are these days. The only reason I bother discussing this is, it strikes me as fascinating (and noteworthy) that some players catch a lot of shit for any number of things (see: Michael Young’s defensive stats) while others don’t. Pujols seems to skip by, meanwhile, people are ready to pounce on certain others.

that’s why I apologized, and that’s why I clarified my statement later.

you have an admitted steroid advocate on your picture. But wow. Are you serious? Using a dick joke, then “dumb” joke, what’s next?

lies about Roger Clemens. Jose is nut, but he is entertaining. Some times at least. I though Game of Shadows was depressing. Juiced was sort of fun. Jose has a pretty convincing theory/rationale on the use of these enhancing drugs (for professional athletes).

hides the acne well.

Though you did cite RBI, so I’m not sure.

And his total value would be pretty awful, so I’m not sure I even get the point. Greinke’s was pretty sky high.

You do realize you need a pitcher, right? Like, you have to have a pitcher in a game. Pitchers are usually only able to effectively play around once every five days or so, but that doesn’t make them inherrently less valuable than everyone who plays more often than once every five days. That’s attrocious logic.

By the logic of > 1/5 = more valuable than 1/5, EVERY SINGLE STARTING POSITION PLAYER would have to be more valuable than Zack Greinke and Tim Lincecum for that logic to be consistent.

But, again, you have to have a pitcher, so pitchers should be judged on the baseline based on starting pitchers, not any other position. If a pitcher is worth more wins above what a replacement-level pitcher in his 30 appearances than a position player was in his 150 appearances over a replacement-level position player, the pitcher was probably more valuable to his team (how to evaluate this, of course, is up to a mighty debate).

Total value added, man.

Considering a #1 starter gets about 34 starts a year. If he went 4-4 in those and 0-4 in all other games his line would be this:

209/209/524 with 68 HRs and 170 RBI