2009 Least Valuable Players

I've decided to wait and hand out the final edition of the monthly awards until the conclusion of the regular season for reasons that I'm sure are obvious to all human beings. In the meantime, however, I thought it'd be fun to revisit a segment that gives special recognition to the players who least deserve it. That's right, these are the guys that make us wonder why their managers would continue to write their names on the lineup card day in and day out. They're categorized by position (C, 1B, 2B, 3B, SS, 3 OFs, SP, RP) and each hitter was required to have a minimum of 370 plate appearances. These very prestigious awards are only reserved for the ones who continued their (lack of) performance embarrassingly deep into the season.

So, without any further adu, your 2009 LVP's!





C- Dioner Navarro, Tampa Bay Rays
Stats:
.219/.259/.317
49 OPS+
.255 WOBA
-0.1 WAR













1B- Aubrey Huff, Baltimore Orioles/Detroit Tigers
Stats:
.242/.310/.388
80 OPS+
.298 WOBA
-3.1 UZR
-1.2 WAR












2B- Luis Valbuena, Cleveland Indians
Stats:
.244/.295/.403
79 OPS+
.301 WOBA
-5.3 UZR
-0.1 WAR









3B- Garret Atkins, Colorado Rockies
Stats:
.220/.300/.333
63 OPS+
.283 WOBA
-2.0 UZR
-0.9 WAR





SS- Yuniesky Betancourt, Seattle Marines/Kansas City Royals
Stats:
.244/.273/.350
65 OPS+
.270 WOBA
-20.7 UZR
-2.1 WAR









OF- Delmon Young, Minnesota Twins
Stats:
.273/.296/.397
86 OPS+
.297 WOBA
-14.2 UZR
-1.6 WAR










OF- Carlos Quentin, Chicago White Sox
Stats:
.232/.319/.438
93 OPS+
.331 WOBA
-16.9 UZR
-1.0 WAR










OF- Alfonso Soriano, Chicago Cubs
Stats:
.241/.303/.423
85 OPS+
.314 WOBA
-12.4 UZR
-0.9 WAR









SP- Braden Looper, Milwaukee Brewers
Stats:
5.10 ERA
82 ERA+
1.47 WHIP
5.82 FIP
-0.8 WAR












RP- Seth McClung, Milwaukee Brewers
Stats:
5.10 ERA
83 ERA+
1.63 WHIP
6.12 FIP
-0.9 WAR







Don't give up, guys. Just last year Michael Bourn won an LVP award and he bounced back to have a 4.3 WAR. There's still hope. My apologies to Garret Anderson, Jeff Francoeur, Emilio Bonifacio, Jeff Suppan, Chris Volstad and countless others. Perhaps you can make it all the way to the top (or bottom) next season!

Jayson Stark Sums Up the Absurdity that is the MVP Award

"...Remember that this award is about "value," not numbers."

Interesting. And all this time I thought the numbers were the very thing representing that value. He also provided this valuable new age statistic for us:

My "runs produced" definition is RBIs plus runs scored, then subtract homers. Here's how they rank:
Hamilton 160
Kinsler 147
Morneau 142
Quentin 140
Youkilis 125

Sorry, Alex Rodriguez, Grady Sizemore, and Milton Bradley, you are not MVP-worthy. The reasons for this are three-fold: either A) the players in front of you don't get on base enough B) the players behind you don't hit good enough or C) you hit too many homeruns.
Now, I know that Stark didn't exactly use this to back up his stance on the MVP, but the fact that this type of statistic is being used in any context is cause for concern. This is essentially one of the worst ways to determine how well a player produces runs.
Let me show you why this "statistic" should never be used in any argument ever again.

Runs Produced-2008
Mark Reynolds
127
Albert Pujols
122

Thank you.