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Perfect storm led to Justin Verlander being named MVP
posted by Pat Caputo at
9:48 PM
Monday, November 21, 2011
About Me
- Name: Pat Caputo
- Location: Pontiac, Michigan, United States
Pat Caputo is a sports columnist for The Oakland Press. Caputo covered the Tigers from 1986-98, and Lions from 1998-2002 for The Oakland Press before becoming a columnist. Caputo was raised in Birmingham and played baseball and football at Groves High School. His photograph playing high school sports appeared in The Oakland Press. He has won numerous writing awards, including first place in column writing from the Michigan Associated Press and the Michigan Press Association, and from the Detroit Chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists. He has been named among the Top Ten sports columnists in the nation by the Associated Press Sports Editors (APSE), and has won honors in four of the APSE's six national award categories. He has garnered top national honors for his column writing and sports writing from the Local Media Association. Caputo, who has resided in Oakland County since he was nine years old, currently lives in Lake Orion. Caputo has a radio show weeknights and weekends on 97.1 FM, The Ticket, which is the flagship station for the Tigers, Lions and Red Wings. He also appears regularly on FOX 2 television on "SportsWorks."
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3 Comments:
It's a well deserved honor. To those who think a pitcher shouldn't win the MVP because they only pitch once every 5 days, consider how many times the pitcher is involved in the game when they are on the field. 100+ times a game, the pitcher is having a direct impact on the outcome. A typical player in the field might get a hand full of chances to make a play in the field and 4-5 at bats. So while the pitcher only has an impact on that one game every five days, one could easily argue that the pitcher has a far larger impact on the outcome of that particular game than any other single player on the field.
While I'm extremely happy for JV getting MVP - I am blown away that he actually got it. I was starting to fall in line with the critics that said a pitcher couldn't win it.
getting 100% of the Cy Young votes was an incredible feat in itself.
Now the down side to that is to believe that the 2011 Tigers were so fragile that they couldn't have gotten to the post season without Verlander winning 24. But the stats bare it out in the end.
2012 just became even more interesting - and hopeful should the Tigers answer either / both second and third baggers.
A great day for Tigers baseball ... I think ...
If you look at the bare numbers, it's easy to fool yourself into thinking the Tigers could have gotten into the postseason without JV. If he had been a .500 pitcher, 14-14 for example, they still would have technically won the ALC by a handful of games. This logic is flawed, however, when you consider his impact on the entirety of the season. The Tigers struggled to pull away from their division until the final month or so. Had they hovered only a couple games above .500, perhaps they don't pull the trigger and trade for Fister. Also, JV's impact on the bullpen cannot be overstated. He pitched more innings than anyone in the entire league, giving Leyland more flexibility the days before and after each of JV's starts. It is no coincidence that Valverde had such a fabulous year either, as he clearly rode the coat tails. Without JV, the Tigers are at best a .500 team, and would have not made the playoffs.
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