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IBWAA Names Bryant, Trout MVPs

The Internet Baseball Writers Association of America (IBWAA) named Kris Bryant and Mike Trout the MVPs of their respective leagues.

Bryant was an easy winner over Daniel Murphy. He received 145 first-place votes and 2293 points. Murphy got 14 first place votes and 1269 points. Corey Seager, Nolan Arenado and Anthony Rizzo rounded out the top five. Yoenis Cespedes finished eighth. I chose Arenado first. As I wrote, I do not believe the MVP has to come from a winning team; rather, it should be the player with the best season, and Arenado was far and away the best. Murphy, Bryant, Rizzo and Cespedes were next on my ballot.

Over in the American League, Trout, the wet dream of the sabermetrics crowd, got 109 first-place votes and 1981 points. Mookie Betts was second — 42 and 1686. Jose Altuve, Josh Donaldson and Manny Machado followed. I voted for David Ortiz first — he had the best year and he was on a winning team to boot. Funny how being on a winning team doesn’t matter when it comes to Trout. I followed with Betts, Miguel Cabrera, Trout and Altuve.

And thus ends the IBWAA award season.

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