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It's interesting how voting on these awards worked. Put together a bunch of avid baseball followers, no matter if they write for newspapers and can actually vote on the BBWAA awards or if they write for SB Nation, and the results somehow manage to shake out close together.
The voting for National League Player of the Year was done before the season ended, so his subsequent World Series title didn't affect it, but Buster Posey was clearly the guy most people thought was the MVP this year. He got 26 out of 35 first place votes.
Posey hit .336/.408/.549 this season in 610 plate appearances with 24 home runs and 39 doubles. He also compiled a wRC+ of 162 and had 8.0 fWAR this season. From a catcher, that is simply outstanding and is probably a big reason he won this award.
Here's the rest of the voting with TCB's ballot breakdowns after the chart:
| Player | Team | 1st | 2nd | 3rd | 4th | 5th | 6th | 7th | 8th | 9th | 10th | Points |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Buster Posey | San Francisco Giants | 26 | 6 | 3 | 442 | |||||||
| Ryan Braun | Milwaukee Brewers | 7 | 16 | 6 | 4 | 2 | 330 | |||||
| Andrew McCutchen | Pittsburgh Pirates | 2 | 7 | 14 | 8 | 3 | 277 | |||||
| David Wright | New York Mets | 2 | 6 | 5 | 10 | 6 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 204 | ||
| Chase Headley | San Diego Padres | 2 | 13 | 6 | 7 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 190 | |||
| Yadier Molina | St. Louis Cardinals | 4 | 2 | 2 | 7 | 10 | 5 | 3 | 1 | 189 | ||
| Jason Heyward | Atlanta Braves | 2 | 1 | 5 | 7 | 4 | 5 | 90 | ||||
| Aramis Ramirez | Milwaukee Brewers | 1 | 1 | 3 | 5 | 3 | 4 | 48 | ||||
| Michael Bourn | Atlanta Braves | 1 | 4 | 5 | 4 | 3 | 47 | |||||
| Matt Holliday | St. Louis Cardinals | 1 | 2 | 1 | 5 | 1 | 28 | |||||
| Joey Votto | Cincinnati Reds | 1 | 1 | 1 | 4 | 25 | ||||||
| Clayton Kershaw | Los Angeles Dodgers | 1 | 2 | 1 | 3 | 24 | ||||||
| Gio Gonzalez | Washington Nationals | 1 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 21 | ||||||
| Aaron Hill | Arizona Diamondbacks | 3 | 4 | 4 | 21 | |||||||
| Ian Desmond | Washington Nationals | 2 | 3 | 2 | 19 | |||||||
| Jay Bruce | Cincinnati Reds | 1 | 1 | 1 | 14 | |||||||
| R.A. Dickey | New York Mets | 1 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 14 | ||||||
| Giancarlo Stanton | Miami Marlins | 1 | 1 | 4 | 11 | |||||||
| Carlos Ruiz | Philadelphia Phillies | 1 | 1 | 10 | ||||||||
| Adam LaRoche | Washington Nationals | 1 | 1 | 7 | ||||||||
| Matt Kemp | Los Angeles Dodgers | 1 | 1 | 6 | ||||||||
| Johnny Cueto | Cincinnati Reds | 1 | 1 | 6 | ||||||||
| Martin Prado | Atlanta Braves | 1 | 1 | 1 | 6 | |||||||
| Carlos Gonzalez | Colorado Rockies | 1 | 5 | |||||||||
| Chipper Jones | Atlanta Braves | 1 | 5 | |||||||||
| Bryce Harper | Washington Nationals | 1 | 1 | 5 | ||||||||
| Allen Craig | St. Louis Cardinals | 1 | 1 | 5 | ||||||||
| Melky Cabrera | San Francisco Giants | 2 | 4 | |||||||||
| Ryan Zimmerman | Washington Nationals | 1 | 2 | 4 | ||||||||
| Carlos Beltran | St. Louis Cardinals | 1 | 3 | |||||||||
| Craig Kimbrel | Atlanta Braves | 1 | 2 | |||||||||
| Alfonso Soriano | Chicago Cubs | 2 | 2 | |||||||||
| Paul Goldschmidt | Arizona Diamondbacks | 1 | 1 |
David's Ballot
My top three were Posey, Braun and David Wright. I like that Braun was named on all 35 ballots and that he finished second here. Maybe we're getting away from the taint that PED accusations can have on a player and not just becoming more tolerant of people who use PEDs (not that Braun did...he was vindicated and stuff).
McCutcheon finishing third was a little surprising, but I can understand with how ridiculously hot he was for much of the season. I had him fifth on my ballot and was one of three people to rank him there. My fourth vote went to Jason Heyward, because I liked his all-around season for a team that made the playoffs (however slightly).
Who was that ninny who gave Michael Bourn a sixth place vote and got him ranked so highly? That'd be me, and I rounded out my top ten with Beaumont's own Jay Bruce, Aramis Ramirez, Yadier Molina and Ryan Zimmerman. Mine turned out to be the lowest vote for Yadi, which could be partly because of my St. Louis bias, but I was not alone. Molina may have been one of the most polarizing candidates, as he garnered second place votes and ninth place votes with at least one vote for every place in between.
No homeristic votes from me in this one, unless you count my placement of Bourn there, or my drop of Yadi. I like to think my overvaluing of Bourn was more because I appreciate his unique defensive prowess and wanted to reward it accordingly. I could just be self-delusional, though.
Tim can feel free to fill in the details of his ballot when he gets a chance. We listed all of the same players except two, with Tim leaving off Jay Bruce (of course he did) and putting in Aaron Hill instead (wha?).
Tim's Ballot
My ballot followed very close to the results with a few players flip-flopped. I had Posey and Braun at the top in that order. I then flip-flopped Wright and McCutchen. I had Headly where he finished. Heyward and Molina were flip-flopped. And then this is where my ballot diverged a bit I had Bourn and Ramirez in the bottom three of my ballot (we voted on 10 players). Bourn eighth because I have an obsessions with his defense (apparently not as much as David), Aaron Hill ninth and Ramirez 10th.
In the Aaron Hill vs Jay Bruce debate I'm pretty sure David is trolling. Hill was the best second basemen in the National League and Bruce was the eighth best right fielder in the National League, according to WAR.
What do you think here? Were our votes off-kilter in any way? Is this how you see the NL MVP breaking down?