Jon Heyman's Balderdash, Take Two

What the living fuckeroo? From today's column:

I liked where Prince Fielder said he "respected the Brewers scale.'' Fielder was talking about pay scale, but still, I never expected Fielder to say anything nice about a scale. Anyway, I do agree with him that $670,000 is awfully cheap when you consider Ryan Howard was renewed at $900,00 by the Phillies the year before. The Brewers admitted they'd have paid more if Fielder won MVP, as if third in the final voting was his fault (Jimmy Rollins and Matt Holliday finished one and two because their teams made it to October, not because they outplayed Fielder).

For starters, it's wholly unclear how the hell you could argue that Fielder was a better MVP candidate than Albert Pujols, a player at the exact same position who had better numbers for the entire year and is leaps and bounds a better fielder than Sir Prince. Hell, it's arguable that Ryan Howard was better than Fielder. And Pujols' team didn't make the playoffs either, so if you're going to harp on the idea that not making the playoffs is fatal to an MVP candidacy, then aren't they both in the same boat? (Unless we're now grading for how far out you finished, at which point I just fucking give up.)

But let's return to the more fun quote therein: "as if third in the final voting was his fault". Explicitly, Messr. Heyman acknowledges that it's not one person's doing to make the playoffs, and that 24+ other players contribute to the entirety of making the postseason, and that you can only judge a player on what he's done. Hallelujah! Praise the lord! He's seen the light!

Except it's directly contrary to his reasoning for voting for Jimmy Rollins, which includes the nebulous bullshit of "leadership" and reliance on his teammates to beat out Fielder, et.al. This makes zero sense. Jon, just admit what's plain and obvious here: you voted for the best storyline, which is Rollins and the Phillies overtaking the choking Mets. And that's fine for voting for best story. It's utter horseshit for the MVP vote.

And people wonder why our generation hates the mainstream media.

I'm sorry, the last thing I want to do is make this site into a FJM clone. But in the words of Walter Sobchack, my buddies did not die face down in the muck so this baloney can get written.

More on our inane league in the coming days.