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 More Giants NewsOne strange name included in the MVP voting was San Francisco middle reliever Jeremy Affeldt. He was included as a 10th place vote by Mercury News beat writer Andrew Baggerly. 'OK, this is my ?sore thumb? vote. And no, I can?t really make an airtight case for Affeldt, a middle reliever, as the 10th most valuable player in the league. Especially when I don?t have Tim Lincecum, or any other pitcher for that matter, on my ballot. (Without glancing at Win Shares, I?d have to believe there are many pitchers who rank way above Affeldt.) In choosing Affeldt, I also bypassed several other worthy candidates. For instance, have you noticed there isn?t a single Dodger on my ballot? But hey, this is my ?prerogative? vote. If it were a three- or even five-slot ballot, I wouldn?t dream of making a ?statement? with my final selection. But this is a ballot that goes 10-deep, we all knew Pujols would win in a landslide, and there?s really no impact anyone can make with their final selection. So I think it?s completely harmless to give a tip of the cap to the relief pitcher who had the lowest ERA in the league while appearing almost exclusively in highly leveraged situations. Affeldt was an MVP in the bullpen, all right. He didn?t allow a run from May 8 to July 24 ? posting 27 scoreless innings over 28 games. He did his job ? a job of ever-increasing dependency ? better than anyone else in the NL, and given all the close games the Giants played, he made a huge impact in their final 88-win record. |
