On Monday and Tuesday, the Baseball Writers Association of America handed out the most prestigious player awards in baseball: the MVP Awards. This year, the American League winner was Detroit Tigers pitcher Justin Verlander, while the National League version went to Milwaukee Brewers left fielder Ryan Braun.

Now, sometimes the choices for MVP are so obvious that there is little or no debate—like 2004, when Barry Bonds was about twice as good as anyone else in the game (though, yes, he was probably cheating). This year, however, there is more than enough room for lively debate. In fact, most years there is room for debate.

So on that note, how about we do some debating? Here’s my take on the biggest MVP snubs in the history of the award. What do you think?

9. Ozzie Smith (1987)

This first point is the one that requires the most explanation, so bear with me.

Andre Dawson won the National League MVP award in 1987 because he hit 49 home runs. And while 49 home runs sounds impressive, you really have to look at the context.

For example, usually, when a guy hits a ton of home runs, he has a lot of walks and a high on-base percentage. In 1987, Dawson walked only 32 times, and his OBP was a below average .328, which is just plain weird.

Moreover, by 1987 the formerly speedy outfielder had slowed down tremendously. At the height of his career with the Expos, Dawson was recording over 400 put-outs a year in various outfield positions. In his MVP year, he made only 271. In other words, the Hawk had become a defensive liability.

This last fact probably explains why his WAR (Wins Above Replacement)* was a league-avereage 2.7.

Now, I think Ozzie Smith got snubbed in 1987. He was the best defensive player of his generation (at any position), and 1987 also happens to be his finest offensive year (he batted .302/.392/.383, and scored 104 runs). Smith’s WAR was 7.1, which is obviously much better than Dawson’s 2.7. Yet Smith finished #2 in MVP balloting.

Still, you could also make the case for Cincinnati’s Eric Davis or Atlanta’s Dale Murphy. Davis had a WAR of 8.0 and hit 37 home runs; Murphy had a WAR of 8.0 and smacked 44 long balls.

No offensive to Andre Dawson, how had a great year, but he was not the National League’s most valuable player in 1987.

*This stat more or less adds all of a player’s stats together to figure out how big a contribution the various aspects of his game (defensive and offensive) make to his team. Above 2 is what you expect from a typical MLB starter. Above 5 and the guy is probably an All-Star. When you get to 8 or so, you’re generally an MVP candidate. It’s not a scientifically precise stat; it’s really just a broad indicator. But it works.

8. Don Mattingly (1986) – instead of Roger Clemens

Roger Clemens won the AL MVP in 1986. Until Verlander won on Monday, it was the last time a starting pitcher won the award.

Here’s the problem. Clemens had a good year, but not an historic year. His 2.48 ERA was excellent, but this wasn’t the steroid era yet. Maybe if Clemens had a 1.12 ERA like Gibson did in 1968 when he won the MVP, then that would merit discussion. But he didn’t.

Most importantly, Clemens appeared in 33 games for his team. How can a guy be the most valuable player when he can only affect the outcome of 20% of the games?

Meanwhile, Don Mattingly of the Yankees played in all 162 games (100%) and batted .352/.394/.537 with 31 home runs. That’s a monster year. Mattingly was robbed.

7. Jose Bautista (2011)

All that stuff I just said about Clemens in 1986? Ditto that for Justin Verlander this year. Like Clemens, Verlander appeared in about 20% of his team’s games and had an excellent but hardly historic 2.40 ERA.

What did Jose Bautista do? He led the league in WAR (8.5), OPS (1.056), and home runs (43). He had hall of fame offensive numbers in a year in which pitching and defense dominated. Still, somehow, he finished 3rd in MVP balloting.

Kind of silly.

6. Frank Thomas (1992)

The only thing stupider than a starting pitcher winning the MVP (with excellent but not-historic numbers is a relief pitcher winning the MVP with excellent but not-historic numbers.

Well, welcome to 1992. The beautifully mustachioed Dennis Eckersley had a great year racking up saves for the dominant Oakland A’s that season. He had 51 of them, and was just lights out. But the dude pitched 80 innings. Eight. Zero. In other words, he played in just 5.4% of his team’s games. At least Verlander pitched 251 this year.

Then there was Frank Thomas, one of the greatest hitters of all time. In 1992, he led all position players in WAR with a 7.6, hitting .323/.439/.536 with 24 home runs and 115 runs batted in.

Fortunately, the next year the baseball writers realized their oversight. (Mesmerized by Eckersley’s mustache, probably.) Thomas actually did win the MVP in 1993 and 1994.

5. Dave Winfield (1979)

The NL had co-MVPs in 1979. One was St. Louis’ Keith Hernandez, who had a WAR of 7.2 while batting .344/.417/.513. That was a fantastic year, so I’ve got no beef with that.

The other NL winner, however, was Pittsburgh’s Willie Stargell, who had an embarrassingly low WAR of 2.3 and seems was voted co-MVP simply because of the strange way in which points are awarded on the ballot. Hernandez had 10 1st place votes. Stargell had 4. But Stargell obviously had a lot of 2nd and/or 3rd place votes, which bumped his point total up.

You know who got the shaft? Dave Winfield of the Padres. He had the highest WAR in the league (8.4) thanks to the fact that he hit a whopping .308/.395/.558 with 34 home runs. He had the same number of 1st place votes as Stargell, but finished third. That had to hurt.

4. Mickey Mantle (1955)

Yogi Berra was AL MVP in 1955. Now, he is one of the all-time great Yankees, and it’s definitely hard to quantify the defensive contributions of a catcher. But in 1955, Berra’s teammate Mickey Mantle had a season for ages both in the field and at the plate. He led the league in WAR with a whopping 9.5 thanks to his .306/.431/.611 (that’s a 1.042 OPS) and 37 home runs. Plus, at this point Mantle’s knees (and liver) were still in good shape, which meant he was one of the best outfielders in the league.

Maybe Berra had some special “intangibles,” and maybe he was the heart of the Yankees. But there’s no way Mantle should have been denied the MVP.

3. Lou Gehrig (1934)

So apparently, baseball writers really had a soft spot for the “intangibles” provided by catchers back in the day, because here at #3 we have yet another case of a monster offensive year being thwarted by a decent year behind the plate.

Detroit’s Michey Cochrane hit for average (.320) and got on-base at a great clip (.428) in 1934. But he didn’t hit for power (2 HRs), he didn’t drive in a ton of runs (76), and he didn’t score a ton of runs (74). So I guess his value was kind of magical.

On the other hand, Lou Gehrig was absolutely unreal that season. His WAR was a ridiculous 10.7, which makes Cochrane’s decent 4.3 seem pathetic. Gehrig hit 49 home runs and batted .363/.465/.706.

If you’ve been paying attention, Gehrig’s 1934 numbers are the best ones we’ve seen on this list so far. So, yeah, he probably should have won the MVP that year.

2. Stan Musial (1944)

Like #4, here’s another case of a tremendous player losing the MVP to an inferior teammate.

The St. Louis Cardinals’ Marty Marion won the NL MVP that year despite being a below average player offensively. He batted .267/.324/.362. Obviously, he was known for the glove, but there’s no way your defense can overcome those bad offensive stats to make you the league’s most valuable all-around player.

Marion’s teammate, Stan Musial, on the other hand, was by far the league’s best player in 1944. Everyone knew that. His WAR was 9.1, which was 3 points higher than everyone else who received MVP votes. (Marion’s WAR, by the way, was 4.0.)

All Stan the Man did in 1944 was .347/.440/.549 and play some great defense. Sure, it wasn’t Stan’s best season, but it was definitely better than everyone else that year. And it was especially better than the guy who actually won the MVP.

1. Ted Williams (1941 and 1942)

Ted Williams led the world in everything in 1941. In fact, this was probably one of the top 3 offensive seasons in the history of baseball. His average was .406 (the last time anyone hit above .400 for a season), but he also got on base over 50% of the time (.553) and slugged .735 with 37 home runs. If you’re a fan of baseball, you know those numbers are obscene. That’s why he had a league-leading WAR of 11.3.

You know why he didn’t win the MVP? Because of a not-quite-as-amazing (but still historic) season from the Yankee’s Joe DiMaggio that included an unbeatable 56 game hitting streak.

So, fine, we’ll give baseball writers a pass for 1941. But what about 1942? Ted Williams’ numbers weren’t quite as good as the previous season (how could they be?), but they were still better than anyone else’s. His WAR was a hefty 11.0, and he .356/.499/.648 with another 36 home runs. Yet for some reason a very good (but clearly inferior) Joe Gordon of the Yankees won the MVP.

The world of professional sports is probably the one place in life where being smart won’t help you get ahead. Just ask the 9 baseball players listed here. They’re probably the smartest guys in Major League Baseball, and I bet every one of them will tell you that their intelligence has more often been a hindrance than a help. That’s because in sports generally, but baseball in particular, you never want to over think a situation—which is precisely what brainiacs have the tendency to do. So they find themselves constantly struggling to keep their brains out of it and rely instead on pure instinct.

Still, every once in a while, a real smarty makes it all the way to the major leagues. So, in case you were wondering who those players might be, here’s a list of the smartest guys in baseball today.

9. Mark DeRosa (Giants)

First up is Ivy Leaguer Mark DeRosa, who graduated from the Wharton Business School at the University of Pennsylvania in 1997. While the stuck up blue-blood jackholes at Harvard and Yale tend to scoff at the idea of universities like Penn, Columbia, and Dartmouth being grouped together with them, it’s not like we’re talking about the online University of Phoenix. Penn is a damn good school. So we’re still gonna file utility-man extraordinaire DeRosa under “pretty smart guy.”

8. Craig Counsell (Brewers)

Brewers infielder Craig Counsell graduated from the greatest university in the history of this or any other world: Notre Dame. (If you think I’m overstating ND a bit, you’ve obviously never known someone who went there. I’m just reporting what I’ve been told.) However, the 41-year-old Counsell isn’t on this list just because of his academic pedigree. He is widely considered by his peers in MLB to be one of the brainiest guys around.

But it’s kind of hard to believe a guy with such a goofy batting stance isn’t a dimwit, isn’t it?

7. Miguel Batista (Mets)

This 40-year-old Dominican pitcher doesn’t have any higher learning on his résumé. So how is it he finds himself on this list of the nine smartest players in baseball? By being a published author, that’s how.

Batista has had a book of poetry entitled Sentimientos en Blanco y Negro (or Feelings in Black and White) published, as well as a thriller novel about a serial killer called The Avenger of Blood. I have no idea if these works are any good, but not just any old dummy can sit down and write a book. So for a baseball player, I’d say Miguel is of above average intelligence. Wouldn’t you?

6. Chris Young (Mets)

Chris Young went to a little private college in New Jersey called Princeton. Maybe you’ve heard of it? He was selected by the Pittsburgh Pirates (how unfortunate) in the 2000 amateur draft, but refused to sign his rookie contract until he got assurances from the club that he would be able to complete his studies. So he didn’t end up becoming a full-time pro ballplayers until after he graduated with a degree in politics in 2002. (They don’t call it “political science” at Princeton like they do everywhere else. They can get away with that because, well, they’re Princeton.) Today he’s a pretty respectable no. 4 or no. 5 starting pitcher.

5. Fernando Perez (Mets)

Okay, Fernando here isn’t technically a Major Leaguer at the moment. He’s playing for the Met’s Triple-A affiliate, the Buffalo Bisons. But he has played 41 games at an outfielder in the majors and is always just a hot streak away from making it back to the show. Also, he graduated from Columbia University with a degree in creative writing and has had work published in Poetry Magazine. So as far as I’m concerned, he counts. Deal with it.

4. Kevin Slowey (Twins)

Now we’re getting to the cream of the crop.

Kevin Slowey here is a 27-year-old starting pitcher for the Minnesota Twins. He didn’t attend a prestigious national university like some of the guys on this list, opting instead for a free ride at the academically solid Winthrop University in South Carolina. What sets Slowey apart, though, is the fact that he scored an exceptional 1420 on his SATs. That’s enough to get you into Harvard or Yale (if your dad is rich).

3. Chris Carter (Braves)

Wow, Chris Carter is a big-time overachiever in the classroom. He was pre-med at Stanford (“the Harvard of the west coast”) and graduated in only three years. Needless to say, that is one hell of an accomplishment. Unfortunately, it’s been hit or miss (mostly miss) for this utility man in the Majors. Like #5 Perez, Chris is currently hanging out in the minors; however, he did manage to play in 100 games and get 180 plate appearances last year for the Mets. Though with all of their injuries in 2010, the Met’s were not much better than a minor league team.

2. Craig Breslow (Athletics)

The top two guys are really hard to rank. Both have reputations around baseball as being total brainiacs. So coming in at #2 is Oakland A’s pitcher Craig Breslow. Most publications seem to put this Yale molecular biophysics and biochemistry grad at #1, but not me. For one thing, you can’t be fooled by a fancy sounding academic discipline. Just because something has a lot syllables doesn’t mean it’s better than everything else. More importantly, George W. Bush is also a graduate of Yale. And no matter what you think of W’s politics, you have to admit he doesn’t exactly come off as a scholar. (I’m pretty sure that’s why people like him, isn’t it?)

Still, Breslow is one hell of a smart guy. So hats off to him.

1. Ross Ohlendorf (Pirates)

At #1, I went with a guy whose college major involved a hell of a lot of pure mathematics. I’m talking of course about Pirates’ pitcher Ross Ohlendorf, who majored in Operations Research and Financial Engineering at Princeton. His senior thesis—which he completed while actually playing in the Arizona Diamondbacks’ farm system in 2006—used sabermetric statistical analysis to come up with a theory for the rate of return on investments made in the MLB draft. Today teams actually use his theories to determine how they should allocate their money. That’s pretty freaking awesome if you ask me.

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Most of the time, that’s what die-hards like about the game. It gives them time to think and enjoy the company of their friends. But sometimes, even the most patient souls might get a little bored, especially if they’re actually at the game and can’t flip channels to see what The Bachelor is up to.

The Texas Rangers understand. So they hired this guy: BBoy McCoy, the Texas Rangers’ breakdancing batboy.

Of course, they call him a “batboy,” but I didn’t see him picking up any bats.

Still, I’m getting pretty tired of those bubbly girls in short-shorts who come around and shoot t-shirts out of a cannon (because I never get a t-shirt). I would love it if my local MLB franchise replaced them with a breakdancing batboy. Just keep the announcers away from the dancing.

The official is reporting carpel tunnel syndrome symptoms from constantly having to raise the radar gun and push the button for every pitch.

If you have watched any of the Group  B action I am sure you will have noticed the snazzy dressed, almost mobster looking type fellow in the backdrop constantly raising his radar gun to clock pitch speeds.

“The gun is very heavy to be lifting it over 250 times a night in hot Mexican weather. All I want is a tri-pod, just like the other stadium officials have” said the official through a translator.

Mexican officials are looking into the situation, and hope to get the man a tripod by the 2013 World Baseball Classic.

Reports have surfaced in the NY Daily News out of Brooklyn that Ilya Dall the ex-girlfriend of Roberto Alomar is suing him for $15 million for having sex with her while knowing that he might have AIDS.

As we write this we are still in shock and can’t believe this news. Can this be true, does All Star Robbie Alomar have Aids?

Ilya Dall lived with Alomar for for 3 years and said she watched in horror as his health worsened over that time.  On February 15th 2006 the couple went to see a disease specialist who discovered a mass in his chest.  Alomar’s skin had turned purple, he was foaming at the mouth and a spinal tap “showed he had full-blown AIDS,” the suit says.

In 2004, Dall says she noticed cold sores in his mouth. In 2005, after a physical exam ordered by the Tampa Bay Rays, he was diagnosed with thrombocytopenia purpura, a blood disorder sometimes linked to HIV, she claims.

The doctor told him to have an HIV test and he refused, she says, stating he had been tested and was AIDS-free.

His lawyer, Charles Bach, would not say whether Alomar is HIV-positive. “We believe this is a totally frivolous lawsuit. These allegations are baseless,” Bach said. “He’s healthy and would like to keep his health status private. We’ll do our talking in court.”

The scary part of this whole law suit comes when Roberto Alomar states that when he was 17 he was raped by 2 Mexican men.

In April 2005, Alomar told Dall he was suffering from erectile dysfunction and confided “he was raped by two Mexican men after playing a ballgame in New Mexico or a Southwestern state when he was 17,” the suit says.

Lost for words we will just have to wait and see what transpires from this whole situation.

Nothing really knocked us off our feet today as we scrolled through all the games. We have to remind all you gamblers out there, “Dont play if there is nothing you like”. Gamblers often think that they have to get involved in a game even if they dont really like anything. Ask yourself “Are you placing a wager for fun or are you doing it to make money?”.

Todays pick were taking the Arizona Diamondbacks (-240). The pitching matchup - Indians Webb (9-2, 3.01) vs Nationals Bergmann (1-1, 4.50). We rarley like to get involved in games were we have to lay 2.4-1 on our wager but how can we resist the Diamondbacks. They have lost 5 straight, they play a horrible team in the Nationals and their ace of the staff Brandon Webb is pitching tonight. We will recommend this be very careful tonight as this is a huge line dont risk the house or anything, risk enough were if u do lose it won’t hurt you. Remember that you are gambling against the house, and they always seem to have the edge on us.

Pitching Notes

• Webb is 2-2 with a 3.89 ERA in six career appearances – five starts – against the Nationals franchise
• Bergmann has made three starts against the Diamondbacks, going 0-1 with a 6.59 ERA

Betting Trends – Brought to you by BetUs.com

WASHINGTON NATIONALS

• Washington is 2-7 SU in its last 9 games when playing Arizona

ARIZONA DIAMONDBACKS

• Arizona is 0-5 SU in its last 5 games
• Arizona is 1-5 SU in its last 6 games at home
• Arizona is 7-2 SU in its last 9 games when playing Washington

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