How badly will Ryan Braun get jobbed in the MVP voting? (Finished 2nd to Posey)

[Funketown]

Bill Hall always carried a container of flippy dippy in his back pocket.

[DocLuna7]

Bill Hall always carried a container of flippy dippy in his back pocket.

 

What is Bill Hall not capable of?

[hawing]

Ryan Dempster was far an away the league leader in flippy dippy.

 

Isn't that what Dempster calls his pre-pitch glove waggle?

That glove waggle/flippy dippy alone makes me cringe at the thought of the Brewers signing him. I can see the perfect storm forming right now:

 

Dempster signs with the Brewers

Stars cruelly align so the hawing party sees a disproportionate number of Dempster starts

hawing tries to find a way to avoid looking at the flippy dippy but on every single pitch it's hard

Flippy Dippy becomes Dempster's new nickname

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.

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profit?? or else I lose my mind.

[Patrick425]

To continue with this tangent "sub-thread", I've never really been that bothered with the Dempster glove wiggle (flippidy-floppidy). I just always assumed it was developed because he was telegraphing certain pitches with subtle glove movements and so he decided to go with an exaggerated but consistent glove movement for every pitch. I could be mistaken, but I think there are a few other MLB pitchers who do something similar for this reason.

[trwi7]

When he first started it they said it was so he didn't tip off his splitter.

[clancyphile]

I couldn't really argue with Braun or Kemp last year...or Braun or Posey this year. All deserving of the award. I thought Kemp's supposed statistical edge over Braun was overstated last year, so a virtual stat tie should go to Braun. Braun had a stat lead over Posey as well, but when factoring the park, division, position and team factor...not to mention the intangible of overcoming his injury, it's a story to feel good about. Congrats Buster, well deserved...you too Ryan, way to overcome your own adversity.

 

Haven't seen it mentioned, but how about ARam coming in 9th? Terrific season there as well. Certainly put a number of contract fears to bed with his 2012. He may be in the red in 2014, but he'll have plenty of accumulated black going into it.

 

On straight numbers, Braun should have had it over Posey.

 

That said, the Giants made the playoffs, so you have to give Posey an edge over Braun - just as the Crew in the playoffs ended up helping Braun over Kemp in 2011.

[StearnsFTW]

I think their numbers were really, really close, but Posey's a catcher. That's what wouldve put him over the top for me.

[The stache]

Their numbers weren't close, though.

 

Braun hit 17 more home runs. Scored 30 more runs. Stole 29 more bases. Drove in 9 more runs (would have been a bigger discrepancy if the Giants didn't have Melky Cabrera hitting .346 in front of him). Posey had an advantage in average and OBP.

 

Braun was a finalist for the gold glove. Posey was not.