MLB News: NL MVP Announced, Dontrelle Willis Signed by Reds

Author:: Sports Nickel
Publish date:: Nov 23, 2010

1. Joey Votto wins NL MVP: On the Monday of the week of the Thanksgiving, the Most Valuable Player Award in the National League has been announced. No surprise, to me, who won the 2010 ...

Coming in second place was Albert Pujols who had 279 votes total. In third place, Carlos Gonzalez received 240 votes. Adrian Gonzalez came in fourth with 197 votes received and coming in fifth, receiving 132 votes, was Troy Tulowitzki. Roy Halladay was the top rated pitcher, who received 130 votes and finished in sixth position. I think that Votto deserves the award because he had the best season in the National League (if you look at OPS+) as well as being the most valuable player to the Cincinnati Reds’ team this year. Without Votto, the Reds are not anywhere near the division title. Votto led the league in OPS+, led the league in OPS, led the league in slugging percentage as well as on-base-percentage. Joey Votto is clearly the Most Valuable Player in the National League and deserving of the award.

2. Reds sign Dontrelle Willis: The Cincinnati Reds have decided that they needed to add some more depth to their pitching core and have found that depth in a pitcher who just doesn’t seem to be on key as of late in Dontrelle Willis.

<a href="http://sportsnickel.com/2010/11/22/%3Cp%3E%3Ca%20%20data-cke-saved-href=" http:="" sportsnickel.com="" wp-content="" uploads="" 2010="" 11="" joey-votto.jpg"="" target="_blank">Willis has not been good in his eight-year MLB career and he is only 28 years old. Last year, he had a 5.62 ERA in 65 2/3 innings pitched with the Diamondbacks and Tigers walking more batters than he struck out. He walked 56 batters and struck out 47 batters. What is amazing is that he has walked more batters than struck out in each season he has pitched since 2007, the year the Marlins traded him to Detroit. Willis had an ERA+ of 76 overall last year, which is downright terrible. Throughout the eight seasons that he has spent in the majors, he had a 4.12 earned run average, a WHIP of 1.428 (1.949 WHIP in 2010 which shows you how terrible he really was). He has a career ERA+ of 102, which is showing that he is an above average pitcher for his career, but nothing spectacular. Those numbers are definitely swung up a little bit because of the numbers he posted in his first four season in the big leagues from 2003 until 2006 with the Florida Marlins. I guess the Reds seem like they can turn Willis around.

11/22/10 MLB News and Notes: NL MVP Announced is a post originally from: SportsNickel.com - In Sports We Trust

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