Off-Topic Forum

Counterpoint

Some sportwriters have readily acknowledged that they may not pay attention to the national game. Some are ambivilent to anything, but their city and/or division. That is their primary job after all, not the national game as a whole. Note, that I said SOME, not all and does not apply to everyone, and they should be looking at the big picture. Look at the HOF voting. How many don't vote/vote badly just because of some whimsical whatever they have.

Note: By national game, I'm covering both the US and Canada here.

Luckyday wrote:

All of the things you're stating apply to nearly every team in the MLB, including the Angels.

- Prime time games in the USA feature almost entirely the Yankees, Mets, Red Sox, and Braves.   There are 26 other teams including the Angels and Jays that are rarely on Prime Time. 

The Angels had three ESPN games this year that weren't West Coast starts (10pm basically).   NOBODY watches west coast baseball in this country.  The ratings in those games are miniscule.  They barely even watch the football games that start at 10pm.

The Jays have two prime time ESPN games, one is next week during the MVP stretch.

- A baseball beat reporter who covers any team in the league outside of the Angels/Jays sees both players the same amount.  To say that a guy/gal who watches 162 games a year as part of their JOB is unfamiliar with Vlad is crazy, especially considering both players are in the AL, so every reporter is seeing each player equally outside of a few interleague matchups.

The argument doesn't  hold water because you seem to be saying at the same time that the general public (who doesn't vote) sees Vlad play less but would be more likely to vote for him if they had the chance. And that baseball reporters don't know baseball outside of their own teams and what highlights are shown on TV (which is just not true).

sandyrusty wrote:

To Tscastle and Luckyday, history shows evidence of baseball palyers in Canada having less recognition for their achievements over the course of a season when it comes to voting for Cy Young and MVP awards.  Doesn't matter where reporters live and the proximity of any MLB franchise, the majority watch American televised games.  When was the last time the Blue Jays played in prime time on a major US television network? Till recently, when did the Blue Jays game highlights make the first five minutes of any US Sports network news show? Guerrero Jr. has probably started being highlighted a bit more frequently on sports highlight reels in the last couple of weeks but I am sure that most of the season anything he did was buried in the last minutes of any sports news casts or fell on the floor of the editing room.

Having travelled to the States for many years (former military), I often got to watch American sports news shows in the morning after a slate of games.  The Blue Jays were often barely mentioned no matter where they were in the standings unless they were playing one of the big-market teams.

I am not saying that real sports / baseball fans don't know what he has done but I am saying that in all but one city, the reporters voting know more about Ohtani's season than they do about Guerrero's season. Now if the fans were the ones to vote, he would have a better chance of winning the recognition he deserves.

That's exactly what I'm saying.  I think the idea that a sports reporter for a specific team, whose job is to watch 162 games of their own team and write about what they see, are unlikely to be swayed by Ohtani being on ESPN 1-2 times more than Vlad  in prime time during the course of the season.

I think that type of bias extends to the opinion people in the media and to some degree the general public, neither of which vote on MVP, and both of which the writers love to ignore.

Well, that RBI lead looks out of reach. Salvador Perez isn't having any of it.

He's trying to put that team on his back. Hunter Dozier seems to be inspired by his mashing teammate lately as well.

That RBI race is looking like a mountain to climb. This is why a triple crown is so rare. Odds seem long at this point.

Final update was made. It's not going to happen 

It was so close, but I guess it wasn't meant to be...