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Message: [QUOTE="JonathanXIV, post: 4010627, member: 9217"] I think this, in my view, needless debate, between "best player" and "MVP" stems from the origin of the MLB MVP award. The award began in 1911 as the Chalmers Award, honoring the "most important and useful player to the club and to the league". This award was discontinued in 1914. From 1922 to 1928 in the American League and from 1924 to 1929 in the National League, an MVP award was given to "the baseball player who is of the greatest all-around service to his club". Starting in 1931, the Baseball Writers Association began awarding the MVP. Their voting criteria is the same now as it was in 1931. It is as follows: 1. Actual value of a player to his team, that is, strength of offense and defense. 2. Number of games played. 3. General character, disposition, loyalty and effort. 4. Former winners are eligible. 5. Members of the committee may vote for more than one member of a team. I think that the references to "club" and value to "team" have led to a conversation among voters as to distinguishing between the concept of "valuable" versus "best." Which is why some will argue that one can't be the MVP if they are not on a winning team (how can you be "valuable" if your team is losing). I will never understand the argument that a player can't contribute "value" to a poor team. It seems pretty obvious that the team would be a lot worse without that player. I think all of this misses the point. The inclusion of the word "value," as in "value of a player" better defines it. Simply put, the best player contributes the most to a team winning. The relatively new concept of "win shares" puts a numerical value to this basic, common sense concept. Let's stop overthinking it. The best play is the "most valuable." No need to try and split hairs between "best" and "valuable." Otherwise, let's just redefine MVPs as the best player with other good players on his/her team. Finally, back to the original point. I think by almost any criteria, Paige was the best and most valuable player in WCBB last year. [/QUOTE]

Verification: First name of men's bb coach

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