Matt Kemp Is Not The MVP

With two months and a third of the season in the books, it's just about time to begin the annual debate over what the word "valuable" means in the MVP discussion. CBS Sports columnist and frequent agitator of reasonable men Jon Heyman has handed out his early-season awards, and while his choices for AL MVP (Josh Hamilton), AL Cy Young (Chris Sale), and NL Cy Young (Gio Gonzalez) are all perfectly defensible, his selection for NL MVP is not:

"1. Matt Kemp, Dodgers OF: He's played only 36 games, but what a 36 games it was. He had 12 home runs, 28 RBI, .355 batting average, .719 slugging percentage amd 1.163 OPS before going down a second time because of hamstring trouble. The Dodgers are hanging in nicely without him, but he got them off on the right foot."

First off: "getting one's team off on the right foot" is not one of the official MVP criteria. Not by any stretch of anyone's imagination.

Now: why isn't Kemp the MVP? Because while he might be the best player in the National League in 2012, he definitely hasn't been the most valuable.

The Dodgers have played in 60 games this season. Kemp has played in 36 of them. A position player cannot be a candidate for Most Valuable Player if he has only appeared in 60% of his team's games. Sure, Kemp has provided MVP value when he's been in the lineup...but he's also provided exactly ZERO value the other 40% of the time. In those games, his at-bats are being taken by Elian Herrera. That takes him out of the running for the award right now.

And it's not like Heyman is counting on Kemp to return to the lineup tomorrow or next week. He may not be back until the Dodgers have played 80 games. At that point, the season will be half-over and Kemp will have played in less than half of the maximum number of games. This player can't be the most valuable guy in the league. Lots of players have been "worse" than Kemp this year, but still have been more valuable than the Dodgers star because they actually played in baseball games this past month.

Remember: although the statistics Heyman cites for Kemp (.355/.444/.719) are amazing, they should be taken with a grain of salt because they were accumulated in 100 fewer trips to the plate than other National League stars. Joey Votto, for instance, has a similar .360/.480/.640 triple-slash line and plays an inferior defensive position, but still has accumulated far more Wins Above Replacement than Kemp (3.8 to 2.3) because, um, he's played a lot more (246 plate appearances to 144). So who else has been more valuable, according to WAR, than Kemp? Eleven players: Votto, David Wright, Michael Bourn, Martin Prado, Ryan Braun, Yadier Molina, Carlos Ruiz, Jed Lowrie, A.J. Ellis, Chase Headley, and Melky Cabrera. That group will only grow as Kemp remains stuck at 2.3 WAR for the next three weeks and he's passed by the likes of Andrew McCutchen, Giancarlo Stanton, and a bunch of others.

There is, of course, still time for Kemp to make up the lost time and mash his way to the MVP award. But at this point? Picking Matt Kemp as the MVP of the early-season? Over guys like Votto and Wright who have been just as good, far more often? Sorry, but nope. Position players have to contribute to more than 60% of their team's games to be considered the most valuable player in their league.