Braun endorses Posey's MVP win
Ryan Braun said the voters got it right.
The Milwaukee Brewers' star left fielder didn't come close to repeating as National League MVP, getting easily outdistanced by Buster Posey. The San Francisco catcher captured 27 of the 32 first-place votes from the Baseball Writers' Association of America, compared to only three for Braun.
Posey won the award, 422 points to 285, and Braun said he had no quarrel with the outcome.
"I think Buster Posey deserved to win," said Braun, who had the better across-the-board offensive season by far. "What he was able to accomplish this year as a catcher for a team that eventually went on to win the World Series was incredible.
"I thought he was the best player; I thought he deserved to be the MVP."
There was considerable chatter before the announcement as to whether Braun would be penalized in the balloting for his positive drug test that became public last winter. He got the result overturned on appeal but wasn't helped in the court of public opinion when Major League Baseball opposed the ruling and later fired arbitrator Shyam Das.
No voter left Braun off the 10-man ballot or placed him artificially low enough to reveal an agenda. Braun, who turns 29 on Nov. 17, received 15 second-place votes, 10 third-place votes and four fourth-place votes.
"I never focus on things out of my control," Braun said when asked about possibly being penalized by the writers. "I don't think about those things.
"I'm not oblivious to what's going on or what's been said, but aside from that, I don't spend any time thinking about those things."
Though Braun's numbers were better than Posey's, including being the only player with 40-plus homers and 30-plus steals in the majors, he said, "I thought I had a good season. I don't think I had a great season. I don't think my season was far and away better than anybody else's to the point I feel like I deserved an award that I didn't get."
Braun batted .319 with a league-leading 41 homers, 112 RBI and 30 steals. Posey led the league with a .336 average, and he had 24 homers and 103 RBI.
