Who is your Orioles MVP this year?

[glenn__davis]

How can anyone say JJ? It's great that he leads the league in saves, but lets not forget that it's the rest of the team who affords him those opportunities by taking the lead in close games. I agree he's playing at an elite level, and it's nice being confident we're not going to blow a 1 run lead 95% of the time, but still... It's gotta be a starter or an everyday player imop.

I'm hesitant to give to a reliever as well, but no one else has stepped up enough IMO to earn it over Johnson.

It is not the number of saves, I could care less about that. It's the mentality that he completely shuts the door when he's in. There's no putting tons of people on base and just scooting by. It's 1-2-3. So different from closers past, and I think instills a tremendous amount of confidence in the club.

In August, with this team in a pennant race, he's allowed 0 runs, 3 hits, 0 walks in 10 IP. 8 of his 10 appearances have been 3-up, 3-down. I think that level of dominance really trancends to the rest of the team.

[canonfaz]

I would go with Jones. He's the backbone of our lineup and is the leader of the team. He has cooled down some recently, but he's still playing well and contributing. Really though an argument could be made for a lot of guys on this team.

[Trackmaster]

Strop. He has a much lower ERA than Johnson, and he doesn't have the limitation of pitching in arbitrary 9th inning situations with nobody on base. We're able to use his lights out ability in situations where men are already on base, thus maximizing the value of his innings, and lowering runs more than the closer.

Either that or Adam Jones. But nobody on this team really stands out that much.

[ADZ23]

Gregg, followed closely by Jones

Nobody stands out though.

[OFFNY]

.

We also get to see how valuable a player is when they aren't playing.

We all saw how valuable Markakis was on both offense and defense when he went down for a month and-a-half.

In the past, we missed Brian Roberts a lot in 2010 and 2011.

Even though Wieters has had a couple of major slumps on offense this year, on the days when he isn't catching, I get a feeling of "Oh man, I hope that we can somehow muddle through and win this game without him behind the plate." Obviously, that's not empirical evidence just because I have felt that way about the days that we've had Teagarden, Exposito, and Paulino behind the plate, but I suspect that I have a lot of company in that area.

[El Gordo]

My vote goes to the Orange Curtain.

[The Maestro]

It's a toss up between Jim Johnson and Wei-Yin Chen for me.

[Mr Snuffleupagus]

I'm hesitant to give to a reliever as well, but no one else has stepped up enough IMO to earn it over Johnson.

It is not the number of saves, I could care less about that. It's the mentality that he completely shuts the door when he's in. There's no putting tons of people on base and just scooting by. It's 1-2-3. So different from closers past, and I think instills a tremendous amount of confidence in the club.

In August, with this team in a pennant race, he's allowed 0 runs, 3 hits, 0 walks in 10 IP. 8 of his 10 appearances have been 3-up, 3-down. I think that level of dominance really trancends to the rest of the team.

I simply think Jim Johnson is more easily replaced than Chen, and thus, voted for Chen.

There are at least 12 (of 30) ML closers I could replace JJ with that would have netted us the same results JJ has.

-Rodney

-Hanrahan

-Perez

-Soriano

-Chapman

-Motte

-Kimbrel

-Papelbon

-Clippard

-Nathan

-Jansen

-Betancourt

Plus a slew of setup guys I would have taken my chances with (IE - Strop).

[canonfaz]

Wieters should get a few more votes in this thread than he has, probably. I don't think he's the MVP, but he's back there calling good games and being a leader and asking to be in the games.

I agree with this. If I were to give votes on 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place for MVO. I would vote this way:

1st: Adam Jones

2nd: Matt Wieters

3rd: Jim Johnson

[Moose Milligan]

Wieters should get a few more votes in this thread than he has, probably. I don't think he's the MVP, but he's back there calling good games and being a leader and asking to be in the games.

He's also got a lethal throwing arm from back there. I love trying to watch people steal bases on him.

[Pickles]

My ballot would probably be

1) Chen- I don't know if I'd say he's been more valuable than Jones, but he's been more valuable to this team, because of the rotatational flux.

2) Jones- He's cooled off, but he carried us for a while. He could still surpass Chen imo w a big Sept.

3) Markakis- The offense is night and day different w him in the lineup. For those that poo-pooed his loss earlier, I hope they see now what he brings to the table. If he hadn't been out for 6 weeks, he'd probably be in the 1 spot for me.

4) Johnson- The bullpen in total should be probably get the award; JJ is the representative of the pen, as the closer and best pitcher in it, so I put him here, but I can't put him over everyday players and our only consistent starter.

5) Wieters- Not having a great year w the bat but brings a lot to the table besides that.

[glenn__davis]

I simply think Jim Johnson is more easily replaced than Chen, and thus, voted for Chen.

There are at least 12 (of 30) ML closers I could replace JJ with that would have netted us the same results JJ has.

-Rodney

-Hanrahan

-Perez

-Soriano

-Chapman

-Motte

-Kimbrel

-Papelbon

-Clippard

-Nathan

-Jansen

-Betancourt

Plus a slew of setup guys I would have taken my chances with (IE - Strop).

And there aren't 12 starting pitchers you could replace Chen with? I don't understand that argument.

For the record, Chen would be my second choice.

[Mr Snuffleupagus]

And there aren't 12 starting pitchers you could replace Chen with? I don't understand that argument.

For the record, Chen would be my second choice.

It's relative. 12 of 30 is 40% of the people that play his position.

I don't think you could replace Chen with 20% of the starting pitchers out there, let alone 40% of them.

[glenn__davis]

It's relative. 12 of 30 is 40% of the people that play his position.

I don't think you could replace Chen with 20% of the starting pitchers out there, let alone 40% of them.

Well it's not really fair to just lump Chen as a "starting pitcher" and use everyone who's a starter to come up with a percentage.

If you're going to do that, you'd have lump Johnson as a "relief pitcher" and count everyone who plays that "position".

It's just not a comparison that works.

[brianod]

If Chen, Jones or Markakis has a monster September, one of them. Otherwise, JJ. It's chic to say closers don't matter. It's popular to say anyone can pitch the last inning and that the closer role isn't even necessary. Sometimes ideas like that take hold and get carried too absurd levels. All you have to do is think back to 1 1/2 years of Gregg to realize how silly that is. Right now, I say JJ but it's too close to call