MLB Awards System is Flawed

Tis the season for awards. Several of the major baseball awards have been handed out over the past few weeks including: Rookie of the Year, Cy Young, and MVP. Several of these awards were given to a deserving candidate (i.e. AL Cy Young winner, Cliff Lee; NL MVP, Albert Pujols), others were not. The problem is a flaw in the voting system - the fact that only baseball [newspaper] writers get to vote. Don't get me wrong, there are some great writers out there: Hal McCoy, Tracy Ringolsby, and Peter Gammons, to name a few. Newspaper writers, however, are certainly not the only people knowledgeable enough about the game and its players to make informed decisions about major awards winners (and induction into the Hall of Fame). Several writers have truly exhibited their lack of knowledge, giving Reds' pitcher Edinson Volquez several votes for NL Rookie of the Year when he was not a rookie.

Think about it. It's a shame that some of the most knowledgeable people in the game, people who have been around baseball their whole life, watch it on a daily basis, and work to communicate the game to fans, do not get a chance to determine which players receive these prestigious awards. Vin Scully, Jon Miller, Bob Costas, and Karl Ravech (a man who has hosted Baseball Tonight for like 10 years) certainly know the players well enough to make such informed decisions, don't you think?