Brewers’ Ryan Braun outrivals Dodgers’ Matt Kemp to win the NL MVP Award – MLB News
Ryan Braun became the first Milwaukee Brewers on Tuesday, November 22 to win the National League Most Valuable Player Award since 1989 when Robin Yount exhilaratingly attained this feat. His close competitor, the Los Angeles Dodgers’ Matt Kemp, was outrivaled
in the voting.
One of the most closely fought battles for winning the Most Valuable Player Award, as Braun got 20 of 32 first place votes from American Writers’ Association, outnumbering Matt Kemp who gleaned 10 first-place votes. While Braun had a total of 388 points,
Kemp had 332 in his favour.
Being in a league with the likes of Prince Fielder, who came third in this competition having 229 votes, Braun resplendently shone throughout 2011 with 33 home-runs, having had an average of .332 with 111 RBIs to his credit and 33 stolen bases.
The achievement was a momentous event for Braun in his professional career; especially when he had far more experienced rivals to compete with. He described it as a dream that came true.
"It sounds cliché to say that I'm living the dream, but this really is a dream," Braun said. "This is beyond my wildest dreams, to be in this position at this point in my career. I'm proud."
Braun, in his excitement, stated that it would take him a while before he comes to terms of what the award actually means to him.
"It's going to take a while to come to terms of what this actually means for me," Braun said. "It's an incredibly prestigious award and a special group of guys to be mentioned with. Whenever you win an award like this, forever next to your name it will say,
'MVP.'"
The Milwaukee Brewers, thanks to some great performances of the players, won 96 games this year. Although they could not qualify for the World Series, making their way into the post-season games to fight with the likes of the St. Louis Cardinals was a huge
accomplishment.
What gave Braun an advantage over Matt Kemp, who finished second for MVP race, was that it was Brewers victories and the Los Angeles Dodgers inability to make it to the playoffs.
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