Hall of Fame Voting: should it be correlated to MVP/CY?

Hall of Fame Voting: should it be correlated to MVP/CY?

by

Kenneth Matinale

Last updated: Jan. 3, 2011

Bert Blyleven answering fan questions
March 4, 2011, ESPN the Weekend
By Jeff Kern via Wikimedia Commons

Bert Blyleven’s impending election to the Hall of Fame caused me to notice the disconnect between the annual voting for Most Valuable Player (MVP) and Cy Young (CY) awards and the fifteen year period in which the same organization votes on candidates for the Hall of Fame.  This is especially true for the Cy Young award, which is not confused by the MVP calculus in which a player must play for a good, but not too good, a team, with some good, but not too good, teammates; a sort of inverse correlation.  The best player is the most valuable, period.  The voters seem to have a never ending and losing battle with this obvious and basic concept.  The Cy Young award goes to the best pitcher in the league, period.
All that voting is done by the Baseball Writers' Association of America.
Why this group does not police itself is a mystery but why hasn’t anyone asked about this previously?
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