There is a Flaw in the system!

JavaJoe, it has always been very political and sadly always will be. The very people who proclaim to be "in it for the kids" will continue to make their back room deals. There is nothing that can be done about it so you just have to chalk it up as a valuable lesson learned for the kids.

 

Well, when they do it "for the kids" that's one thing; and not that bad. But when they do it mainly because they might have an issue with a particular team or coach that's not good.

When ALL the votes except one are identical that makes it a little suspicious.

One could say let's just go by the stats, but then there would be the suspect scorekeeping.

I kind of like John Wooden's view that there is no individual worth more than the team; not even in softball. If you want to be the MVP or POY don't join a team.

If you're terribly disappointed that you're not the POY maybe you need to re-think what it means to be a team player.

The very best thing that can happen at this point in time is to honor the POY (and the other players) by not belittling the POY's accomplishment!

 

Just so everyone know's where I am coming from. The player who did not get POY is not bummed out about it. She know's the player who won the award and from what I understood had played on the same travel ball team before. The parent, from my understanding has a lot of friends on this web site and was extremely satisfied with her production, but also was not concerned about the POY. I on the other hand was upset with how the voting went when I found out how it was scored. I am not taking anything away from the player who won. She is a very good player and had a good season. The girl who lost had an extremely very high batting avg, OB%, runs scored, SB. She is a very fast player (slapper). I have been informed by the parent to tone it down a bit. It was not my intention to belittle the player who won, but just to point out that there are flaws in the voting system.

 

Who won it??????????

 

I am not going to say who won as both teams have the opportunity to go deep into the playoffs. They do not need any extra pressure because of my me. I said my peace on this thread and will now let it drop.

 

I'm not following your logic. If you think by putting the name out there would create extra pressure why would you start the thread? Why has the POY already been choosen when the season is still going on?

 

The flaw in this thread is contained in the title

There is no "system" people! These "All" teams are only loosely associated with performance at any level. I attended a Division 1 conference tournament this weekend in which the pitcher who won most games in the tournament was not named to the all tournament team. Why? Because the formula for selection was a quota system (winner names 4 players, runner up 3 and so on) and the pitcher's coach decided to name three seniors. Perfectly defensible, but had opponent coaches voted the pitcher would almost certainly have been selected.

Same thing holds for team MVP's if players vote for the selection. Fact is in softball the MVP of almost any successful team is likely the pitcher. Because of the nature of our game it's almost impossible for any position player to be anywhere near as important as the pitcher. If you don't understand that you should go the the soccer board. However, the pitcher often is not selected because the truth is the other players often can't relate to what she does and/or don't like the fact that the pitcher gets all the attention any way.

Bottom line is if you expect "All Teams" to reflect objective contributions you're doomed to a life of frustration.

 

Some conferences have a Player of the Year and a separate Pitcher of the Year. Otherwise, like you said, it would most likely be the pitcher who got MVP.

Most of the time I suspect the Pitcher of the Year would be from the conference champs. Same with Coach of the Year. But there are exceptions.

 

I don't know who she lost out to but if its a pitcher, I can see why. My DD is a slapper with a very high batting average. Her high school team never gets to the playoffs because they have no pitching.