It's official: the 2010 NL MVP winner is Cincinnati Reds slugger Joey Votto. The first baseman topped St. Louis Cardinals star Albert Pujols in a rout, picking up 31 of a possible 32 votes in a landslide victory.
We are not here to nitpick at Votto winning. He is a deserving candidate. Instead, we will nitpick at something else: Ryan Zimmerman finishing 16th. The Nationals' third baseman was outstanding this year, but he still somehow finished behind guys like Martin Prado, Ryan Howard (who wasn't even as good as Adam Dunn), Scott Rolen, Buster Posey (a rookie!) and Brian Wilson (a closer!). Nobody is suggesting that Zimmerman should win, of course, but in light of the voters getting it right and making Felix Hernandez the AL Cy Young winner despite playing on a terrible team, we should point out that they got it wrong in having Zimmerman that far down the list.
Adam Kilgore of the Washington Post summed it up better than anyone:
Ryan Zimmerman: 3rd in NL WAR(FG), 7th in OPS+, 4th in UZR, 16th in MVP. Everyone can take back what they said about Felix winning Cy. #Nats
Zimmerman got two seventh-place votes, an eighth-place vote, two ninth-place votes and three 10th-place votes. Teammate Adam Dunn finished in a tie for 21st with Brian McCann, picking up one seventh-place vote, one ninth-place vote and three 10th-place votes.