Respect

BRANDON CRAWFORD has finished fourth in the National League MVP voting, behind Bryce Harper (now a two-time winner), Juan Soto, and Fernando Tatis jr. Quite stellar company to keep, especially when you consider that Crawford is five years older than Harper and a decade older than the two young superstars. Crawford received four first-place votes, which is especially sweet considering the level of competition. 

Looking at Win Shares (on the billjamesonline.com site) we see there's a three-way tie at the top of the league between Harper, Soto, and.... Brandon Crawford, all of whom have 31 Win Shares. Tatis is just down the list with "only" 28. Win Shares are directly proportional to team wins, adjusted for park and league context, and thus don't measure against a moving, some would say elusive, target the way WAR does.

Harper's total of 31 Win Shares in the context of Philadelphia's 82 wins is tremendous, but Soto's 31 for a team that won only 65 is staggering, reminiscent of Steve Carlton's 27 pitching wins for the 1972 Phillies who finished 59-97. Crawford's 31 WS among the Giants' 107 wins is simply MVP-worthy in any season, and we're pleased the voters recognized it, and recognized the best shortstop in the major leagues.

We just finished compiling the comparative stats for the Giants-Dodgers division series, and Crawford's 31 WS lead everyone. He had more than both Turners, Corey Seager, Walker Buehler, Max Scherzer, or even the injured Max Muncy.  At 34, after 11 seasons, he is just entering the phase of his career where totals start to accumulate. He's about 800 hits shy of 2000 right now, he just won his fourth Gold Glove and could win his second Silver Slugger, and he's been on three All-Star teams. This is by far his highest MVP vote total (he was 12th in 2016, his only other appearance). Among shortstops he ranks 68th all-time by the JAWS method. Two more outstanding years would go a long way toward building his career reputation beyond San Francisco, where he stands about tenth or eleventh among all SF Giants (we haven't updated the totals with 2021 data yet; it's coming), and of course, number one at shortstop. Right now Travis Jackson, George Davis, and Art Fletcher stand ahead of him in career WAR as Giants shortstops; all of those greats, of course, played for the New York Giants well before World War II. 

But career totals will have to wait for a career to finish, and if there's one thing we wish for Brandon Crawford in addition to the well-earned respect he's finally received as a MVP finalist, it's a few more outstanding seasons as the shortstop for Our Team, and a long way to go to that finish line.