Matt Kemp: Ryan Braun should lose ’11 MVP
By Mike Dyce
Los Angeles Dodgers outfielder Matt Kemp finished second in the 2011 MVP voting to Ryan Braun. The Milwaukee Brewers star finished with 388 points and 20 first place points and Kemp finished with 332 and 10. Ryan Braun was suspended for PED use earlier this week.
Matt Kemp must’ve known the question about Braun being stripped of the MVP would come.
“I mean, yeah, I do,” pausing and adding, “I feel like it should be, but that’s not for me to decide, you know?”
“I’m disappointed,” Kemp said, via ESPN. “I talked to Braun before any of this happened, we had conversations and I considered him a friend. I don’t think anybody likes to be lied to and I feel like a lot of people have felt betrayed. That’s not just me, that’s the whole Brewers organization, a lot of his teammates. I think a lot of people feel that way.”
But the award vote was final according to Baseball Writers’ Association of America secretary-treasurer Jack O’Connell.
“The decision was already made. He won it,” O’Connell said in an email Monday.
Kemp’s teammate Skip Schumaker was very open with his feelings about the situation. Kemp was less open.
“Talking about things like this is very, very touchy,’ Kemp said. “It’s weird. Me, I don’t like to talk about this stuff but I feel like I have to a little bit.
“Skip did come out and say some things and he said how he felt,” Kemp added. “A lot of players don’t do that but you respect guys who come out and say what they feel because that’s what you respect, the truth.”