Isn't it funny when people use WAR in the MVP discussion when they don't know what it is?

WAR is a very misleading statistic and should never be used as the sole indicator of a player's value. While it's nice to think that you can judge someone based on several nebulous statistics mashed together, it's just not at all true. In the matter of MVP, I'm going to have to stay old school for some time to come. For me, it's just as important 'when' a player does something as it is what they do. For example: Yesterday Paul Goldschmidt hit a game-tying home run in the bottom of the 9th inning. Then he flat out won the game a couple innings later with a walk-off home run. And he's been doing that all season long for the Diamondbacks. Put up that combined with the best offensive power numbers in the National League and I'll vote for Goldschmidt over Gomez (or even McCutcheon and Molina, who both are more deserving than Gomez) every time.

The offensive output of a 1B is much higher on average than that of a CF. If the D-Backs lost Goldschmidt and had to replace him with a random 1B, that replacement's output would be a lot closer to Goldy's than Gomez's replacement would be to Gomez.

If something is easily replaced... in what sense is it valuable?

I am not going to argue that Carlos Gomez should be the MVP (because Andrew McCutchen should be the MVP), but to dismiss an MVP candidate just because he's got fewer HRs or a smaller AVG dismisses the "valuable" and "player" aspects of "most valuable player." If you want to give Goldy the Hank Aaron award for best hitter, then by all means, do so (though Votto and Carlos Gonzolez would be worthy, as well)... but don't confuse the Hank Aaron Award for the MVP.

Carlos Gómez for MVP? HAHAHAHAHAHA! Sure, he's having a nice year, but Goldschmidt, Molina, McCutchen, Gonzalez, and even Allen Craig are all more deserving than Gómez. WAR is a shady stat. Until there's a firmer definition of what WAR actually is and what is factored into it, you can't rely on WAR alone to judge a player. Right now. I'd go with Goldschmidt for MVP.

I like WAR, but wouldn't use it as the sole deciding factor.

In last year's AL MVP race, I would have chosen Trout because he had a significant advantage over Cabrera in WAR. But I also looked at the underlying stats, wOBA/wRC+, UZR, rather than AVG, RBI, HR, where Cabrera led.

If they had been closer in WAR, I might have gone with Cabrera. While one of the tenets of sabermetrics is that a run saved equals a run scored, offense is more fun to watch than defense.

I don't get the WAR stat so I never use it. When talking about MVP I mainly like to go by REAL stats like hits, HRs, RBIs, SBs, BA, OBP, Slugging, etc.

Edit: And of course, defense but that isn't a stat.

I despise any stat that purports to inform me of a players value. Especially a stat based on a mythical "Replacement Player" as a basis for comparison.

And there is more than one version of WAR and that to me is doubly poisonous.

I find Bill James' "Runs Created" stat to be more informative than WAR.

And? RBI have been around for a century and people still don't have a clear understanding of what they mean in terms of "value", which really has to be an important consideration when discussing the Most VALUABLE Player Award (emphasis added).

I agree...war is the stupidest and most useless stat ever.

I think it's funny even when they do know what it means.