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Detroit Tigers' starting pitcher, Justin Verlander, wins American League MVP

I'm honestly not certain how I feel about this. It seems that a majority of fans and "experts" alike believe pitchers have the Cy Young award and since they don't play every day, shouldn't be given consideration for the MVP award. I'd say that I typically agree with this philosophy, but think there are exceptions and while I'm not 100% certain I believe Verlander was deserving of the MVP this year, if there was ever a year for a pitcher to have won it, it would have been this one. The only thing that's kind of holding me back right now isn't the fact that Verlander is a pitcher. It's the fact that the Detroit Tigers had a very good offense this year. Verlander put up incredible numbers, going 24-5 with a 2.40 ERA and 250 strikeouts to win what is known as the AL pitching triple crown. Like I said, the guy had outstanding numbers and if I were voting on the "best" player in the American League this year, I would most certainly have voted for Verlander. However, MOST VALUABLE? I'm not entirely certain. In all of baseball, the Detroit Tigers finished 4th in runs scored with 787, 3rd in batting average at .277, 4th in on-base percentage at .340 and 4th in slugging percentage at .434. I'm not ultimately stating that Verlander wasn't deserving of MVP, but if we take the award as being literal and going to the player whom was most valuable to his club, the Tigers' great offensive numbers make me hesitate a bit before declaring Verlander as this year's AL MVP. Who else possibly deserved it? Considering Boston and Toronto didn't make the playoffs and the Red Sox own Jacoby Ellsbury and Jose Bautista of the Blue Jays finished 2nd and 3rd in the voting, perhaps based on the process of elimination, Verlander was deserving of the award. I feel like a Democrat on this (...and more or less, I am one...), where I may be leaning one way (saying he deserves the award), but can't fully make up my mind.

http://espn.go.com/mlb/story/_/id/7265534/cy-young-winner-justin-verlander-detroit-tigers-wins-al-mvp
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