I disagree with Jay Mariotti on just about everything on the planet -- and the multiple paragraphs he devotes to PED politics in his latest column are rather boring and unenlightening. But the point he started with -- sports writers shouldn’t vote for postseason awards -- is one worthy of consideration.
I don’t know who else is in a good position to decide who should be the MVP and all of that, and the usual alternatives cited -- players, coaches, fans -- are probably worse choices than what we have now, but I think Mariotti makes some pretty valid points about conflicts of interest and writers not always taking their job seriously when it comes to voting for awards.
I think the best move would be to create some panel that includes working media and some various experts. How you go about picking its members I have no idea, but I think that relying so much on beat guys who depend upon awards candidates for the access they need to do their job is problematic.
