Ryan Tepera, Ian Happ Finish in 18th-Place Tie for NL MVP

Gotta love those down-ballot selections, huh? Braves first baseman Freddie Freeman took 28 of 30 first-place votes to tally 410 points and easily win the National League MVP, but the Cubs had two very unlikely players tied for 18th with one 10th-place vote apiece. Yu Darvish finished a few spots higher, but at least it wasn’t due to J.P. Hoornstra hosing him.

Happ had actually been a dark-horse candidate after his hot start, then a foul ball ricocheted into his eyeball and curtailed any hopes of a strong finish. The real story here is Tepera, who garnered a vote from Rick Hummel of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. While there’s no word yet on whether Hummel has been canceled by the locals, his lack of Twitter presence indicates he’ll be moderately safe.

You can see the complete standings below, followed by a breakdown of the votes, then we’ll close with a little more analysis at the end.

There’s not really much to see here, I guess, though it’s notable that ESPN’s Jesse Rogers didn’t include Brandon Kintzler on his ballot. I heard he actually wrote in Tommy La Stella before being asked to cure his ballot by election officials. Okay, that’s not true, but you have to admit you could see it happening.

Ryan Freaking Tepera, man, what a wild year.

Ed. note: Hummel apparently screwed up and meant to give Trea Turner his 10th-place vote, but accidentally opted for the man who was two spots above Turner on the drop-down menu.