Now that Ryan Braun has admitted to using performance-enhancing drugs during his MLB career, many baseball analysts and MLB players are wondering whether or not the Brewers slugger deserves to keep the MVP award he won back in 2011. One of those players who thinks Braun should not keep the award is Dodgers star Matt Kemp, who finished No. 2 in MVP voting that year. But Kemp doesn't want the award for himself. He just thinks that Braun doesn't deserve to keep it after what has come out over the course of the last couple of days.
"I mean, yeah, I do," he said earlier today when asked if he thinks the award should be taken away from Braun. "I feel like it should be, but that's not for me to decide, you know?"
Kemp also admitted that he feels hurt by Braun's recent admission.
"I'm disappointed," he said. "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."
Regardless of how they feel, though, Braun will not lose his 2011 MVP trophy. The Baseball Writers' Association of America has already gone on the record and said that Braun will get to keep it.
"The decision was already made," BBWAA secretary-treasurer Jack O'Connell said today. "He won it."
He did. But he doesn't deserve it. So Braun should think about giving it back. If nothing else, it'll show that, despite what he's done, he gives a crap about baseball and the integrity of the MVP award. So for once, he should do the right thing and give it back.
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[via ESPN Los Angeles]
