I've never bought the "playing every day" argument used to knock the mvp award out of a starting picher's hands.

Sure, he starts once every five games, 30-40 per season. And in those games that he starts, he throws at least 100 pitches, with the game theoretically riding on every single pitch. What does an outfielder do 100 times per game, scratch his nuts? A GREAT, MVP-candidate hitter/fielder comes to the plate 4 or 5 times a game - once every half hour or so. In the field, he might handle a half-dozen balls... an outfielder can go a whole game just standing around.

If you wanted to throw a game, who would you want in your pocket, the right fielder? No, the starting pitcher. In 1919, the gamblers went after Eddie Cicotte and Lefty Williams - Joe Jackson was an afterthought (and they almost blew the fix with at least 6 hitters trying to dump the game when a rookie named dickie kerr pitched his balls off and won 2 games)

Bottom line, a starting pitcher plays in only 20-25% of the team's games but during those games does 10 times more work than anybody else except maybe the catcher - and has far more responsibility for the game's outcome than the rest of the payers put together.