The best player in the National League this season is Ryan Braun and for that reason he should get the MVP Award. Braun provided more value to his team than any other player -- it is not his fault his team squandered that value.
Andrew McCutchen and Buster Posey have also been awesome. David Wright, Carlos Gonzalez, Aramis Ramirez, Matt Holiday and Giancarlo Stanton too.
Joey Votto, Matt Kemp and Carlos Ruiz have been fantastic too but missed too much time during the season.
To me the MVP is meaningless if it doesn't go to the best player in the league. There have been many occasions in the past when the award was gifted to players who played on good teams but were very obviously not anywhere close to being the best player in the league that year, and that has cheapened the award to the point of irrelevance to many people who enjoy the history of baseball. If the award does not indicate the winner was the best player then what is the point?
The Reds team MVP is Johnny Cueto. He is having the best season on the team this year. If you want to limit the MVP to a position player then I would give the award to Jay Bruce. Joey Votto is obviously a much better player and played far better while he was active, but he has just missed too many games and missed those games during the key stretch when the Reds dominated the league. Jay Bruce has led the team in all the productivity stats and deserves the award, but several players have had excellent seasons.