Milwaukee Brewers outfielder Ryan Braun has been named the National League’s Most Valuable Player, as voted on by the Baseball Writers’ Association of America.Braun placed first on 20 of the 32 ballots cast by two writers from each NL city and garnered 388 points to outdistance Los Angeles’ Matt Kemp by 56 points. Braun also received 12 second-place votes, as he became the third Brewer to win the award, but the first since Robin Yount took home the second of his two AL awards in 1989. Reliever Rollie Fingers was also honored in 1981.Braun, a Rookie of the Year winner in 2007, led the league with a .994 OPS and .597 slugging percentage, and finished second with a .332 batting average, 336 total bases and 109 runs scored. He finished fourth with 111 RBI and tied for sixth with 33 home runs. He was also the NL Player of the Month in September, a time when most voters were deciding on their MVP choices.Kemp, meanwhile, flirted with a Triple Crown this past season and received 10 first-place votes. He also recently signed an eight-year, $160 million extension with the Dodgers.The 27-year-old slugger, who had already been named the NL’s Hank Aaron Award winner to go with a Silver Slugger and a Gold Glove, hit .324 (third in the NL) with 39 home runs and 126 RBI. He led the NL in home runs, RBI, runs scored (115) and total bases (353).Braun’s teammate Prince Fielder also nabbed a first-place vote and finished third.One of the more coveted free agents on the market this winter, Fielder hit 38 home runs and drove in 120 runs hitting behind Braun this season. He was second in the league in walks (107) and on-base percentage (.415), while being the only player in the majors to play in all 162 games.Arizona’s Justin Upton picked up the other first-place vote, while St. Louis’ Albert Pujols rounded out the top-5. Pujols, a three-time winner of this award, has finished in the top-10 in each of the last 11 seasons.Last year’s winner, Joey Votto of the Cincinnati Reds, finished sixth and was followed by St. Louis’ Lance Berkman and Colorado’s Troy Tulowitzki, while Philadelphia Phillies teammates Roy Halladay and Ryan Howard finished ninth and 10th, respectively.In all, 26 players received votes.