But the choice between the two has essentially devolved into a “handbags at dawn” squabble between the old-school baseball writers, players and fans who revere Triple Crown numbers above all else – and thus insist that Cabrera should be a shoo-in for the award – and the Sabermetrics brigade, who see batting average and RBI as horribly overrated statistics. The former faction is deeply suspicious of the latter’s emphasis on Wins Against Replacement (WAR), a non-standardized stat that employs a complex assortment of calculations to determine a player’s value. The latter faction views reliance upon Triple Crown stats as tantamount to believing the Earth is flat – and, since Trout posted a significantly higher WAR this year than Cabrera (10.7 to 6.9, according to Baseballreference.com), Trout is essentially the poster boy for all things SABR-licious.
Name: Handsome Dick Manitoba
For the AL, it’s Trout. #### the Triple Crown/automatic MVP ########. Cabrera is 100 percent of 50 percent of a baseball player – all offense. Baseball is hitting and fielding, and running and throwing don’t hurt either! Trout is a young five-tool phenom. His everyday centerfield playing, and arm, and base running, and speed, and great hitting are much more valuable than a bunch of extra RBI and HR’s. NL: Who cares? I’m in Spain and an AL fan, and I don’t have time to think about the stoopid NL! Kidding! First choice is Posey, catcher, first baseman, leader, cleanup hitter. Second choice? Braun. Why? He’s a Jew!
Name: Steve Wynn: Band: The Baseball Project
I think that Ryan Braun should win the NL MVP. He singlehandedly kept the Brewers in contention against all odds until the last week, while having a better year than his MVP season last year. But he won’t win. There’s no way he’ll win. The voters will give a post-steroids-accusation wrist-slap and choose the feel-good story of Buster Posey. Over in the AL, it’s pretty much a foregone conclusion that Miguel Cabrera will win, although I’d hate to imagine where the Yankees would have been this year without Derek Jeter.
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1. Dock Ellis on Acid-- MWE
That is what I was thinking when I read the first comment.
while putting up a worse record than the Angels... so not only is he MVP while having a measurably inferior year, but he's MVP because he plays in an easier division and helped his team post a record good enough to finish almost but not quite, in the top half of the league.....
I am all for giving more credit for team record, I'm all for giving him credit for traditional stats(that extra .004 average over Trout is the real clincher) but when his argument starts to fall to helping his team have the 7th best record in the league as a plus over the guy who's team had the 6th best record, then I think that the people are reaching.
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