Thank God the real MVP voters are smarter than most on here and gave the AL MVP to the most deserving player, Miguel Cabrera. It wasn't even close either.

 

Cabrera wins AL MVP in landslide

Thank God the real MVP voters are smarter than most on here and gave the AL MVP to the most deserving player, Miguel Cabrera. It wasn't even close either.

 

Cabrera wins AL MVP in landslide

 

Cabrera deserved it, but Mike Trout is far and away the best player in baseball.

I was surprised it wasn't closer.

 

I still lean towards Trout but I get it was easy to vote for the Triple Crown winner.

 

The vote shows that voters look at strictly the easy-to-understand offensive categories and fail to take into account other important factors such as defense and baserunning.

 

It's a vanilla or chocolate type of vote. What do you like?

I was surprised it wasn't closer.

 

I still lean towards Trout but I get it was easy to vote for the Triple Crown winner.

 

The vote shows that voters look at strictly the easy-to-understand offensive categories and fail to take into account other important factors such as defense and baserunning.

 

It's a vanilla or chocolate type of vote. What do you like?

 

I do not think it is quite that simplistic as voters are moving towards these advanced stats in casting their vote. I think it ultimately came down to the fact Cabrera did in fact win the triple crown and his team made the playoffs. I know the AL Central was easier, etc. I think it also weighed heavily that Trout trailed off later in the season. Granted it is a full season award and averages reflect as such, but I do not think it is unfair to give some added weight to games towards the end of the season when both players are in the playoff hunt.

Cabrera deserved it, but Mike Trout is far and away the best player in baseball.

 

Based on what? WAR?

I would have voted for Trout but I'm pleased Miggy got it. Should have won before.

Based on what? WAR?

Just from watching him, he seems on a different level.

 

Cabrera's an unbelievable hitter. I think Trout's the most complete player we've seen in a long time. Stealing 50 bases. Best CF in the game. OPS of almost 1.000. 30 HR and 85 RBI while leading off.

 

Cabrera may be a better hitter, but you can't ignore Trout's D. Both are obviously great players.

 

....and a WAR of 10 is pretty impressive.

I do not think it is quite that simplistic as voters are moving towards these advanced stats in casting their vote. I think it ultimately came down to the fact Cabrera did in fact win the triple crown and his team made the playoffs. I know the AL Central was easier, etc. I think it also weighed heavily that Trout trailed off later in the season. Granted it is a full season award and averages reflect as such, but I do not think it is unfair to give some added weight to games towards the end of the season when both players are in the playoff hunt.

 

It's an individual award. Seems odd to punish a player whose team (despite having a better record) didn't make the playoffs because the played in a much tougher decision.

I've never understood the arguments for MVP, or any individual awards. It is obvious to anyone who watches baseball that Miguel Cabrera and Mike Trout are both fantastic players. Calling either of them the best in the American League would be a fair statement. So when more voters chose Cabrera, people immediately began talking about Cabrera like he was an awful baseball player and Trout was probably better than Joe DiMaggio. Why can't they both be great and we agree that the cross-section of voters responsible for picking this award seemed to think one was better than the other?

There's always been the debate of how meaningful a HR or RBI was vs just looking at the raw numbers . I call it the Adam Dunn debate.

 

I think we can agree that not all HRs/RBIs are equal.

 

WPA is a stat that was created to measure how important to the outcome a player's offensive performance was.

 

Brief explanation: WPA | FanGraphs Sabermetrics Library

 

Trout led all of MLB in WPA and Miggy was 5th. That is important IMO.

It's an individual award. Seems odd to punish a player whose team (despite having a better record) didn't make the playoffs because the played in a much tougher decision.

 

Agreed. An example was a couple years ago when Felix Hernandez went 13-13 on a poor Seattle team but still won the Cy Young.

Based on what? WAR?

 

WAR is interesting but one thing it doesn't do is take into account the qualify of competition.

 

Trout's WAR was off the charts AND he played in a tougher division ie faced better pitching staffs more often than Miggy.

 

Miggy had 132 ABs against the worst 2 pitching staffs in the AL. He feasted on them with a .732 SLG% . Trout had about 1/3 as many against the same two teams. On the other hand Trout had a ton of ABs against the teams in his division and those teams were in the top 1/2 of the pitching staffs in the AL.

Then there's the issue of D. We now have ways to measure D. UZR is one of them and the two are way off on this stat.

 

IMO the only way you vote for Miggy is the rarity of the triple crown AND his team made the playoffs. It's an individual award so I put no stock in the latter. The first is debatable as to the level of importance it should have with a voter.

The defense is certainly a worthy talking point as Trout is great. Cabrera volunteered to move from his natural position over to 3B and is not an elite player in that respect. To me that is the best angle in supporting Trout in this debate.

 

I still think people are getting too numbery with this. Games count for more later in the season when you are in a division race. Theoretically in stat land games 1-162 are all the same. But in reality we know that is not the case. Trout's performance later in the year declined. August and September did in Trout and his MVP votes.

Trout's performance later in the year declined. August and September did in Trout and his MVP votes.

 

In the last two months Miggy played 39 games against the worst 5 staffs in the AL.

 

Trout played 32 agains the TOP 5 AL staffs in the same time period.

 

Makes a difference. He still hit .284 and SLG of .500 .