AL MVP. Mike Trout show?

[RyeWhiskey]

[clarkw267]

If the Tigers make the playoffs and the Angels don't. Cabrera should win it..it's that simple.

Cabrera deserved the MVP 2 separate times (when Hamilton and Morneau won it), but the reason he didn't get it? You guessed it, they led their team to the playoffs.

Cabrera is the best hitter in baseball, and he's basically been the Tigers offense with Peralta, Boesch, Young, and Avila doing next to nothing.

[Skin Blues]

Cabrera is the best hitter in baseball

Not this year, he isn't. The fact he got snubbed before doesn't mean you give it to him when he doesn't deserve it. If there was a "past 5 years AL MVP" then sure, he would probably win.

[clarkw267]

Cabrera is the best hitter in baseball

Not this year, he isn't. The fact he got snubbed before doesn't mean you give it to him when he doesn't deserve it. If there was a "past 5 years AL MVP" then sure, he would probably win.

Yeah... he's still the best hitter in baseball.

And the point is... if the voters are going to use making the playoffs as a tool to determine the MVP, then it needs to be done consistently.

[bayside]

Cabrera is the best hitter in baseball

Not this year, he isn't. The fact he got snubbed before doesn't mean you give it to him when he doesn't deserve it. If there was a "past 5 years AL MVP" then sure, he would probably win.

Yeah... he's still the best hitter in baseball.

And the point is... if the voters are going to use making the playoffs as a tool to determine the MVP, then it needs to be done consistently.

What you dont seem to understand is that the MVP award is not simply "The Best Hitter In Baseball Award"

Not that difficult to comprehend that Trout has had a much better overall season than Cabrera

[Izenhart]

Cabrera is the best hitter in baseball

Not this year, he isn't. The fact he got snubbed before doesn't mean you give it to him when he doesn't deserve it. If there was a "past 5 years AL MVP" then sure, he would probably win.

Yeah... he's still the best hitter in baseball.

And the point is... if the voters are going to use making the playoffs as a tool to determine the MVP, then it needs to be done consistently.

The way you are talking only players on playoff teams should be considered, and that's simply not the case. When there's question to which players between A, B and C have had better seasons, but player B's team makes the playoffs while A and C don't, player B will most likely get more votes. But when one player clearly and without a doubt had the best season, he usually wins pretty easily. Look at the last 5 years MVP and you'll find not every one came from a playoff contender.

[Skin Blues]

Yeah... he's still the best hitter in baseball.

Based on what? Trout is beating him in AVG, OBP, SLG, and every advanced metric you can think of. wOBA is generally accepted as the best catch-all stat for hitting production, and it's not even clsoe between the two of them. And that's not even considering defense and base-running. Cabrera is great and has shown excellent consistency as basically the AL version of Albert Pujols, but he's not the best this year by any measure. I realize it's good to have opposing opinions and discussion aboutthese topics, but you at least have to make an argument if you're going to claim something that appears to be so absurd.

[RyeWhiskey]

Yeah... he's still the best hitter in baseball.

Based on what? Trout is beating him in AVG, OBP, SLG, and every advanced metric you can think of. wOBA is generally accepted as the best catch-all stat for hitting production, and it's not even clsoe between the two of them. And that's not even considering defense and base-running. Cabrera is great and has shown excellent consistency as basically the AL version of Albert Pujols, but he's not the best this year by any measure. I realize it's good to have opposing opinions and discussion aboutthese topics, but you at least have to make an argument if you're going to claim something that appears to be so absurd.

The best hitter in baseball means just that. It's the guy who everyone knows is the best. Trout has a career 546 major league at-bats. That's less than a full season. I know everyone's got enormous manboners for the guy and it's all well-deserved, but this is getting out of hand. You can't hold up 546 at-bats against 9 full seasons of dominance and claim justification. If you really want to play this game we can dig up every guy who has a freakish 546 major league at-bats and you'll see how silly this whole argument is.

As for the MVP - it's the most valuable player on a team. In the NL it's pretty self-explanatory: McCutchen. But in the AL it's down to MCab and Trout and Trout's got Pujols, Trumbo, Kendrick, Morales, and now Aybar's heating up. Plus their rotation is ridiculous: Weaver, Grienke, Wilson, Haren. The Tigers have Fielder and Verlander.

It comes down to this: Without MCab the Tigers fail whereas without Trout the Angels still have a very good chance at competing - they were the favorites in their division at the beginning of the season before Trout was even called up.

[Izenhart]

Yeah... he's still the best hitter in baseball.

Based on what? Trout is beating him in AVG, OBP, SLG, and every advanced metric you can think of. wOBA is generally accepted as the best catch-all stat for hitting production, and it's not even clsoe between the two of them. And that's not even considering defense and base-running. Cabrera is great and has shown excellent consistency as basically the AL version of Albert Pujols, but he's not the best this year by any measure. I realize it's good to have opposing opinions and discussion aboutthese topics, but you at least have to make an argument if you're going to claim something that appears to be so absurd.

The best hitter in baseball means just that. It's the guy who everyone knows is the best. Trout has a career 546 major league at-bats. That's less than a full season. I know everyone's got enormous manboners for the guy and it's all well-deserved, but this is getting out of hand. You can't hold up 546 at-bats against 9 full seasons of dominance and claim justification. If you really want to play this game we can dig up every guy who has a freakish 546 major league at-bats and you'll see how silly this whole argument is.

As for the MVP - it's the most valuable player on a team. In the NL it's pretty self-explanatory: McCutchen. But in the AL it's down to MCab and Trout and Trout's got Pujols, Trumbo, Kendrick, Morales, and now Aybar's heating up. Plus their rotation is ridiculous: Weaver, Grienke, Wilson, Haren. The Tigers have Fielder and Verlander.

It comes down to this: Without MCab the Tigers fail whereas without Trout the Angels still have a very good chance at competing - they were the favorites in their division at the beginning of the season before Trout was even called up.

So Cabrera gets bonus points for having lesser players on his team and also for playing in a much weaker division? He also gets bonus points for being a great hitter for 10 years where Trout doesn't? This is all bull. You can't tell me what the Tigers or Angels records would be without them, so there is no real way to determine exactly how valuable they have been. MVP goes to the player who had the best season. That player is Trout. Argue that he isn't without bringing their teams records or their past history of dominance into the discussion. You're trying to bring in too many intangible factors and biases into your argument.

[RyeWhiskey]

MVP goes to the player who had the best season.

History begs to differ.

2008: Pedroia wins with .326 - 17 - 83 - 20
Cliff Lee goes 22-3, 2.54 ERA, 1.11 WHIP, with 170/34 K/BB
ARod goes .302 - 35 - 103 - 18
Boston went to the ALCS, while CLE and NYY didn't make the playoffs

2006: Morneau wins with .321 - 34 - 130
Well, Hafner went .308 - 42 - 117 and Ortiz hit 54 HRs that season.
Oh, and Johan threw a filthy 19-6, 2.77 ERA, 0.99 WHIP, with 245/47 K/BB
MIN went to the playoffs while CLE and BOS didn't make the playoffs.

I'm not going to dig further, the point is made. And that point is that while you're right that it should be who has the best season, it isn't. There's a multitude of factors which make up the MVP voting and many of them are intangible. If it was the "best player each year" then pitchers would win it much more often then they do. So we're totally allowed to argue that MCab deserves the MVP despite the fact that Trout is having a crazy good season because that's what the difference in the word valuable is - it's subjective.