Angels center fielder Mike Trout and Dodgers lefty Clayton Kershaw have won the American League and National League MVP Awards, respectively.
The 23-year-old Trout won in unanimous fashion — the first to do so since Ken Griffey Jr. in 1997. Trout’s unanimous selection came on the heels of yet another dominant season, as he batted .287/.377/.561 with career-highs in homers (36), runs scored (115) and RBIs (111). Many feel that Trout should have been named the MVP in both the 2012 and 2013 seasons, but the consensus top player in the game now has an MVP to place on his mantle and should probably leave room for a few more to eventually stand by its side.
Trout’s 420 points were the most possible, and rounding out the top 10 in the AL were Victor Martinez (229), Michael Brantley (185), Jose Abreu (145), Jose Bautista (128), Robinson Cano (124), Nelson Cruz (102), Josh Donaldson (96), Miguel Cabrera (82) and Felix Hernandez (48). The full ballot is available in this Google doc from the BBWAA.
Kershaw edged out Marlins slugger Giancarlo Stanton, finishing with 355 points to 298. Kershaw missed a month with back inflammation but still put together one of the best seasons in recent history. In 198 1/3 innings, Kershaw posted a career-best 1.77 ERA with 10.9 K/9 and 1.4 BB/9. Kershaw’s effort won him his third Cy Young Award in the past four years and resulted in a total of 7.5 rWAR and 7.2 fWAR despite the missed time on the DL.
Behind Kershaw and Stanton in the top 10 were Andrew McCutchen (271), Jonathan Lucroy (167), Anthony Rendon (155), Buster Posey (152), Adrian Gonzalez (57), Adam Wainwright (53), Josh Harrison (52) and Anthony Rizzo (37). The full ballot is available in this Google Doc from the BBWAA.
Stanton was clearly the MVP. Only time a pitcher should win it is if there clearly wasn’t a deserving position player.
Is that in the rules books? No? Kershaw is eligible and won fair and square through an actual 30-man vote.
I didn’t say it was against the rules, nor did I say he didn’t win fair and square or that it should be some rule. I stated my opinion, which I am entitled to that pitchers really shouldn’t win the award over position players. Position players can’t win the Cy Young, the most prestigious award for pitchers, so it should be it should obvious that he was better than a position player to deserve the award and he was not, as good as Kershaw is. I love Kershaw, he is a great player so this has nothing to do with him.
“Stanton was clearly the MVP” sounds more like a fact than an opinion. You didn’t say anywhere in there that you meant in your opinion or to you, or anything. And many, many voters agreed, as Kershaw took first on 18 of the 30 ballots, second on 3 of the 4 ballots with McCutchen first, and finished ahead of Stanton on twenty-one of thirty ballots. Stanton only finished first on eight ballots. Seems like it wasn’t clear at all. The actual rule given to voters is to consider pitchers and DHs. If you want a position player only award, then look at many other awards that honor positions specifically and not at the MVP award, because that is not what it is designed to do. It’s actual purpose is to reward the best overall player.
“Most Valuable Player”, not best overall player
I was focusing on the “player” part of the definition, but you are correct.
How is it not the same thing? Just because the Marlins didn’t do well as a team doesn’t mean that Stanton still wasn’t incredibly “valuable”. Think of how far back they would have been with out him.
I am of the mind that the MVP should be the best player all around. Cy Young for pitchers, Silver Slugger (or Hank Aaron? Not sure which is considered best for an all around hitter) for hitters.
I agree fully
Hitters get about 600 plate appearances while pitchers only get about 800 against, so obviously hitters are more important.
I don’t think that’s clear at all. I’m fine with Kershaw winning, but even if you limit it to position players, there were lots of good candidates. McCutchen in particular had a strong case.
Only players on contending teams should win…sorry Stanton.
That is absurd. If Trout was on the Rangers and put up those numbers, he would still be just as deserving of the award. That argument is so outdated
Outdated? Really then why did Trout lose the past two years? Hmm seems pretty up to date to me.
You may not agree with it, but voting every year proves that you must be on a contending team.
“Most Valuable Player”!
Stanton wasn’t having an MVP season until McCutchen, Tulo, and Goldy all got injured. People forget so quickly that Stanton was bumped up by those who will never vote a pitcher MVP because he was the last guy standing.
clearly he wasn’t. the only thing that’s clear is that congratulating kershaw would be the courteous thing to do.
Kershaw pitched the equivalent of 22 games with an ERA+ of 197. A historic season in its own right, but because he only plays in 20% of his team’s games, his ‘value’ was 43 runs prevented. Cutch had 130 Runs Created, which was more than 50 above average. That’s before factoring in his defensive runs saved.
They really ought to just rename these awards ‘Player of the Year’ and ‘Pitcher of the Year’, and make pitchers ineligible for the former.
Congrats to those two! Trout deserved it. Not a fan at all, but this was the year to do it. Right era for him to win it.
Greg Holland got a 5th place vote. Ok then.
I think what MLB needs to do is make the BBWAA vote for the Hank Aaron Award. Currently , it’s voted on by the Fans and members of the media.
There should be 3 major awards – The Hank Aaron Award, the Cy Young Award, and the MVP Award.
The Hank Aaron Award is an award nobody really even cares much about. It’s all about MVP and Cy Young. They need to make it more of a prestigious award.
Yeah, I barely ever remember it even exists.
I just said to my friend the same thing, and he’s like “My guess it will be Stanton and Trout”. I laughed and said this is exactly why. It was already announced and nobody even remembers who won it, not to mention some don’t even know it was already announced
Yankees representative was Brett Gardner. Guess who voted everyday? I agree though, let the BBWAA vote on that one, too.
I say make the award writer/fan weighted. And the Hall of Fame vote too. It’s too biased as is!!
Fans should never be allowed to vote for anything, have you seen an AllStar game lately?
I like this – Cy Young for pitcher, Hank Aaron for hitter, and MVP for best player. Just to put the immensely outdated conversation behind us. Since when aren’t pitchers players?
Should be/could’ve been Trout’s third in his first three full seasons. Amazing.
Actually, Trout should never won this award since he was clearly not the most valuable player this year, nor should he have won against Miggy (Triple Crown rings loudly over anything Trout has done so far.)
Then who should have been the AL MVP this year?
Vmart. He would of won if the the other player had the same stats as Trout in 2014 but wasnt named Trout.
I don’t get what that means. V-Mart is a great hitter but his fWar was 4.4 which is not even in the top 30 of all qualified MLB players.
The MVP award is, or should be, reserved for the off the charts type player who’s great in all facets of the game.
No, MVP is just the Most Valuable Player of the league. Then no power hitter without speed or no speed player without power would EVER won. This prize is not for the best player in the league; it is for the best performance in the season.
Victor Martinez or Nelson Cruz
I say Michael Brantely or Jose Altuve if VMart is excused from being allowed to win thanks to being a DH.
And why exactly are you excluding Trout?
So-so defense, alright average at best, and just way, way too many strikeouts. At least whenever Joe Gordon lead in strikeouts and won the MVP, he at least had a rather good average, and didn’t crack over 100 strikeouts, unlike Trout who was close to Ryan Howard numbers (and yes, Howard won an MVP whenever he lead in strikeouts, but I disagree with him winning that as well since it really looked like Pujols was robbed almost.) Yes, Trout is really, really good, but this year, there were far better players to choose from.
I disagree with all of this. He has lead the AL in WAR all three of his full seasons, and speaking towards Cabrera in particular, Trout has beaten him by a healthy margin. Trout’s a better overall hitter, has better speed, baserunning skills, and much better defense.
Trouts not a better hitter than Cabrera. Better overall player yes.
Mike Trout, 2012-2014: .311/.401/.563, 170 wRC+, 2060 PA, +164.4 batting runs.
Miguel Cabrera, 2012-2014: .329/.401/.587, 168 wRC+, 2034 PA, +157.4 batting runs.
Mike Trout, 2013-2014: .305/.405/.559, 172 wRC+, 1421 PA, +114.3 batting runs.
Miguel Cabrera, 2013-2014: .329/.405/.577, 169 wRC+, 1337 PA, +103.6 batting runs.
Mike Trout, 2014: .287/.377/.561, 167 wRC+, 705 PA, +52.1 batting runs.
Miguel Cabrera, 2014: .313/.371/.524, 147 wRC+, 685 PA, +35.7 batting runs.
Mike Trout, 2015 projection: .297/.393/.537, 167 wRC+, 675 PA, +50.1 batting runs.
Miguel Cabrera, 2015 projection: .317/.394/.557, 164 wRC+, 648 PA, +45.7 batting runs.
Mike Trout is essentially Miguel Cabrera’s equal from 2012-2014 and 2013-2014 yet was significantly better in 2014 and projects to be slightly better in 2015, while Mike Trout is currently going into his age-23 season and Miguel Cabrera turns 32 a few weeks into the 2015 MLB season. Trout is probably currently projecting as a better hitter, too, as Steamer projections don’t consider injuries having long-lasting effects.
So basically you are using 2014 to bring his 2012 and 2013 stats down rather than doing it year by year. It was common knowledge that he played the entire year with an ankle injury hence his drop in power.
2012 Miggy: .330/.393/.606 44homeruns
2012 Trout: .326/.399/.564 30homeruns
2013 Miggy: .348/.442/.636 44 homeruns
2013 Trout: .323/.432/.557 27 homeruns
Also in regards to 2014, Trout struck out 184 times and his BA dropped to .287. Miggy has never in his career struck out that many times and never batted below .294 (in a full year).
Its not really equal. Not saying Trout isn’t a great hitter just saying that Miggy is better by whatever margin.
Projections mean nothing to me.
Year by year: Equal in 2012, Cabrera > Trout by a good margin in 2013, Trout > Cabrera by a good margin in 2014, Trout projects better going forward, Trout is 23, Cabrera is going to be 32 soon. I’ll stick with Trout > Cabrera offensively for 2015.
How do you get equal in 2012 but Cabrera by a large margin in 2013? Its essentially the same thing Cabrera had a high slugging and far more homeruns. 2014 Cabrera was playing injured all year but yes Trout was better. Projections and age have nothing to do with who the better hitter is.
Yes, they do. I’m looking at today, on November 13th, 2014. Mike Trout has a current true talent level as a hitter above that of Miguel Cabrera, to me. I do not feel Miguel Cabrera will ever return to a 192 wRC+, and Mike Trout has equalled Cabrera’s 2012 wRC+ of 166 in all of his three seasons, going 167 to 176 to 167. I’m a believer of park-adjusted stats like wRC+ and don’t look at things like raw strikeout and HR totals. I care about triple-slash lines adjusted for context and that’s basically it. We don’t need to agree here. I just want to make it known *it can be argued* that Trout > Cabrera offensively. It can also be argued the other way based solely on 2013, but the original point contested Cabrera was definitively true, which, to me, isn’t true. And if there are key numbers supporting Trout > Cabrera hitting-wise, it’s arguable Trout > Cabrera.
Fair enough I suppose. Plenty of arguments can be made about which stats matter and which don’t. Even more so in the age of sabermetrics where eventually wind speed, the moisture of the batter box dirt and how illuminated the stadium is will be a stat (if its not yet).
I consider park factors more heavily than you do and am not just going to ignore Cabrera’s 2014 because a 31-year-old got injured. I have no realistic expectation to see the old Cabrera ever return. Considering park – which wRC+ does and if we can’t agree that park matters then we’ll agree to disagree here – Trout was his equal in 2012 at 167 to 166 in Trout’s favor, was inferior in 2013 – 192 to 176 in Cabrera’s favor – and superior in 2014 – 167 to 147, in Trout’s favor. That adds up to me that Trout should be expected to be better right now and going forward, which is all that matters to me. I also don’t care about strikeouts or pure batting average, for different reasons. Trout’s A) never struck out at a 25% clip before and B) has such phenomenal offensive skills that he still excels despite the AVG dip, while I consider OBP and SLG way, way more important than AVG. Trout’s BABIP took a small dip from .376-.383 range to .349.
WAR is easily one of the more flawed stats to use for an argument, but if one does go by that, Trout actually put up negative WAR in defense this year. Sorry, but Trout’s defense this year has been rather lackluster at times. And no, Trout has not been a better hitter than Miggy, except maybe marginally better than him this year and even then, that is only by OPS considerations.
Guess who else consistently puts up a negative defensive WAR? Miggy. WAR might be flawed but its not so flawed that it can make up for the wide margin that Trout has over Miggy.
And using un-adjusted OPS as an argument in favor of Miggy is far more flawed than WAR will ever be. Just for your reference, Trout had a better OPS+ than Miggy in 2012 and 2014. And in 2013, Trout still had a better WAR. Still a better defender, still a far better baserunner. Trout should have three MVPs and you haven’t made an argument against that yet.
You guys kill me. If you were 6’5 260 lbs, do you think you’d run the bases like Rickey Henderson? Or have the defensive range of a smaller player? Don’t penalize Cabrera because of his size. When Mike Trout puts up the numbers Cabrera has 10 years running, then I’ll get on the train. He’s a great all around player, but let’s see how consistent he’ll be.
Exactly. DO you guys see how he swings that bat? Its like a toothpick when he swings.
Uhhh, who’s penalizing him? I’m stating a fact. How on earth are people upvoting you?
Trout is a better defender and baserunner, but that point is negated because. . . Cabrera is big? What?? We’re talking about who is the best all around player, should salient and relevant points be left out because Cabrera is bigger? Mind-boggling the lengths you Tigers fans are going to here.
I’d say top-2 MVP vote-getter every season of his career and universally-accepted best player in baseball is pretty high praise and consistency. He’s been arguably the best player in baseball history through age-22. It doesn’t matter if I would run like Rickey at 6’5, 260. I’m not penalizing Cabrera because of his size. He’s a gifted hitter. He’s not a gifted baserunner or defender and those things really do matter.
So you would rather give past MVPs that Miguel Cabrera rightfully won thanks to putting up not only a Triple Crown performance, and then an even BETTER year afterwards (in which he only didn’t get a Triple Crown again thanks to Chris Davis’ massive season last year)? No, Trout shouldn’t have three. Not in any universe shy of one where Miguel Cabrera never exists should he have won the last two years. And you as well have not made a strong argument for Trout, especially with his poor range, poor arm, and insanely high strikeout rate.
You havent made an argument at all! You’ve cited batting average and strikeouts, that’s it. Trout has way better defense, steals a lot of bases and has actually been a better hitter in two of the past three seasons.
You’re telling me that Trout has poor range and a poor arm (both of which are not true, he’s average and in the first of the three years he was above average) while failing to realize that Miggy is actually WORSE at defense and doesn’t even play a premium position.
And please: strikeout rate is next to meaningless. If he had zero strikeouts and instead had all infield popups he’d essentially be the same hitter. It’s not an argument.
He wasn’t marginally better than Cabrera in 2014. He blew Cabrera out of the water. 167 wRC+ to 147 wRC+ is the biggest difference between them. Cabrera actually lost out to Trout in wRC+ in 2012, but did admittedly beat Trout 192 to 176 in ’14.
Trout is the first player ever to lead the league in runs his first three full seasons. He is owner of the only .320/30/45/125 season in baseball history. He has the most WAR through a player’s age-22 season *in baseball history*. He is the only player to finish top-2 in the MVP vote each of his first three seasons. He’s a 3-time All Star. He’s got two 30-HR campaigns, two 30-steal campaigns, has hit .320+ twice, and has a career batting line .305/.395/.549 with three American League Silver Sluggers and a 2012 AL RotY award on his mantle, and now he will forever be entrenched as the UNANIMOUS 2014 AL MVP. Mike Trout is amazing.
But you do not give a player a MVP for seasons before the one voted on. Past performances matters not at all if the season a player is awarded with the title was not spectacular in any fashion.
“Triple Crown rings loudly over anything Trout has done so far”
My comment is in reference to that. Leading the league in HR, AVG, and RBI does not really outweigh, in my mind, topping MLB in runs and steals, beating Cabrera in OBP (OBP is more important than AVG) and becoming the first player ever with a 30 HR – 45 SB – 125 R – .320 AVG season. Seventeen other men have Triple Crowns. Zero have that combination of power, speed and average in a single season. I don’t even think those arbitrary stats matter much, but they certainly matter as much as arbitrarily leading the league in any three meaningful categories. I’d much rather see a player lead the league in RE24, wRC+ and OBP than HR, AVG and RBI, but those three stats are gospel historically. I’m betting if you polled all 30 GMs, all thirty would take Trout’s 2012 and 2013 seasons over Cabrera’s. Even Dombrowski’s FO. Dombrowski is a smart dude and knows how amazing Cabrera is, but these guys also understand other aspects of the game too.
Who always knocks him in? Exactly. He depends on the other guys(excluding home runs) to win that stat.
I wish people would stop saying “clearly” in cases like this. It’s obviously not “clear” given that all 30 voting BBWAA members (and probably the majority of baseball fans) disagree with you.
He won because of the fame of previous years. First MVP in history with 184 SO and he has the lowest AVG for an MVP winner since 1982. I think V-Mart should at least had been closer.
100% agreed.
I disagree. If other players had better seasons, they would’ve rightfully challenged Trout. Martinez didn’t get a first place vote because he’s a DH and that’s a gigantic negative, fairly or unfairly.
Exactly!!!
Hasn’t had the most valuable position on his team let alone best numbers any of those years
Are you talking about Trout? Because if you are, I would love to see this argument.
You knew sportswriters were going to give it to Trout this year. He won by default though. He only batted 287 and struck out a major league leading 184 times. No way he should have won the last 2. Miggy deserved it, and I think Victor Martinez had better numbers than Trout this year, but you know they weren’t going to allow a DH to win it, much less a Tiger to win the award 3 years in a row.
That would have been awesome to have 3 straight MVPS from a team. Trout HAD to win no matter what this year. I think it’s a little biased. Victor deserved it.
No to everything your saying. Just, no. Batting average and strikeouts. Wow.
155 points for Anthony Rendon. Nice!
Very surprised he got more votes than Buster Posey
2nd in NL position player WAR – 6.5.
He played better than Posey in terms of WAR but, Posey apparently had the better year in terms of oWAR (IMO, their offensive stats could be argued as to who was better this year). I think Rendon is a great player who often gets overlooked outside of Nats fans, glad to see that wasn’t the case with this vote.
I knew Rendon was good from seeing his stats in fantasy baseball all year, but you’re right I sure didn’t hear anything about him in national media. I thought the only players on the nats were Soriano, Zimmerman, Strasburg and Harper 🙂
Rendon, Werth and Span all got MVP votes. A little surprised Desmond got nothing when those all did, but not too shocked. I believe Zimmermann, Strasburg and Fister all got CY votes too. A nice showing for the Washington core.
The Josh Harrison story is pretty remarkable.
Steve (or a different writers) I have a request. Is it possible for MLBtr to list Fangraphs’ RA9-WAR alongside fWAR and rWAR while doing these writeups?
Fangraphs has their own RA9 WAR? Is it much different from rWAR?
Yeah, it is. Pitching rWAR takes the park factor and multiplies it by the average number of runs a pitcher would allow by facing the specific subset of hitters a pitcher faced. It then adjusts by the defensive support (using DRS) and by role (starters generally allow ~.20 more runs per 9 than relievers) so you get a sense of how many runs an average pitcher would’ve allowed given a specific set of conditions. Using actual examples, King Felix allowed 2.59 runs per 9, while an average pitcher facing his opponents in those ballparks would’ve allowed – according to b-ref’s calculations – 4.33 runs per 9. His defensive support was essentially average and his role boosts his runs allowed per 9 up to 4.51, but park factors (Safeco has a .935 multiplier) brings it back down to 4.22. The difference between 4.22 and 2.59 extrapolated to 236 IP gives you ~42 runs above average, but then you add in replacement runs and center runs above average so the sum of the entire league is zero and multiple by wins/runs, which right now I think is around 9.2 runs to a win, so 1/9.2. That gives you pitching rWAR. For fangraphs, it’s really just taking RA9 instead of an FIP scale and considering park and the such. It’s somewhat similar, but different park factors and no – to my knowledge, at least – defense considerations make it different. It’s why I generally try to use a hybrid of sorts between RA9-WAR and FIP-WAR (fWAR)..
Kershaw played in just over 16% of the Dodger games, incredible
Which makes the fact he produced so much incredible value during that time even more striking. If he helped the Dodgers win more than any other player and performed best, he still deserves to be MVP.
I tell you what. Without Kershaw the Dodgers were sunk. His performance got to be so automatic it was starting to get ridiculous.
If only he could do it when it mattered
If only I hadn’t heard this rationale before. It’s still a regular season award no matter what, as it should be. Postseason series’ get their own awards, as well as, yknow, that ring at the end. Kershaw is and was the best player in the NL.
Wow I didn’t know that! Still doesn’t change the fact he hasn’t shown up when it matters most. Best regular season player. I had no argument with him being MVP
Okay.
Just like Randy Johnson. You’d be very misguided to judge a player on a 2 game sample size. Eventually Kershaw will dominate in October, he did have over 13 K/9 and a 1.4 BB/9 this postseason. Eventually his postseason win/loss and ERA will match his peripherals. We should wait for more than 8 starts before naming Clayton perpetually snake bitten in Oct. Those who call Kershaw a choker will eat crow, give it time.
I think they should get rid of the awards all together. This probably won’t be a popular sentiment. However, this is a team sport and quite frankly, not one player dominated during the regular season. Madison Bumgarner dominated in the playoffs, but other then that, I just can’t bring myself to gush about anyone else.
This is a team sport based very much on the interaction between a pitcher and a hitter which results in a baseball being struck somewhere towards a fielder, in a strikeout, or in a walk. Players excel more than others and their individual dominance deserves to be recognized. That’s what all awards in all four major sports are about. Recognizing the best of the best.
Not one player dominated during the regular season? Did you happen to see any of Kershaw this year?
Best pitching season since Pedro or Maddux (15 years ago) and that’s not dominant? We watch a different game.
Nice to see Bautista get a top 5 finish. Kinda surprised that Hernandez finished ahead of Kluber.
Don’t you mean the other way around?
Nope, Hernandez got more MVP votes than Klueber.
Kershaw is the best player in the NL. No joke!
This is somewhat subjective of course, but players like Kershaw come along once in a generation, a most, and should be recognized as such. Every time I’m at the ballpark watching him perform I feel like I’m witnessing baseball history.
Even in game 1 of the NLDS?
Stay classy my friend.
What is unclassy about what he said?
Because it’s irrelevant to the discussion and intended as a gloat.
It’s a legitimate question. He asked if you felt you were seeing MLB history that day. I would’ve just responded with a “yes” considering Kershaw did make history that day.
After a fashion, but it had nothing to do with my original comment.
I think you’ve been around here long enough to know the guy is just trolling, no?
ehh, not always.
How am I trolling? it’s a good point to make. The guy choked in the biggest game of the season.
Good question. It doesn’t seem like the thing to do.
You just trolled me.
Uh, no.
Coincidence that both of them are the top two in WAR this year?
comparing pitchers vs position players WAR is a really bad idea. So, I hope so.
Doesn’t change the fact they are the top two in WAR?
I’m aware. You asked if it was coincidence and I said I hope so because that’s a really bad way to decide who you’re voting on. That said, I have no complaints with Trout or Kershaw winning.
Neither do I, its funny though because this was Trouts worst year probably. Lucky Cabrera dealt with an ankle injury because then I doubt itd be unanimous.
I don’t think a single voter just looked at a WAR leaderboard and called it a day, but it’s probably not coincidental that a year where a pitcher posted a ~7 WAR is and no position player reached that plateau is the one where a pitcher wins MVP.
Glad to see guys like Josh Harrison and Johnathan Lucroy getting some recognition. I really think they made the right choices with Kershaw and Trout. They were truly the most valuable to their teams. People need to stop with the “pitchers have their own award thing or don’t play everyday.” It doesn’t take away how valuable they really were and also, hitters do have their own award; The Hank Aaron Award.
Wish they would just rename the awards to: Best Pitcher Award (Lets call it The Cy Young Award) and Best Position Player Award. Right now it’s sort of unfair that the pitchers have an award that is attributed solely to the pinnacle of their accomplishments (that position players can’t win) and have the opportunity to win the only award (out of the two) that position players can win in this respect (MVP). Overall IMO there should be one award for the best pitcher and one for the best hitter.
Jonathan Lucroy 4th in NL–I’m happy to see the voters paid attention.
I will never accept that a starting pitcher who only factors into 30 games or so is more valuable than a position player who suits up for something in the neighborhood of 150 games.
Pitchers have more of a chance to impact the games they are in. They have the ability to completely control the game. It’s up to them to make good pitches, work deep into games (subsequently effecting the bullpen, impacting more than just one game), and give their team a chance to win. Agree to disagree, but if pitchers didn’t have any value to their team just because they play only 30 times, then why not just throw any guy out there?
Which matters more:
A guy who bats an average of 4 times/game (20 times every 5 games), and is forced to make a play in the field 3-4 times/game (at 15-20 times/5-games, that’s being generous), or the guy who pitches to an average of 30-40 batters every 5 games?
If we’re talking Kershaw it’s a lot closer to 30 than 40 on average haha
True, although then the question becomes… A player who, every 5 games has about 27.5 – 30 PAs’-worth of effect (half credit for the plays in the field, and it should probably be less, since that would assume every play being made unassisted), or a player who has about… 27 – 30 PAs’-worth of effect?
Exactly. That just proves his efficiency haha.
If anyone has a gripe it’s Jose Altuve. He should have finished much higher. He is a top 10 talent lost on an anonymous Astros team.
The MVP of the American League is younger than both of the rookies of the year.
And already has two top-2 AL MVP finishes prior.
IMO, a pitcher shouldn’t win an MVP because pitchers have their own award and they play 35 games max usually.
I really dont like the pitchers to win the MVP, but Hank Aron award is for hitters, right.
yea, but its no where near the prestige though.
Ok so thats the pitchers fault? I saw the suggestion earlier, make the Hank Aaron award mean more. Hitters get the hank aaron, pitchers get the cy young, the most valuable PLAYER gets the MVP, not the most valuable pitcher. not the most valuable hitter. the most valuable PLAYER
Remember, like someone said earlier, a position player gets maybe 20 ABs in 5 games and kershaw probably faced 25 batters in 5 days. Also think of this: the Dodgers would have never ever made the playoffs without kershaw. They were 24-3 with him. No other player had that effect on his team. Look at the record when Stanton was in the lines and compare the two. Impossible to beat kershaws percentage.
Lineup*
Hank Aaron and his Hank Aaron Award throw their hands up in exasperation.
Kershaw sure is building quite the Hall of Fame resume. No-Hitter, 3 Cy Youngs & now an MVP. Pretty scary to think he’s just 26
His resume is already phenomenal: 1378.1 IP, 2.48 ERA, 98-49 (.667), 35.7 fWAR, 42.4 RA9-WAR, four MLB ERA titles, 3 National League Cy Young Awards, a runner-up National League Cy Young Award finish, a National League Most Valuable Player Award, and he currently ranks 14th all-time in fWAR through age 26 and 20th in RA9-WAR. If you limit that since 1930, he jumps to sixth in RA9-WAR through age-26 since 1930 and sixth in fWAR through age-26 since 1930. That’s one amazing resume. He could get Koufax treatment with two more dominant seasons and some playoff success, and already be a lock. If he ended 2016 at around 56 RA9-WAR, 1800 IP, a 2.50 ERA, 130 W, 48-50 fWAR and adds another two top-5 NL CY finishes, he’s already a lock in my mind by age 28. He’s even better than Felix.
The Angels had to make the playoffs in order for the writers to FINALLY recognize Mike Trout.
How did Josh Harrison receive more MVP votes than Russel Martin? I don’t understand this new voting system.
New? What changed? The Harrison > Martin probably had to do with Martin’s relative lack of playing time. He only had 460 PA.
Trout finally wins an MVP, after posting the worst season of his career!
Miggy played with a broken bone for 6 weeks… he had to wait for that I suppose.
hahahaha so true
A lot of strikeouts for Trout in 2014.
How can anyone look at Trout’s numbers and suggest anyone else in the AL was more deserving? How can anyone who watched Trout this season suggest he wasn’t deserving?!!
I’m a Mariner fan, and I can assure everyone I hate having him in the AL West. But he had a remarkable season. He’s one of the best players I have ever seen–and I’m not young!
Congratulations to both him and Kershaw. Both were a treat to watch this season.
There is a discrepancy between the point totals for Jose Bautista on this post (128) and the number given on the google doc attachment (122)
I tell you what if I had a dollar every time somebody ask me is Clayton Kershaw the best pitcher in baseball I would have at least $500
Who do you hang around with?
Bro I know a lot about baseball trust me
Kind of interesting that Felix beat Kluber in MVP balloting, but not in Cy Young. Make sense of that.
I notice discrepancies like that too and in past years voting as well. Makes me wonder if some of the voters value the awards different.
While there is some overlap, it’s not the same pool of voters.
Wow. Most strikeouts, and a .287 average. Wow. Victor all the way… if Trout’s speed is so dominant, why doesn’t he have the highest OPS? He wasn’t the most valuable to his team :II
Speed does not factor into a player’s OPS unless they’re legging out a few more singles and triples than most players. Other than that it’s mostly determined by getting on base and how often that is the result of XBH’s.
See that’s the problem I don’t get. How many infield singles does Victor have? Probably 0. That means he has to hit hard hit balls to get on base! And speed does factor in it because of infield hits, bunts, etc. Trout only had 6 more doubles! And he is the flash compared to Victor. I dunno, with Cabrera in the pain he was, VIctor really aided our team this year.