Triple Crown!!

[Matthew80]

Originally Posted by CMIZ5290

If alot of players have had better years than cabrera, i can't seem to recall them. 330 batting avg, 44 hrs., and 139 rbi's, hard to imagine a better year than that....

It actually happens quite often, just scroll through the league leaders over the years. It happened seemingly throughout the career of Babe Ruth. His career average and average annual HR and RBI numbers exceeds that of Cabrera's 2012 year, and he never won it. The fact that Bonds didn't win the Triple Crown during the early 2000's, the greatest and most complete offensive seasons ever, shows just how highly contextual that achievement is.

I think an interesting and revealing thought experiment would be to think about whether Cabrera should be MVP if Hamilton or Granderson had gotten 45 HR's. Neither of those sluggers had the year Trout or Cabrera did, so it wouldn't rob votes away from Cabrera or Trout, and it would have the added virtue of removing the Triple Crown from Cabrera's year while not diminishing his #s.

Trout's AVG/OBP/SLG, an offensive line that better reflects value than AVG/HR/RBI, is so very, very close to Cabrera's, that his overwhelming defensive superiority and ABSOLUTELY ridiculous baserunning superiority makes him the MVP, in my judgment.

It's a true shame Cabrera didn't play in the National League: he could legitimately and rightfully win an MVP while not relying on (or achieving) such a highly contextual feat, and he could keep that dirty cheat Braun from winning an MVP.

[Piratedogcardshows]

Winning the first Triple Crown in 40 plus years has to be a lock for MVP no doubt.Trout can have the ROY he will get his MVP one day.

[bn2cardz]

Originally Posted by Matthew80

Trout's AVG/OBP/SLG, an offensive line that better reflects value than AVG/HR/RBI, is so very, very close to Cabrera's, that his overwhelming defensive superiority and ABSOLUTELY ridiculous baserunning superiority makes him the MVP, in my judgment.

Cabrera had better plate patience. Trout struck out/plate appearance was .249 compared to Cabrera's .158. OBP is important, but sometimes you can be helpful when you at least put the ball in play. So when your OBP is off by only 3/1000th of a point then you have to look at other stats.

Cabrera also had a PA/RBI average of .223 compared to Trout's .130. So at the plate Cabrera was more helpful to his team.

On the bases Trout is obviously better.

For defense, Cabrera is ranked number 3 on Fielding Percentage for 3rd basemen, and Trout is ranked at number 5 of Center Fielders (19 for Fielding Percentage among all Out Fielders).

So it is pretty close. I can see why the voters have to really think about it. Though I would go with Cabrera.