quote:Originally posted by Three Bagger:
Half the time he is on the field(defense), there are dozens of minor leaguers who are more valuable to their team than Cabrera. When he is on the basepaths there are hundreds of Major Leaguers who are more valuable to their team than Cabrera. He is way above in two catagories-RBI's and batting average which are now proven to not have the assumed value they had in 1967. There is virtually no one above Trout in either baserunning or fielding and dang few in hitting. Wins above replacement, which includes fielding and baserunning as well as hitting--Trout 10.5, Cabrera, 6.4 in tenth place in the ML's.
Judging one sabermetric stat is just as inaccurate as judging by one normal stat such as HR/RBI.
I'd be curious to know if you know how WAR is calculated, because the fielding and baserunning aspects of it are still very primitive. Also, CF are arbitrarily given a boost to their WAR because their position is generally worse at hitting than others.
The fielding part of WAR, called UZR, is so inaccurate that it makes the stat as a whole inaccurate. Based on UZR, Jeter went from one of the worst fielders in the game to one of the best, in the span of one offseason (and he was above the age of 35).
Edit: For the record, I agree with you that Trout should be MVP. I just don't think it can be proven by one stat.