quote:I'm guessing there are more Mike Trout fans than Miguel Cabrera fans. Include me in the Trout band wagon, though I like the way Cabrera has handled all of this. IMO they are both very deserving and it's not going to be a pitcher this year. How about Trout for the Cy Young? Just kidding!
PG; you've summed it up nicely. It's interesting that there is so much discussion about new metrics vs. old style statistics. Each partisan group expend so much energy vigorously defending the validity of their numbers. Gee whiz, If more of our population base had spent more time researching measurable performance before heading to the polls for our last Presidential election, perhaps ...........
The if's, had Trout come up sooner, hit in the middle of the order ...... , had Miggy not had Fielder protecting him, if they had been flipped, and so forth; are just big IF's... As Jim Leyland said; "this game is won by getting big hits and driving in runs." Cabrera does that better than any right-handed hitter I ever saw play this game. Jim Leyland has "seen" (to your point about eyes on) a player or two in his near half century in the game.
These aren't your statements, but appear earlier;
"Batting average isn't relevant" seems to be uttered mostly when the average is low, relatively speaking. So, if we ever have another .400 hitter, that stat won't matter? "Home Runs are only relevant to those that don't understand." Perhaps, certainly they are relevant to those playing the game, and PAYING those that play the game.
Moreover, if we get a pitcher next year that wins more than 30 games (hasn't been done in over 45 yrs., akin to the current TRIPLE CROWN accomplishment) he may NOT be worthy of the Cy Young Award? I guess so, right. I mean really, we all know that wins aren't really an accurate measure of a pitchers performance. Wins, like batting average, see to become meaningless to those that want to support the performance of a player that doesn't have either many wins, or a high batting average, or not many home runs, or few RBI's??
I'm ready to go to WAR on this one.
Until then; Trout had the best Rookie season anyone has ever seen and should be the ROY. I'm guessing he will pan out long term but still want to see it first!
Cabrera, has been among the top five players in the League for a good while. Did he win the batting title last year? Probably a fluke, only happened because Fielder was hitting behind him. Yea right. Any of you guys hit a baseball before?