quote:Originally posted by PGStaff:
"I would think Mike Trout would be the winner in any popularity contest.
"These awards are not based on statistics alone. If they were we would have known the MVP right after the last game."
Maybe not, but these awards ARE based almost entirely on the various performances that these statistics measure, and year by year we are able to measure more and more, and all more accurately, than before. The things that AREN'T measured really play very little role in these awards.
Playing Gold Glove level defense at a premium, up-the-middle defensive position matters.
Going first-to-third (let alone scoring from first, as Trout has done and is capable of doing) on a single matters. Speed on the basepaths (which is comprised of much more tha just leading the league in stolen bases with an almost unheard of 91% success rate, as impressive as that is) matters.
On-base percentage matters - far more than batting average. Scoring runs matters - even more than RBIs. After all, any player only has ONE chance to score for every PA, but depending on runners on base has multiple chances per plate appearance to drive a run in, and a batter doesn't even need to get on base to drive in a run (he can do it while making an out).
And the reason OBP matters so much is that avoding making outs also matters. They are the only finite thing in this game - you only get 27 outs to win, so every out is precious, and every time you get on base your team lives another out longer and is that much closer to winning. Cabrera supporters like to point out that Cabrera played a full season, while Trout only played 5/6ths of one, but that is extremely misleading because even though Cabrera had 58 more plate appearances than Trout did, he made 56 more outs with those 58 additional opportunities to help his team. Tell me again how that added more value?
All of these important parts of baseball were areas where Mike Trout FAR exceeded Miguel Cabrera. Yes, there were areas where Cabrera exceeded Trout offensively, but they were either (a) less important (such as batting average instead of OBP, or RBI instead of runs), or (b) areas where the differences in their performances were relatively slight, or (c) both.