A Large Regular: AL MVP

Showing posts with label AL MVP. Show all posts

Saturday, August 04, 2012

Player Comparison

Here's a mind blowing player comparison:

Player A .331 BA/ .556 SLG/ .967 OPS/ 103 R/ 25 HR/ 105 RBI
Player B .347 BA/ .603 SLG/ 1.012 OPS/ 84 R/ 19 HR/ 57 RBI

Player A is Freddy Lynn from 1975 - the year he won both the AL ROY and MVP awards. Player B is Mike Trout from this season. With two months left in the season - Trout is on track to blow away Lynn's numbers (in everything but RBI). What's really mind blowing is that Trout is three years younger than what Lynn was in 1975.

Incredible.

Saturday, August 27, 2011

Justin Verlander

Let me say off the top that I'm not a supporter of Justin Verlander for AL MVP. I think Adrian Gonzalez is the best choice right now (though there's still a lot of games to play). I did want to comment on the idea that Verlander shouldn't get support because he's not a "everyday player". I think that argument is nonsense. And here's why.

The so called "everyday player" can play offense and can play defense. That's it. In regards to defense - there's a stat called put-outs (PO) to measure how many "outs" the player is "responsible" for (sorry for all the "scare" quotes - I can't help myself). Jacoby Ellsbury has 315 PO, Curtis Granderson has 287 PO and Dustin Pedroia has 231 PO. Of course Adrian Gonzalez has as of this morning exactly 1,000 PO on the season. His PO total is more than Ellsbury, Granderson and Pedroia combined but that's because Gonzo plays 1st base. It would be silly to say that even the worst fielding 1st baseman is more valuable than a Gold Glove caliber outfielder like Ellsbury or a Gold Glove winning 2nd baseman like Pedroia simply because the stone hands 1st baseman has more PO and is thus more involved with the defense. That would be like arguing that a pitcher shouldn't be an MVP because he's not as involved as an "everyday player".

Actually the point I was trying to make was the fact that Justin Verlander has 212 strikeouts plus 10 PO. That means he has been directly "responsible" for 222 outs this season on defense which would be fairly close to Pedroia's number of PO. So it can be argued that a dominating strikeout pitcher is almost as involved overall as any "everyday" player. So what about offense?

Well the argument against a pitcher for the MVP is usually that the pitcher is not as involved in a team's success as an everyday player. That he's only a factor every fifth game (which would be 20% of the time in a 5-man rotation). But if you think about it - on offense no matter who the player is they only get to be a factor once every nine at-bats (or about 11% of the time). The rest of the time the player is just watching from the bench or from the on-deck circle having just as much impact as the pitcher who started the game before and is hanging out on the bench. A player at the top of the order will naturally get more plate appearances than a guy batting ninth but even if he accounts for 15% of the team's plate appearances - how is that more important than a starting pitcher who is starting 20% of the games?

OK - you may argue that a starting pitcher may start a game but that doesn't mean he finishes a game and that point is fair enough. However, consider that the Tigers have played 131 games with a total of 1161 innings. Justin Verlander has accounted for 209.67 of those 1161 innings -which equates to 18% of all the team's innings pitched. Not even the best leadoff man is going to equate to 18% of the team's plate appearances.

So tell me again - why is a guy like Verlander less valuable to his team than a "everyday" player?

Thursday, November 20, 2008

The MVP Award and Steroids

This is an observation and not a scientific study in any way but I think one of the elephants in the room that isn't being talked about is how steroids testing has effected baseball and the MVP Award in particular. Consider that the top 5 vote getters in the American League averaged just 22.8 home runs. Only one player in the top 5 had over 30 HR. The 22.8 HR is a 41% decrease in HR from the top 5 vote getters from 5 just years ago.

That's an amazing change in numbers. Yet nobody seems to be mentioning it.

This is not a fluke - it's clearly a trend in both leagues. Here's how the top 5 vote getters have averaged in HR for the past 5 years (doubly significant in that Barry Bonds last won an MVP 5-years ago):

2008 - AL 22.8 / NL 33.6
2007 - AL 33 / NL 38.6
2006 - AL 37 / NL 43.8
2005 - AL 41 / NL 41.4
2004 - AL 38.6 / NL 43

I fully expect the AL average to go up next year but even if it goes up to an average of 30 HR from the top 5 vote getters - that will still be a decrease of 20% from the 2004 numbers.

Eventually the numbers will flatten out and you'll pretty much know what to expect from year to year. I just find it interesting that nobody seems to be commenting on this very obvious drop in the numbers and maybe what it says about the top players of the steroids era.

Wednesday, November 19, 2008

Dustin Pedroia Wins AL MVP!!

Dustin Pedroia wins the AL MVP! Yeah! As a Red Sox fan I am ecstatic for Pedey (or Petey). I'm so giddy that my thoughts are all over the place.

I think it is wonderful that yesterday Pedroia wins the award and that today is Equal Opportunity Day. There is a certain symmetry to that. You don't have to be a well above average height wise and muscle wise 1st baseman to win the award. You don't have to be a $25 million third baseman to get the voters attention. Not any more. Dustin Pedroia is a role model to all the small, balding, white guys everywhere. Today they all have equal opportunity to do whatever they strive to do and Dustin Pedroia is the proof!

I know my hope will never be realized but I can't help but dream of Dustin Pedroia making the theme to Mighty Mouse his introductory music. Here he comes to save the day! That would be awesome.

One thing that bothers me is the fact that Dustin Pedroia is good and too unique not to have a good nickname. How about "the Dust Buster"? Naw - I agree. How about "Tootsie"? That plays on the Dustin Hoffman angle (as some at Sons of Sam Horn have suggested). Probably too whimpy. "Get Shorty"? "Vertically challenged"? If Frank Thomas was "the Big Hurt" - maybe Pedroia could be "the Little Nagging Injury"? It's tough to come up with a nickname befitting this great player.

The last Red Sox player to win the AL MVP was Mo Vaughn. I can't help but think that the celebration for the two players was probably as different as their body types. I'm thinking Mo was making it rain at the Foxy Lady after hearing about winning the award. I picture Pedroia doing extra reps at the training institute in Arizona after winning the award.

One last thing - I don't think that Terry Francona gets enough credit when it comes to Pedroia. Last year Pedroia really struggled out of the gate but Francona stuck with him. I don't think the results of that gamble and that belief get enough credit.