I agree. You can make a solid case for Cabrera winning the MVP. You can do so while basing your argument on his impressive BA, HRs, and RBI total. You can not, however, say that winning the triple crown automatically makes him the player with the most value and have it be an intelligent statement.

Once again, I think you're just knocking down your own straw man here.

Again, I'm going to point to the season Elsbury had just last year.

We're touting the 125/50/30 thing here, yes? Well Elsbury went 119/39/32. Would you agree that's damn close? He also drove in 105 runs and did a far better job of putting the ball in play than Trout did this year.

Elsbury would've gotten steamrolled in the MVP voting by the season that Cabrera's putting up right now. He damn near got passed by Bautista who's stat line was inferior to Cabrera's almost across the board and who played in a far far better hitters environment. And whether you like it or not, Bautista's team didn't make the playoffs and he didn't finish the with absolutely torrid stretch that Cabrera had. Cabrera has a significantly stronger case this year than Bautista had last year.

This idea that Trout's having a historic season is just wrong. He's having a historic season for a rookie, but the season itself is just another in the long line of very very good power/speed seasons.

And in the end the Triple Crown does count for something. Is it dispositive? No, but it does mean that you were clearly the best at those things that season. That's a big deal and enough to ultimately give the thing to Miggy.

You still bitter over Pujols??? Baby, you really need to get obver it. Move forward. Move on.

Moving forward to game 163.

You?

Read the thread. You may have a more nuanced argument for Cabrera, but there's a lot of posts in this thread (let alone the rest of the internet) that are placing the triple crown above anything else for MVP consideration. It isn't a strawman.

Those folks have largely bailed out.

Saul's conducting an empty chair interview with the folks that did hit and run posts. I'm not sure what that accomplishes.

It's not even a straw man as it relates to this thread in a vacuum.

Two things regarding Cabrera and MVP- one pro, one con. In your average baseball season, some slap hitter goes .340 or .350 quite often. No one did that this year. If they had, the TC would not even be in play as an argument. On the other hand, I thought he would be hilariously bad at 3B, but every time I saw him, he was making strong stops and throws. Just looked better than anticipated. I don't have a number for that.

Brainiac declared my argument a straw man 23 minutes after the WV post quoted above.

That's twice now in this thread that you've shown a complete lack of understanding regarding what the MVP is based on. First, you mentioned that Trout was only 20 years old when the season started as one of your supporting arguments for him, as if that has ANYTHING to do with qualifications for MVP. To your credit, you didn't try to stick with that after I slapped you around for it.

But now you're completely misunderstanding that MVP is a relative term, not an absolute one. Another player's performance sure as hell DOES have bearing on whether or not a specific player is the MVP. The "M" in MVP stands for MOST valuable player. A player could put up identical numbers in back to back years and be the MVP one year but not the next. What other players do ABSOLUTELY affects any player's chance to be MVP.

Hey, we get it. You're an Angels fan and a Mike Trout fan, and you'd absolutely love to see Mike Trout win the MVP award. But as DJ's Left Nut so eloquently pointed out, Mike Trout is only slightly better than Jacoby Ellsbury was last year. He just makes a few more spectacular plays, plays in a bigger media market, and gets on the Sportscenter highlights on a regular basis. That doesn't make him the MVP. Sorry.

I wasn't responding to anybody else's quote when I called your quote a straw man argument. If it bothers you so much, I'll retract that and just say you were being sarcastic.

My answer would be yes. But really I couldn't care less. My interest in mlb since my youth has dropped off like a cliff. I used to collect cards, love going to see the Royals play, and following the game. Maybe it's the long standing irrelevance of the Royals or I just outgrew the game, but I really don't care about baseball anymore. I'll go to a game once a year. But all things mlb... I just don't care. Kinda sad.

My guess would be that 25 years of ineptitude by the Royals is what made you lose interest. I tell my sons all the time how it used to be, and how being a Royals fan today is nothing like it was.

I see. You don't know what "straw man" means. That makes sense.

You slapped me around? Lmfao. Dont slap yourself on he back so damn hard. It is pretty amazing that a kid has done the things he's done in a mans game. But, really it doesn't play into MVP. I was just pointing out his age cuz it is pretty damn amazing. But, go ahead and think you slapped me around if it makes you feel better. And just because you have a different opinion about who shod,be MVP, doesn't mean I have a complete lack of understanding of the concept of MVP. There's plenty of people within the MLB and baseball magazines, writers etc that think Trout shoe be. And there are many others who think Cabrera should be. So only the ones who Cabrera should be MVP understand?