Trout certainly got his team to excel. Since Trout was called up the Angles have the very best record in baseball (and remember how poor the Angles were playing before he was called up), have a better record than the Tigers, and have played a much tougher schedule. That literally makes him the player with the most value to his team.

Ted Williams had a higher batting average the whole season than DiMaggio did during the streak. There was also Chuck Klein in the NL during the 30s. Klein was on a last place club in the best hitters park in the league. DiMaggio is from New York. Cabrera is on a division champ with not a lot of other tools offensively.

Throw the stats out the window. Cabrerra wins it.

Awesome.

Um, ok....first of all, they Angels have a better record than the Tigers and play ina much tougher division, thereby a much tougher schedule. Also, the Triple Crown is an offensive feat, and a rare one for sure, but Trout is the better overall player this year, and has been the reason the Anglels have a better record than the Tigers. Also, Trout has also achieved many feats that are rare. Add the fact that he has the offensive numbers of a clean up guy, in the lead off spot, a terror in a historic way on the base paths and will surely win the gold glove in CF, it's hard to imagine someone saying he isn't the more valuable player. Yes, Miggy has killed it at the plate and mdeserves whatever offensive award available, but overall MVP? Hes Below average at his position and sucks on the base paths...but yes, he's awesome with the bat, he'd may get the triple crown. Doesn't make him the better overall most valuable player.

All of the Trout fans should consider this: since August 1st, Cabrera has hit .343 with 19 home runs, 52 RBI, and he's scored 42 runs. Trout has hit .284 with 12 home runs, 28 RBI, and has scored 49 runs.

Cabrera's batting average down the stretch in the pennant race was 59 points higher, he hit 7 more home runs, and his combined total for runs scored and runs batted in was 94 versus 71 for Trout.

If Trout had produced as well as Cabrera when it mattered the most, the Angels would be in the playoffs. Instead, they finished in 3rd place, which is exactly where they would have finished if Trout had never played an inning this year.

It's not even close. The vote for MVP should be unanimous.

Oh, and if some Poindexter wants to get out his slide rule and calculate WAR since August 1st, I'm pretty sure Cabrera would come out far ahead of Trout.

And the Angels are a whole half-game worse than the Tigers over that stretch. They went 32-25 since August 1. The Tigers are 33-25. The Tigers were just fortunate to play a lot of games against the shitty AL Central. That's the only reason they're in the playoffs and the Angels are missing it. Saying "Trout slumped and that's why the Angels missed the playoffs" misses the mark, IMO. For one thing, he still produced an .860 OPS during the time period you defined. For another, it doesn't account for any contributions Trout made with the glove or his legs (contributions Cabrera can't make). Trout stole 18 bases during that period (18/19) and played Gold Glove defense in CF.

BTW, Most statisticians only count HR once when calculating runs created (Since counting them for RBI and R creates an artificial number and is not statistically sound). Looking at the numbers that way, Cabrera accounts for 74 runs (42+52-19), Trout for 65 (28+49-12). That's not a very big separation in the key stats for Cabrera's case.

And RBI and R are not definitive numbers in a small sample size, IMO, since they're entirely dependent on the team around the players.

Truth is neither player is a "clear case" over the other. They're both deserving, and I won't complain regardless of who wins. I would vote for Trout, personally, because he can help you win games in any way a baseball player can possibly help a team win games. Cabrera can win them with his bat - which is tremendous - but that's about it.

Nope.

Trout: 3.6 (1.8 in August, 1.8 in September/October)
Cabrera: 3.1 (1.5 in August, 1.6 in September/October)

Glove+Bat+Legs still put Trout over the top in WAR.

BINGO. And lets not forget the fact that Trout has done all of these great, historic things as a 20-21 yr old player, who hits leadoff, not clean up. And dont say well then just give him ROY. If thats the arguement, we shouldnt give pitchers MVP becasue they can win the CY young award.

:LOL:
Owned!

Don't know why this is even a debate, if Cabrera wins the triple crown its game set and match. There is no argument that can trump the triple freaking crown. Trout is a great story, but I can't believe the people discounting what a HUGE accomplishment the triple crown would be.

What the hell does the age of the player have to do with who should be MVP?

That's just stupid.

Cabrera should win it because 100 years ago somebody coined the term triple crown. If Cabrera was just the first player to lead the league in the three arbitrary offensive categories of BA, HRs, and RBI in decades, Trout would deserve it for being the better all-round player.

That isn't what happened, though. Cabrera will win the "triple crown", so that's more impressive than what Trout has done.

Congratulations Poindexter. You've just shown that WAR is not the ultimate statistic.