Quote:
Originally Posted by Prison Bitch
Cain was underrated, finishing 3rd in the MVP race?
|
Yeah, I'd say if a guy misses nearly a full month of play and manages a top 3 finish in the MVP race, he's probably being adequately rated especially when a significant part of his value was derived from his defense.
Voters rarely give a damn about defense in those races and Cain was given full marks for his. In the process he finished ahead of a guy who scored more runs, drove in more runs and hit more than twice as many bombs as he did while having a higher OPS. But while Manny was merely an excellent defensive 3b that year, Cain played a more critical defensive position and was the best in baseball at it.
For once the voters actually paid attention to that. If anything, I think they put TOO much weight in it, but that's just me (as someone who simply doesn't trust publicly available defensive metrics).
At times Cain wasn't given the credit he deserved but when the Royals were at their best, virtually everyone acknowledge that Cain was the biggest part of it from the position player side.