The American League Most Valuable Player race took an unfortunate turn over the weekend when the Angels ruled transcendent center fielder Mike Trout out for the rest of the season. The out-of-contention Angels have nothing to left to play for, but the final couple weeks of the year could have helped Trout, a future Hall of Famer, bolster his MVP case. The 28-year-old has already won the award twice (arguably not enough times considering his brilliance to this point), and he looked like the favorite to take home the honors again this season before a foot injury took him down. Trout could still end up as the AL MVP, but given that he’s on a bad team and hasn’t played since Sept. 7, it’s increasingly likely a challenger will rise up and win it.
If we’re to believe Fangraphs’ version of wins above replacement, 10 American League hitters have been worth at least 5.0 fWAR this year. Trout’s easily in first place, having racked up 8.6 fWAR, while Astros third baseman Alex Bregman’s next at 7.4. Underrated Athletics shortstop Marcus Semien (6.6) is one of three players thereafter who have bettered the 6.0 mark, with Red Sox right fielder/reigning AL MVP Mookie Betts (6.3) and shortstop Xander Bogaerts (6.2) filling out the group. Beyond them, there’s Astros outfielder George Springer, A’s third baseman Matt Chapman, Red Sox third bagger Rafael Devers, Yankees utilityman DJ LeMahieu and White Sox third baseman Yoan Moncada with 5.0 fWAR.
There are also six starting pitchers in the bunch with 5.0 or more fWAR – the Astros’ Gerrit Cole and Justin Verlander, the Rangers’ Lance Lynn, the Rays’ Charlie Morton, the Indians’ Shane Bieber and the White Sox’s Lucas Giolito – for what it’s worth. However, it’s incredibly difficult for a pitcher to earn MVP honors. Verlander pulled it off back in 2011, but he was the first hurler since 1992 to do so. It’s improbable he or any other pitcher will accomplish the feat this year. Likewise, it’s difficult to imagine a player on a non-contender (Trout aside) earning the MVP this year. That may well rule out anyone from the two Sox-wearing teams.
By process of elimination, the MVP race might come down to Trout, Bregman, Semien, Springer (though it’s tough to see him winning when teammate Bregman has clearly been the more valuable player), Chapman (who’d likely lose votes to Semien) and LeMahieu.
Of course, it’s highly doubtful the voters will make the decision largely by the polarizing WAR stat, and understandably so. There will be plenty who place the most value on the dominance of Trout despite his team’s fecklessness. Others will give the nod to Bregman, who has been on an absolute tear in the season’s second half (the same goes for Semien, by the way). Meanwhile, LeMahieu has thrived as a multi-positional player in the game’s biggest market after joining the Yankees last offseason on what now looks like a bargain contract of two years and $24MM.
The Yankees and Astros are heading to the playoffs as elite teams, which could help their MVP contenders’ causes. The A’s are also likely on their way, so the same applies to their prospective MVPs. All said, it’ll be an interesting final couple weeks of the regular season as all of the above vie for the award. As of now, which player do you think should win?
(Poll link for app users)
Austin Meadows
Trout having best year. Still best player in baseball.
And out of the playoffs AGAIN
because the fact that their starters cant stay on the field and they spent fortunes on Pujols is his fault how?
And going forward they will be spending fortunes on Trout… you gonna say that’s not his fault when hes taking up a quarter of his team’s payroll?
Well, if being the best player on the team counts as MVP, let’s all vote for Trey Mancini. The O’s are probably 40-122 without him.
Brilliant
@DL0806
Having the best player on your team when you play in the 2nd largest market in North America isn’t exactly a bad thing. However, if you feel that Trout’s salary prohibits them from spending on others to create a world series contender then place that blame where it belongs and that’s with management, not the player.
It’s seems that management isn’t “all in” on winning. You have to move heaven and earth to try and maximize on having a player like Trout.
But it does prove one thing. Unlike the NBA one player can not make you a playoff contender. Take that for whatever it means.
Bregman is the MVP and it isn’t even close
lol ok
Lol ok
You mean Trout and it isn’t even close. Team success is irrelevant in this individual award.
I can see an argument for Bregman, but why wouldn’t Trout be close? He certainly looks to be the front runner barring a massive run from Bregman while Trout is out.
Trout is the best player and at one time wasn’t there a Player of the Year award? Bregman has been great but given all of the Yankees’ injuries and his versatility, hasn’t DJ really been the MVP?
deweybelongsinthehall….
Player of the Year award is given by the players through the MLBPA Players Trust and it covers both leagues. It’s never been a BBWAA award.
MLBPA also awards the Outstanding player in each league. More often than not Outstanding player or Player of the year corresponds with an MVP or at times the Player of the year has been the CYA winner in one of the leagues.
For instance Last years MVP and PotY were identical as were the CYA and PotY but Outstanding Player went to JDM
That’s a weird way to spell Trout.
‘Andyg’ is a weirder way to spell ‘troll.’
How could you possibly say “it isn’t close”? Bregman isn’t even the frontrunner let alone the “not even close” frontrunner… he could conceivably win it if he has a big couple of weeks coming up but if not — I don’t see him passing Trout for the award despite the Angels being out of contention. Trout leads the league in OBP/OBPS/HRs/BBs… like it’s just too much to look past that and penalize him for his team’s poor performance which is something he can’t control. The only other player I think should be mentioned and isn’t (though I don’t think he should win it either…) is Rafael Devers. He’s hitting well over .300 and is on pace for 30+ HRs (currently at 29). His -.9 dWAR obviously hurts his overall WAR #s but his defense hasn’t even been that bad, especially considering his age — if not for a handful of errors I think he would’ve been in the 6+ WAR topic too. But as things stand he’ll probably finish closer to 5.5 WAR (currently at 4.9)
Let’s be honest here and what would trout’s numbers be if he swapped teams with Bregman?
We will never know… because Trout chose not to win for the rest of his career…
@andyg37
Astros have 6 or 7 all-star caliber players and two incredible aces in Verlander and Cole. Shoot…Alvarez’s numbers are almost as good as Bregman’s with half the game. No way in the world should he be voted MVP. The Astros could lose him for the entire season and would likely have the same record they do now.
While all of the morons are crying for Trout, Trout is done playing. Bregman is going to match him in all of the counting stats, walk more, strikeout less, and be within .5 WAR. Any way you slice it Bregman will be the better player this year by virtue of actually playing.
Trout leads the AL OBP, SLG, OPS, OPS+, second in HR, BB in 22 fewer games.
Bregman leads the AL in BB, 8 more RBI, 6 fewer SB than Trout in 22 more games.
Bregman moves to SS and has played well there in Corea’s absence. That’s very valuable.
There’s only one right answer and he’s done for the season while his team won’t make the playoffs yet again.
Trout is the MVP by a long shot, this discussion of him potentially not getting it is pointless.
@mark0817
If you’re a student of history you won’t have a problem finding numerous occasions where the MVP was not won by the player with the best stats. You’ll also find numerous examples of the MVP being won by a player on a lousy team but having the best overall stats (not necessarily the best player). Point is, there’s no hard and fast rule about the voting criteria.
Matt Chapman
he of the barely .250 average? Id take Semian over him, and he’s not even top three in my mind
His defense says Hi
he isnt the only guy here that can play defense too. DJ, Trout and Bregman are all pretty good defenders. Contrary to popular belief, Chapman isnt so incredibly better then everyone else that he can win an MVP off D alone. see where he finished last year with comfortably better offensive numbers. like it or not, he doesnt have a chance in the eyes of the voters.
Hi
The fact that leMahieu has 12% votes is just stupid. The dude gets so much love and is having a good year, but compared to Bregman and trout he doesn’t deserve a single 1st place vote, maybe not even 3rd place votes
thinking about him as a MVP finalist seems odd to me at first, but outside the numbers he’s been invaluable for NYY. well more then holding his own in his first year outside of Coors and providing a healthy presence at 2B that NYY has really needed. numbers dont even begin to speak to his value – which is what the “V” in the award stands for after all.
Exactly. And he took over third for a while without missing a beat. He stepped it up when his team needed him most, doing everything asked of him and never letting off.
Trout’s the MVP in my book, but I think there is an argument for LeMahieu.
You can make the same argument for Bregman taking over for Correa at SS, a more valuable defensive position. And he’s a better offensive player. Compare the stats and it’s clearly Trout, Bregman and the rest. I think Trout should win. He’s amazing and the better player imo. And I’m an Astros fan.
Not really, because Bregman was already the second best third baseman in baseball. Sliding to SS meant a drop at 3B.
But I agree, that it’s Trout, Bregman, then the rest. There’s an argument for DJ, but he would finish third or fourth if I had a vote.
Bogaerts/Devers are better candidates than LeMahieu.
Why
@miltpappas Neither of their numbers are substantially better than DJ and they play 1 position of a team 18 games behind the Yanks.. No.
@tigersfan1320
I don’t think DJ will win it but clearly, if you are one of those who looks for the most valuable player to a team, the idea being that without this player for 150 + games the team wouldn’t be winning then DJ is plausible.
Stanton and Andujar out for almost the entire season. Sanchez on the DL twice. Judge missing about 60 games. Didi missing about 80 games. Hicks missing about 90 games. Voit missing about 40 games.
DJ, Torres, Gardner and Gio are the only guys to play most of the season. DJ’s defensive flexibility has allowed the Yanks to plug him in at positions where the starter was on the IL.
DJ played 69 games as 2B mostly when Didi was out and Torres moved to SS. 49 games at 3B when Andujar and Gio were on the IL. 37 games at 1B when Voit was on the IL or they just wanted a better glove there.
And he’s been uber clutch. .988 OPS with RISP (119 AB). A .989 OPS with runners on 3B and 2 outs .
All of those things combined makes me think he’ll get a few 1st place votes.
It’s Marcus Semien
He’ll be the Gold Glove winner at shortstop. The amount of clutch hits he’s produced this year, whether getting on-base or driving in game tying/winning runs, separates him from everyone else
Lol
Leadoff single and run scored in the 1st tonight
And he does it every night
Trout: ,291/.438/.645, 45 home runs, 184 OPS+, 8.3 WAR
Semien: .281/.364/.513, 30 home runs, 135 OPS+, 7.0 WAR
Overall, they’re pretty much about the same in terms of clutch (Trout: .297/.489/.670 Semien: 320/.427/.670 with RISP).
Semien is good, Trout is a whole league about him though.
Just hit a homer to pull ahead, he’s worthy!
Worthy of 4th place behind Trout, Bregman, and LeMahieu.
Bogaerts is the beat offensive shortstop in baseball, can run and is no slouch defensively. If a shortstop wins it, it is bogaerts. He leads shortstop in doubles, OBP, SLG, OPS, and extra base hits. And is second amongst shortstops in hits, homers, walks, runs scored and batting average. Stolen bases, ks and triples are the only 3 major offensive categories that bogaerts does not finish top 2 in amongst AL shortstops.
@123Redsox Too bad it’s not the MVSS (most valuable SS) award.
I feel like team success should be a part of MVP voting. Tryouts gone to the playoffs 1 time in his career. Yankees wouldn’t be where they are without Lemahieu, in my mind he’s AL MVP
That’s not true. They would still win the division had they not had Lemahieu this year. He is not a 9 win player. It’s been proven time and time again that one player cannot lead a team to success. It is entirely unfair (and rewriting the rules) to base the award off of that.
@JDGoat There;s ZERO way for any of us to know where the Yanks would be without DJ so stop saying that. And being a 9 win player insure nothing for team success as evident by the Angels record.
“It is entirely unfair (and rewriting the rules) to base the award off of that.”.
Show me any rules that speaks to the criteria for MVP voting. I mean Ted Williams would easily have 7 or 8 more MVP awards if it was just about being the best hitter.
“Show me any rules that speaks to the criteria for MVP voting.”
bbwaa.com/voting-faq/ and scroll down.
Semien has had a sneaky good year and has improved incredibly at SS. Everyone talks about how underrated the As are and point to Olson and Chapman. That being said, trout is mvp. We all deserve to see him in the playoffs
Totally agree. Semien has had an incredible season and has seemed to fly below the radar for much of the year but he has quietly put together one of the best seasons for a SS in quite some time. Having said that, I also agree Trouts the MVP despite Semien’s impressive season and that his team’s in the postseason picture, in no small part, thanks to him.
BBWAA guidelines for MVP voting
“Dear Voter:
There is no clear-cut definition of what Most Valuable means. It is up to the individual voter to decide who was the Most Valuable Player in each league to his team. The MVP need not come from a division winner or other playoff qualifier.
The rules of the voting remain the same as they were written on the first ballot in 1931:
1. Actual value of a player to his team, that is, strength of offense and defense.
2. Number of games played.
3. General character, disposition, loyalty and effort.
4. Former winners are eligible.
5. Members of the committee may vote for more than one member of a team.
You are also urged to give serious consideration to all your selections, from 1 to 10. A 10th-place vote can influence the outcome of an election. You must fill in all 10 places on your ballot. Only regular-season performances are to be taken into consideration.
Keep in mind that all players are eligible for MVP, including pitchers and designated hitters.”
As of Yesterday (per BBRef) DJ played 1 more game than Trout, Bergman 11 more and Semein has played 16 more so it’s not a huge gap.
The fact that Trout leads the AL in HR, BB, OBP, SLG, OPS and OPS+ despite not having played since Sept. 7 says volumes. Oh, he is also a pretty darn good fielder too
“The fact that Trout leads the AL in HR, BB, OBP, SLG, OPS and OPS+ despite not having played since Sept. 7 says volumes. Oh, he is also a pretty darn good fielder too”
Yet these personal accolades amount to precisely zero. None of these chart leading stats contribute to anything remotely resembling winning. We need to evaluate more on the merits of ones presence and the intangibles than just who tops off the stat board in some categories. I like Mike Trout, but out of all the names listed, he is dead last in my opinion. Call me back when all those eye watering numbers of Trouts turn a losing-dead-end-team like the Angels into a 95 win team or something like that. Then we’re talking. Until then, he’s just a really really good baseball player. Nothing more.
baseball365 ……..
Please point to the part in the guidelines that specifies winning as a criteria….I’ll wait.
Below is a list of players in Major League history with at least 116 runs, 173 hits, 38 doubles, 7 triples, 30 home runs, 85 RBI, 78 walks and 10 stolen bases in a season:
Babe Ruth (1921 and 1923)
Lou Gehrig (1927 and 1930)
Marcus Semien (2019)
Trout….hands down the better and more valuable player!
Lou Gehrig had 173 rbi’s in both 1927 and 1930 and batter .373 and .379…didn’t even bother to look up the Babe…….Semien isn’t even close in productivity and didn’t even bother to look up defense for either guy……….Bye Felicia!
Could you have pulled any more arbitrary numbers out of your rear end?
@Screamer My guy….eliminate triples from that set of filters and I promise you’ll be adding another 20+ guys to the list,
DJ, DJ, DJ!!!
Marcus Semien and DJ LeMahieu won’t finish in the top 5
DJ has been the most valuable and most consistent player all year.
Bregman has been better.
Getting tired of hearing about this DJL nonsense.
MVP doesn’t mean best player. Terry Pendleton…
MVP stands for Most Valuable Player, not guy with the best stats.
Where would the Angel’s be without Trout? Where would the yanks be without DJ? Where would the As be without Matt Olson? Olson has a winning percentage better than Chapman. He deserves it more than Chapman. Trout has a losing percentage. With the Yankees… they have had replacement players play better than their regulars, so whoever’s filled in for DJ probably would have done better.
Matt Olson MVP
Eh, nobody’s filled in for DJ….he hasn’t been hurt all year long and his stats and value are off the charts….still believe Trout is and should be MVP.
Matt Olson….WOW!
Never said anyone filled in for DJ, just saying the Yankees have had bench players step up and do better than the regulars. Garner, Maybin, Tauchmann, Urshela, Ford, Romine… the list goes on and on. It wouldn’t surprise me if someone else did it for DJ.
Olson… look at the A’s record with him in. Much better than Chapman.
Most Valuable Player… If the league “valued” wins, then the guy that gave your team the most wins would get the award. Instead it goes to the guy with the coolest stat line. Can we rename the award? “Cool Stat Line Award”?
@Melchez
“so whoever’s filled in for DJ probably would have done better.”
Dumbest thing you’ve ever said and that’s saying a lot.
I know, right? No one can replace Hicks or Andujar or Judge or Sanchez or Stanton or Didi or Voit… a team loses those guys and they are a .500 team at best. How dumb can someone be?
@melchez
You did nothing to change my mind and there’s no way of knowing whether Tauchman would have had a better year than Stanton or that Gio would have a better offensive season than Andujar.
But the idea that the Yanks would’ve been able to replace DJ and perform BETTER than him is something that we wouldn’t know and seems highly so to detract from DJs accomplishments by saying they would’ve replaced his performance with some “unknown” is absurd.
And for the record I’m not saying he WOULD or SHOULD win but I can easily imagine him getting a couple of 1st place votes and that was all that I was saying,
We don’t know if the Yankees would have a better record if Judge, Stanton, Andujar and the rest were healthy all year long. Yankees would have to play pretty darn good to top their record without them.
I’m going with DJ LeMahieu in the AL and Ketel Marte in the NL With all the injuries in NYY, they still have the best record in MLB. DJ’s has been plugged into wherever he’s needed at the time.
I’ve long grown tired of the interpretation of these titles and the recognition associated with them. I’ve watched in recent years some players “win” these awards, which I felt (and it’s just my opinion) are based on a flawed rational. Using Ohtani as a great example – someone who I felt should not have won the ROY award over Andujar. Obviously resurrecting this now, considering the current season looks foolish, but at the time, it was blatantly obvious what the right call was. There are other examples of this.
What is the interpretation of an MVP? I think maybe we’ve lost sight of what an MVP really defines. You could make a compelling argument that Aaron Judge was the league MVP and ROY winner in 2017 when he burst on to the scene. Mostly because he made baseball far more relevant than it usually is. He had people glued to their TV regardless of team affiliation or having any interest in sports at all. He was a boon for the MLB in all the best ways and for a period, was the defining face of the baseball. Aaron Judge was synonymous with American baseball. I traveled countries, and Aaron Judge was the name. None knew of Mike Trout. Depending on your definition of an MVP, he was that x 10 in 2017, yet didn’t win the “award.” For a brief moment, I thought the writers using their superbly irrational logic in evaluating things, would have stripped him of the ROY award, but someone how they managed to pull that one off.
So is an MVP someone that brings attention to the game? Well, maybe not. Mike Trout for as amazing a player as he is, one of the best, fails in that category. Not implying Mike is a bad guy or anything, but the needle moves two notches to maybe a 4 or 5 with Trout in terms of overall interest outside of the sport. If we are going purely on stats, then maybe, but shouldn’t there is a correlation between stats and the success of the team? I’ve always long considered the MVP to be an irreplaceable player that literally carries a team that results in substantial winning. You could make the argument that were Mike Trout not on the Angels, the Angels would still suck. He hasn’t really improved the Angels and it’s not like he is a messiah or ambassador to the sport, so in some ways, I wish we could stop treating him like that. He’s just an exceptionally talented athlete on the wrong team in the wrong market, being marketed the wrong way. He is NOT an MVP in my estimation.
Which brings me to who I feel embodies all of the right characteristics of a traditional MVP – DJ LeMahieu. I would not have felt that way 10 months ago, but the evidence is so compelling that I can’t see how he doesn’t win. He has risen to play an absurdly important role for this team. He was signed to be a player with average expectations and was paid accordingly. Regardless of the massive surplus value Cashman received. He stepped up to a level that played such a massive role in the success of the 2019 Yankees. Every single part of his game is directly responsible for the success of the Yankees. While he’s rated at 5 WAR, if DJ LeMahieu is not playing for the Yankees, they are maybe an 88 win team right now (or less), not 98 and we all might be having a different conversation. Another thing I’ve been lamenting over recently is that he might not win the batting title now because Tim Anderson, a great player in his own right, has 22% fewer AB’s than DJ, and lower stats in every category, yet has him by 4 points in overall average, which is the only real indicator to win the batting title. That would be unfortunate.
Sports awards are necessary and I support having them, but over the last 5-10 years I’ve felt things have changed and there just seems to be contradictions to how these awards are distributed. All I know is, DJ LeMahieu is probably the best example of an MVP I can remember in a long time.
To summarize, Mike Trout isn’t in a big market, so he’s not the most valuable.
There, I saved you 2000 words.
@cam Since when is Los Angeles not a big market? It’s the 2nd largest city in the US
Big market means Yankees. Does anything else really matter?
@melchez So NY is the only “big market” and we should forget about the rest? Sometimes it’s best to say nothing dude.
Don’t ask me, I just summarized baseball365’s rant.
I’ve personally always loved responses like yours. They add little to no value and lack a profound amount of thought about any subject. But you do you…
Kettle meet pot
@baseball365 who is that directed towards?
The angry guy not adding any value to the convo.
The problem is as always, the word “valuable” because it does not have a hard and fast meaning. That is to say, subjectivity reigns.
On one hand we have a supremely performing player on a team that doesn’t win. Remove that player and the team would likely continue to not win. Probably even more so.
On the other hand we have 2-3 supremely performing players on teams that do win. Remove one of those players and the team would likely continue to win. At the same pace? Who knows. MLB, let’s scratch the word “Valuable” and go with, I don’t know, something like “Productive”.
I’m supportive of expanding the definition of what an MVP really is or how they’re recognized. Or rewording it as something else.
Since it’s a league award, it’s who is most valuable to the league. That means Trout is MVP.
Trying to quantify if player 1 is more valuable to team A than player 2 is to team B is an exercise in futility.
@bigmclargehuge
It’s not most valuable to the “league”. Not even sure what that means on the field. It’s most valuable to each team.
Good to have this debate, but I believe you have the wrong interpretation. And if Trout is valuable to the league, as you suggest, what actually has he done? Honest question. No one outside of baseball really knows the guy. He is an exceptional player, perhaps one of the best we’ll see in our generation, yet that doesn’t immediately mean his the perennial MVP by default. It seems a lot of commenters are perfectly fine with that outcome (not sure why), yet when there are players, such as LeMahieu who have literally be invaluable to their teams. It’s seems pretty straight forward to me, but I kind of take things back a few notches when unpacking things, so it’s all good.
@baseball365
Amazingly, Trout hasn’t really moved the needle in terms of their home attendance and I don’t even think he ranks top 10 in jersey sales in 2018.
I have no idea why but somehow Trout’s magnificence has translated well into brand support.
Tampa MVP might be Travis d’Arnaud. The guy has come up with many clutch hits. He has played in only half their games.
Based on my interpretation, this is actually a good addition. And I agree, but the Yankees have overcome far more in terms of injuries, etc and LeMahieu has played 4 positions and tops the charts in most offensive categories. But yes, D’Arnaud is a great example.
Im sorry but MVP should go to a guy who plays the whole year. If Trout was far ahead of players in having a great year then maybe id say him but Bregman and DJ are both having great seasons and DJ wasn’t even supposed to be a starter this year and has been very consistent on a team whole has had the most injuries then any other team and is playing in the AL when he spent his career in the NL but to me the MVP is Bregman in the AL and Bellinger in the NL
Charlie Morton or Verlander. Offense is up around the league but quality pitching is rare this season. TB wouldn’t be where they are without Morton on the staff
I do agree that quality pitching has all but evaporated from the game and a premium value needs to be attached to these guys that are performing on such a high level.
I think the argument for MVP is tough. Some people feel it should be the best player (Trout) and other think it should be who is the most valuable to a winning team. My opinion is that the MVP should come from a winning team because the Angels, with or without Trout, are still a non-playoff team.
Thanks for the response.
I’ve never really understood the difference between best player in baseball and MVP. If you’re the best player in baseball, how is any other player considered more valuable?
I’m an Astros fan, so I’m not bias when I say Trout has had the best year to date. I think Bregman is a strong second with him stepping up and taking over SS and staying on the field when Springer, Altuve, Correa etc where down for extended periods of time. But second is where he stays IMO.
If You Classify this award as”Most Valuable Player” DJ LeMahieu wins in AL. His Versatility is unmatched!!!
Cut down on errors and Devers is the MVP.
I took Rafael Devers last month but, he’s fallen off. Xander Bogaerts is nearly as good offensively; he runs better and plays a better defense. I consider Bogaerts as BoSox’s MVP today. What do I know?
The MVP award credentials are not defined and is a vote of subjective opinions.. Best player that year? Best offensive season? Contending team? Demanding position? Each month, there’s a Player of the Month but it counts for nothing. There’s Silver Slugger Awards for the best offensive players and Gold Glove Awards for best defense by positions and also subjective with no weight.
As a Tiger fan, I thought Alan Trammell should’ve won in 1987 and Cecil Fielder in 1990. Then again, Willie Hernandez should not have won in 1984. In the end, its subjective.
Of the players I’ve seen mentioned (Trout, Bregman, Devers, Bogaerts, and Semien) Devers leads in Hits, Runs, RBI, Doubles, and Batting Average. He leads in total bases, multi hit games, and extra base hits.
Trout is not among the top 20 or so players in hits, doubles, triples, stolen bases, RISP, or multi hit games. He is 17th in the league in batting average,
Bergman’s numbers are comparable and plays solid defense. For me, he is the MVP.
It’s official Halo Clowns. They are officially 30 games out.
For me, MVP is the answer to the question, “if you were a video game GM, and allowed to take one player from each league to start your team, which two players would you take?”
Coin flip between Yelich/Bellinger, but if Trout wins his third MVP it’ll still be too few…
-AL-
Trout – MVP
Bregman – Silver Slugger (3B)
Chapman – Gold Glove (3B)
Bogaerts – Silver Slugger (SS)
Semien – Gold Glove (SS)
LeMahieu – Silver Slugger (2B)
Adames – Gold Glove (2B)
Olson – Silver Slugger & Gold Glove (1B)
Sanchez – Silver Slugger (C)
R. Perez – Gold Glove (C)
Trout, Springer, Betts – Silver Sluggers & Gold Gloves (OF)
-NL-
Yelich – MVP
Rendon – Silver Slugger (3B)
Donaldson – Gold Glove (3B)
Story – Silver Slugger (SS)
Baez – Gold Glove (SS)
Albies – Silver Slugger (2B)
Wong – Gold Glove (2B)
Alonso – Silver Slugger (1B)
Freeman – Gold Glove (1B)
Grandal – Silver Slugger (C)
Realmuto – Gold Glove (C)
Yelich, Bellinger, Soto – Silver Sluggers (OF)
Cain, Robles, Acuna – Gold Gloves (OF)
Nostradamus out…
Baffled….are you all following this season at all? It’s the year of the juiced ball — so someone hitting 30 to 50 home runs isn’t valuable as it used to be. the juiced ball has also ruined pitching in general; though the Yankees have had a deplorable starting pitching staff even in that light. They’ve also had a butt load of injuries that have kept their main ball bashers of Stanton, Judge, Sanchez out of the lineup for the bulk of the season. there is no question they would not be in 1st place in the toughest division in baseball if it were not for DJ LaMahieu. He’s been consistently good through the entire season; and a veteran leader for the younger lads (Torres, Urshela, Voit) to follow from. He’s played great at three different positions !!!….to fill in the gaping holes from injuries. He’s close to winning a batting title, while scoring and driving in over a 100 runs in the leadoff position — and he doesn’t play in Coors Field anymore; or Fenway park.
Trout is not having one of those jaw dropping years that would propel an MVP candidate ahead of the pack — and with what he has done, where has it gotten the Angels …..4th place?… this aura of Trout being the best player equals MVP is short-sighted. DJ may not have the nameplate but is without a doubt the most valuable player in the AL this year…he’s the difference between the Yankees trying to contend for one of the wild card (one game and out) playoff spots and the division crown.
Bregman ? Kidding? he’s jammed in the most loaded lineup in baseball with the most loaded starting pitching staff in baseball…he could be injured all year and they’d still win the division….look how many runs Verlander/Cole/Greinke/Miley are holding everyone to. and Gurriel and Brantley have been ripping the ball with him all year long; Altuve and Springer when they’ve been in the lineup. Alvarez has crushed it as well….. ROY
DJ LeMahieu hands down.