VOTE: Who is the AL’s MVP?
Sunday, August 22, 2010 at 8:59 pm by SJK
The contenders:
As of Saturday, August 21st completed games
You decide:
Is Robinson Cano the most valuable pound-for-pound player in the American League?
Tags: awards, poll, win a batting title someday!
Darnell McDonald
Daniel Nava…he hit a grand slam in his first big league at-bat, you know
I took ground balls from my knees.
Bill Hall
Ellsbury with a rock solid season, Wow.
Somebody needs to get Miguel a drink
Hamilton, but Cano might also be my pick since he plays a harder position than Hamilton
I avg b-ref and fangraphs, hence I voted for Cano. Something else, Gardner is really good.
Dustin Pedroia, hands down. He gets his uniform dirty and never fails to give me a reach around.
Cano has a 157 OPS+ as a 2nd baseman = sick. And according to John Stirling, Cano should win a Glod Glove as well. Dusty won MVP in 2008 with a 122 OPS+. Oh, I forgot, that stat doesn’t count the scrap-factor essential to MVP status.
Cano in 2010.
I had no idea those were Ellsbury’s numbers this year… wow.
Its gotta be Adrian Bel-TRAY!!!!!!!!!
Brett Gardner is outslugging Jacoby Ellsbury. Ell-oh-fucking-ell, Red Sawx.
Miggy & hamilton are both slightly ahead of Cano but it is August if Cano hits 400 in September and drives in 30 runs it will be a photo finish.
Photoshop is killer. Nomaas captions are always great too.
It is a 3 way race between Cano, Hamilton and Miguel and I think that the it will end up down to the wire. Tigers wont make the playoffs but Cabrera will finish above 1.18 OPS. Texas will be the trendy pick until for the playoffs but The Ball Park at Arlington is basically Yankee batting practice… All are worthy but I say Hamilton wins it
Performance wise, you gotta give Cabrera some credit. He is doing better than anyone in the chart in every category outside of WAR.
If you look at one stat, heck, go with Hamilton.
However, this is the Most Valuable Player award. I think that Cano is more valuable to his team than Hamilton and Cabrera. Without Cano, the Yanks would be pretenders instead of contenders. Or at least they’d be fighting to stay alive in the wild-card race right about now. Hamilton is a hitter on a hitting team. Cabrera is on a great help, but with or without him, Detriot will not contend.
You gotta go with Cano. (Does it rhyme a single bit [though Cano doesn't rhyme much either]if you switch Cano with other names?)
“Performance wise, you gotta give Cabrera some credit.”
He’s an amazing hitter, but he’s also a first baseman and not a particularly good one. Cano and Hamilton are above average defenders at premium positions.
“Hamilton is a hitter on a hitting team.”
And Cano isn’t?
The Rangers are actually a worse hitting team that the Yankees, so if anything this line of reasoning would apply to Cano moreso than Hamilton.
Well…. pound for pound….
We know Miggy couldn’t win that. And thanks to Verducci we know Hamilton is like 235, so he’s probably not the P-4-P winner. Cano is listed at 205, Crawford 215, and Longoria 210. Considering Longoria and Crawford are on the same team you have to divide their contribution by two. (I would say the same with the Sawx Nation, but normal math does not apply to them.) Therefore, Cano wins the MVP.
Of course, Ellsbury only weighs 185, so he should be considered the dark horse candidate.
I’m the AL MVP…and a former crackhead.
Derek Jeter intuitively knows the right thing to do when on the field. His game losing double plays are to be seen as a reality check.
Every time we are reminded that Pedroia is a former MVP, it makes me heave. Hell he wasn’t even the best player on his team that year. Besides his team finished second, WTF? I ma dying to see who the assholes in Boston vote for. If Cano helps pimp slap Tampa & Boston into submission this September how could you give it to Hamilton who’s team has had no one pushing them for months. Didn’t Vlad steal the Award from Sheff in ’04 by basically eliminating the Oakland A’s the last two weeks of the season?
Robinson “The Spider” Cano!
Baseball-Reference has Hamilton as 5th in WAR, biggest difference is the defense. TotalZone has him 10 runs below average in LF. UZR has him 7 runs above average.
What gives? Is he a good defender or not?
“I am the only dark skinned worthy MVP 2B for a championship team. Of course I did it back to back as did my big Red Machine of the 70′s.”
I never understood why fans want players on their team to win individual awards. That shit costs the team money, yo. (Although I can’t find whether CC or Robbie have bonus clauses for Cy/MVP)
yeah… Cano comes in second for the same reason Jeter did in 2006(?), which ironically did not affect Pedrioa’s MVP in 2008… too much talent around him
Jeter came in second because some asshole in Chicago voted him sixth behind DH’s Frank Thomas & David Ortiz. Yes a position player was placed behind two men who did not play the field. One of whom finished in second place after his team was given a five game ass whipping in August. If baseball wants to asterisk anything some of the postseason awards need looking into first.
The best player this year is Cano so far but YOU have to prove it and the documents (UZR WAR and HUA (HEAD up ass)and the NY hating Sports writers) all say Hamilton. Therefore your case is dismissed now Robbie go whine in front of the cameras and Josh go talk about how fair I was
God I’m important!
Judge Judy
Robbie Cano will win the MVP this year in my honor b/c I’m now dead and gone.
Cano vs a booze bag and a crack head…maybe Cashman should start making all Yankees attend AA/NA meetings regardless
Hamilton is going to win. The redemption narrative, coupled with the Rangers return to the postseason, is too powerful for the voters to ignore. Cano will finish second. Luckily, he is a pretty worthy candidate, so it’s not going to be a travesty or anything, but you can take that to the bank. Hamilton will win.
“None of these guys could play with me on my world champion Big Red machine teams of the 70′s.”
you guys are lucky hamilton was a crackhead, if not he would still be on the rays, imagine a heart of the line up of crawford, longeria, hamilton, pena, zombrist?
It bears repeating if Cano has a September that puts the Yanks on top of the division with key hits against Tampa(seven games remaining) he has a chance. If Cabrera finishes ahead of Cano every writer in the BBWA can go fuck themselves with a chainsaw. Numbers be damned his team’s in third place. Don’t throw up the A-Rod in 03, there were no standout candidates on contenders that season.
NESN & ESPN SUCK, lifetime ban.
Rays fan, lifetime ban.
Joe Morgan, lifetime ban.
This, this, this, this, this, “THIS”, this!, this?, siht, this……………………………………………………………………………………………………..
This.
To Rays Fan,
You’re lucky I didn’t like to get into barroom fights. If not I would still be a Yankee… winning 20+ games a season and closing in on 300 wins
I am sure we can come up with some useless stat that says the real MVP is Cervelli.
Why is Hamilton such a given? He primarily plays a corner OF spot. Cano is putting up monster numbers as a 2B.
really me? even though i dont lead the league in any category. if you take me off the Yankees that’s 190M worth of talent so I guess they would lose if it wasn’t for my .325 avg, which thanks to Derek is a pretty high avg on the yanks nowadays. i have 24 of my 84 rbi’s against the mariners and indians so I’m definitely good at beating good teams.
First off, that’s not how Robinson Cano even talks. Secondly, everyone knows RBIs are a horrible stat, no matter who they come against. And does it matter if he isn’t leading the league in anything? Jose Bautista leads the league in HRs, but I wouldn’t want him anywhere near my baseball team. Go learn something.
@ John Miller… It’s Jon not John. lol.
My files show that RAB did a piece http://riveraveblues.com/2010/01/what-do-strikeout-totals-tell-us-about-offensive-performance-22897/ this winter on strikeouts, saying they weren’t as bad as everyone makes them out to be, but now are saying Ajax sucks because of his strikeouts. They need brain braces.
How dare all of you: Ben is a true American patriot…
http://twitter.com/bkabak
http://espn.go.com/video/clip?id=5490106
Isn’t he the biggest jerk going since,
me?
zing.
“He’s an amazing hitter, but he’s also a first baseman and not a particularly good one. Cano and Hamilton are above average defenders at premium positions.”
If you wanted a hitter with premium defense, take Doug Mientkiewicz. He had a good eye, can hit for respectable contact, and his first base defense is eye catching.
But you got me with Cano and maybe, just maybe, Hamilton. Though CF is not as defensively demanding as it was in the past. Jim Edmonds was a gold glover, but come on, how many speedy CFs can catch those “highlight catches” he made? Bernie was neither a defensive spectacle nor a blackhole out there. (I could be wrong with this, but it seems like the ball is more likely to go to LF or RF than to go CF. Out of 3 parts of the OF, CF seems like the least likely place the ball will be hit to.)
Just a weak argument here, but if the Tigers wanted, Cabrera could be in LF or at 3rd right now. His stats probably won’t drop significantly. He’s certainly not a weak defensive 1B.
“Jose Bautista leads the league in HRs, but I wouldn’t want him anywhere near my baseball team. Go learn something.”
Bautista just hit his 40th to break the tie in the 8th tonight. Still don’t want him anywhere near my fantasy team.
Cough, cough, Cough, cough, Cough, cough, Cough, cough, Cough, cough, Cough, cough, Cough, cough, Cough, cough, Cough, cough, Cough, cough, Cough, cough, Cough, cough, Cough, cough, Cough, cough, Cough, cough, Cough, cough, Cough, cough, Cough, cough, Cough, cough, cough.
“If you wanted a hitter with premium defense, take Doug Mientkiewicz. He had a good eye, can hit for respectable contact, and his first base defense is eye catching.”
I can’t tell if you’re joking with this comment or not, but I’ll assume the latter.
Great defense isn’t a necessity to be an MVP. But that doesn’t mean a player’s contribution with the glove should be dismissed. Hamilton and Cano play their harder defensive positions better than Cabrera. That counts.
“Though CF is not as defensively demanding as it was in the past.”
That’s a completely unfounded, baseless comment.
“Just a weak argument here…”
You should’ve realized it was probably pointless to continue writing after you immediately undercut the point you’re going to make. And yes, it was weak.
“He’s certainly not a weak defensive 1B.”
-2.2 UZR/150 career rate isn’t good. And if you don’t believe in UZR, he’s never been regarded as a good defender. In either case, Hamilton and Cano are better fielders at more important positions.
ju guys no lika me at nomaas. so i say fuck ju no maas. early the jear no maas bash me all time. now nomaas on my nutsack. eat a dick.