In 1979 Willie Stargell won the MVP. Well, he tied with Keith Hernandez, who hit .344 and had a .417 OBP and had 70 extra base hits.
Stargell was in his last year as a primary player. He had 480 PA's. ONLY 480! He hit .281/.352 with 32 taters.
But Stargell's Pirates won 98 games and a World Series. Hernandez led his Cardinals to 86 wins and a 3rd place finish.
Any objective analysis of individual performance shows Hernandez had a much better year than Willie. But when you look at results and playoffs and WS's.....Pops was the man. He was the MVP that year, and he deserved it.
Trout was terrific. He went nuts as a 20 year old. But the LA Angels finished third. Miggy's team went to the WS.
Gimme Trout for the next 7 years. But give Miggy the MVP trophy. He deserved it.
moe
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The Baseball Writers' Association of America smilingly refuses to define Most Valuable Player, enjoying the fact that it leaves the interpretation to its voters. Dr. D has no doubt whatsoever that this is done in part to shield the BBWAA against slam-dunk falsifications of its votes, like an ump refusing to explain why a tag call was made.
But when the award was originally established by the AL, in 1922, the league stated that the award was to honor "the baseball player who is of the greatest all-around service to HIS club."
If this be the interpretation, Counselor, that is a different thing than "Whose 2012 Strat-O-Matic card would you start a team with." If I were to start a Strat-O team and replay the 2012 season, I'd want Buster Posey. Second I'd want Mike Trout.
But greatest all-around service to HIS club? Hmmmmmmm....
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In 1975, the Big Red Machine started the season (IIRC) about 20 wins, 20 losses, questionable pitching, lineup mysteriously underperforming - hey, for that matter Sparky Anderson botched the entire decade of the 1970's. Those Reds should have won eight pennants, not four.
Anyway, about May, Pete Rose moved from LF to 3B, and when he did, the Reds moved a bench player into LF, that being George Foster. Incredible as it sounds, Foster became the Reds' best hitter other than Joe Morgan, better than Rose, Bench, Perez, or anybody. In 1976, if I recall correctly, he hit 50+ home runs and that's like 70 today. The Reds went, I think, 41 wins and 10 losses starting with the day that Reds fielded Rose at 3B and Foster in LF. That's when Sparky finally got his two championships.
If Pete Rose had not been willing to take 100+ grounders per day in the middle of the season, the Reds' lineup would have had John Vuckovich in it, not George Foster. In a very practical sense, Pete Rose got credit not only for his own performance, but also for George Foster's.
Maybe you'd have to be a coach to fully appreciate that last sentence. Players make decisions to play roles or not to play roles. Sabermigos don't want to credit them for domino effects. Coaches are hyper-aware of those domino effects.
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Earl Weaver has an emphasized section in Weaver On Strategy -- an inset box titled, WE NOT ME or somesuch -- in which he relates an incident in which an injured Ken Singleton offers to go warm a pitcher up in a tough situation. "That's why the Baltimore Orioles win," said Earl.
Where does Pete Rose's move rank on that scale? Greatest overall service to his club? Pete Rose's 1975 might have been the greatest overall service to his club in the post-WWII era.
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If Miguel Cabrera doesn't cheerfully move to 3B, the 2012 Detroit Tigers don't have Prince Fielder with him in the lineup.* From a coach's perspective, Cabrera gets very real credit for Prince Fielder's contributions to the ballclub. And Cabrera didn't merely move over to 3B: he moved over, took the distraction, took a 95-MPH line shot off the face, and all that stuff .... and then won the Triple Crown over there.
The 2011 Tigers' third baseman? Brandon Inge, who hit .197 and slugged .2 something. Inge became Prince Fielder. That's +50, +60 runs, and only after the Tigers bank those 50-60 runs due to Cabrera's moving over ... only then do we start adding up Cabrera's .330/.400/.600 stats. And only after that do we talk about his monster late-season performance surge to put the Tigers in the playoffs. Supposing Edgar had done that for a Mariners team?
In fairness, Mike Trout moves off 1B by virtue of being Mike Trout. We're not saying that Trout wasn't also a great player.
But greatest overall service to HIS club? If I'm Miguel Cabrera, I'm not giving my 2012 MVP back. Thanks for asking.
BABVA,
Dr D
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* In theory, the Tigers might have played Cabrera at DH and still signed Fielder. In real life that's not what would have happened.
Comments
The argument that Miggy should win the MVP because his team did better... not on board. I mean, for one thing, the Tigers didn't even win as many games as the Angels did. Yeah, they won their division, but the Angels had an extra win AND a harder schedule. Plus, they were floundering until Trout came up from AAA in late April and breathed some life into the team, so over the timeframe that Trout was actually in the majors for the Angels were WAY better. Besides, the Tigers didn't make the playoffs just because they had Miguel Cabrera, they also made it in part because the White Sox had an epic collapse in the last two weeks. Is it really valid to argue that Cabrera deserves the MVP just because the other teams in his division were worse than the ones in Trout's? That seems like a ridiculous criteria.
Sure, Cabrera moved from 1B for Fielder, but he didn't have to be the leaded glove 3B. He could have played DH, and move Young to OF. After all, Young was a placeholder there awaiting VMart's return in 2013. Miggie hardly deserves credit for Fielder. That credit goes to Fielder's big contract. Niether of them fills out the lineup card, but the old guy would find a way to keep them both in the order. He went for offense.