MLB 2012

[Ingmar]

Yeah it had the feel of an intermediate step.

[ghost]

Yeah, I don't like it.  Maybe it's my inner autism speaking, but I like symmetry. 

[cmlancas]

The Rays are seriously going to make me lose my fucking mind.  This Septermber is absolute horseshit.

[ghost]

Reds are first to clinch. 

Go Reds!   

[cmlancas]

The Rays are seriously going to make me lose my fucking mind.  This Septermber is absolute horseshit.

I'm secretly weeping in my cube as the Rays start to turn it around too little, too late.

Molina, Peña, Roberts, gone for altogether shit play.  Shields and Upton gone because they'll fabricate moneyhats.  Both deserve it though, as they've played great this year.

[Paelos]

Looks like the Nats clinched as well. Fuckers.

[Teleku]

Out of curiosity, whats with the Nats hate I think I've seen around this board?  I'm a little bitter that they didn't resurrect them as The Senators, but beyond that, I'm happy to see them do well.  Of course I'm in DC now and can see how excited everybody here is about them, which is fun to watch.  Hopefully we'll go against them in the Playoffs so I have a chance of attending a Giants playoff game.

[Ingmar]

I am hoping we don't see them, myself. Scariest team to go up against.

[Paelos]

Out of curiosity, whats with the Nats hate I think I've seen around this board?  I'm a little bitter that they didn't resurrect them as The Senators, but beyond that, I'm happy to see them do well.  Of course I'm in DC now and can see how excited everybody here is about them, which is fun to watch.  Hopefully we'll go against them in the Playoffs so I have a chance of attending a Giants playoff game.

They are in my division. And I think they are run by idiots who shut down the best thing on their roster.

[JWIV]

I just hate on all DC sports fans in general. Mostly it comes from having to deal with Redskins people growing up. Now, every time the Skins win a game, people wont' shut the fuck up about how this is their year and they're going all the way and blah blah blah. Drives me bonkers, so the annoyance tends to rub off on some of the other leagues.

[ghost]

All the NL teams look pretty good this year. 

[ghost]

Eric Gagne estimates that 80% of the 2004 Dodgers Team was using PEDs...... 

[JWIV]

Thanks for nothing Toronto and Texas.  

Okay, fine, second game did the trick, even though you tried to give that one back too.

[Teleku]

Heh, should be an interesting post season for me.  I'm living in Washington DC (which made it to the playoffs), who hates Baltimore because of local drama concerning their owner (who also made it), while actually being a giants fan (who made it as well).   

 Working on getting some play off tickets as we speak!

[Slayerik]

My Tigs finally sealed it. Now Miggy just needs to finish strong for the Triple Crown. The dude is an outright beast.

[Ingmar]

Even if he manages the Triple Crown, he shouldn't be MVP. Trout has that sewn up.

[WayAbvPar]

Mariners are moving in the fences @ Safeco. A scant decade or so since it was obviously needed.

[ghost]

How far?

[Paelos]

It's starting to settle in here that this baseball season of 162 games is going to come down to a make or break game Friday. People are rightly terrified.

[JWIV]

While I appreciate that Tampa isn't laying down and is treating these as meaningful games (unlike a certain division team in the North),  I can't take another game like last nights.

Shields pitched out of his mind and you have to respect that.

[ghost]

Wow.  The Rangers are getting fucking smoked.   

[Ingmar]

A's win! 

[Trippy]

[WayAbvPar]

A's win! 

What a great story. If it wasn't the Ms, I wanted the As to do it and give the finger to the big spenders in the division. If only so I can point to the Mariner brass as the major hurdle holding them back.

[Teleku]

Yeah, there are a number of teams I'd be happy seeing win the World Series this year (including the Giants, obviously).  Here's hoping for some sort of happy ending instead of the Yankees.   

[Ingmar]

Ideal scenario: Giants-A's rematch, this time Giants win, no earthquake.

[Teleku]

Worst case scenario, Giants-A's rematch, this time A's win again, with the help of another horrible earthquake.  

[Ingmar]

Oh, I wouldn't cry too much if the A's won the rematch. I could do without the earthquake though.

[Trippy]

Worst case scenario, Giants-A's rematch, this time A's win again, with the help of another horrible earthquake.  

No worst case is Giants win with the help of another horrible earthquake

[ghost]

So.....Miguel Cabrera, is he the MVP?  I don't see how you could help but give it to a guy that wins the triple crown and means that much to his team. 

[Paelos]

So.....Miguel Cabrera, is he the MVP?  I don't see how you could help but give it to a guy that wins the triple crown and means that much to his team. 

It should be Mike Trout, but the fans/voters/etc don't respect speed in the AL.

[ghost]

It's tough to ignore that Cabrera's team made the playoffs, IMO, and in a tight race.  Trout had a very, very good season too, however.  It's a tough choice, but I personally think the triple crown puts Cabrera over the top because it's so rare to see.

[Slayerik]

Cabrera, but I'm a homer.

Triple crown and batting .429 in September to pull your team to a division title? Pretty big deal.

[Paelos]

This is my personal opinion on that, but Chicago fucking tanked. They went 4-11 in their last 15, 11-17 in September.

Detroit went 16-12 in September, 10-5 in the last 15.

The reason? Detroit played nothing but KC and the Twins in that stretch at the end. Chicago played KC, the Angels, the Rays, and the Indians. They played .500 against Cleveland and got their asses kicked by Tampa and LA (who were still techinically in the races). Game, set, match.

Detroit isn't a good road team, Oakland's a great home team. Verlander is only 8-6 on the road with a 3.57 ERA. Verlander also hasn't won a road game against one of the playoff teams since Baltimore on July 15th. I don't really like Detroit in the game, but anything can happen I suppose.

[Ingmar]

Trout contributed significantly more to the success of the Angels than any other player in the league did to the success of their team. He should win the MVP and RoY both.

He's nearly 4 wins better than Cabrera when measured by WAR; a lot of that can be chalked up to the fact that he played a much more important defensive position, much better than Cabrera played his less important one. (Other players with a higher WAR: Robinson Cano, Buster Posey, Andrew McCutchen.) If you consider *only* offense, Cabrera comes in at 7.5 WAR, since he's not getting the -0.6 deduction for his defense. Even then Trout has him beat at 8.6, thanks to his speed mostly. Oh yeah, and Trout did it with one less month than Cabrera. Advantage: Trout, by a longshot. The reason the stats don't necessarily jump off the page looking like Trout has a massive advantage is due to park factors. Comerica Park increases run scoring by about 7%; the Big A *suppresses* run scoring by about 18-19%. Only PNC, AT&T, and SafeCo have been bigger pitcher's parks this season.

To address the "OMG but the Angels didn't win anything and Detroit did!" argument - check the records. The Angels actually won one more game than Detroit did, in a tougher division. All that argument does is give Cabrera a bunch of extra credit for playing in the shittiest division in baseball, which he should not get.

And I don't want to get into how pointless RBIs are as a measure of a player's success. There are about 23 other things you can look at that will give you a better grasp at how good a player is. RBIs mostly measure how good the players ahead of you are at getting on base.

Basically, Trout put up a truly amazing season, while Cabrera was merely excellent. To put it another way, Cabrera has ~45 WAR in his career, which is fantastic for a player of his age. Trout is at almost 25% of that total *after less than one season*.