Statistician Magician's 2010 AL MVP
by goeaglesxxxix on Oct 26, 2010 12:07 PM EDT
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Many seem to be in support of Josh Hamilton as the AL MVP. And I do understand why, but I have my reasons -- well, reason -- why I chose him 3rd. And it is because of his monster home/road splits. It's difficult for me to *know* that a player was truly the best, when his numbers in a known hitter friendly park, greatly exceed his road numbers. If one believes, he was the best player, then so be it. I can definitely talk myself into it. But being 122 percentage points better -- in terms of wOBA -- well, it's just hard for me to think that Texas didn't play a large role in his hitting success this year.
As for Beltre being 1? Well, it could go to any of probably 5 or 6 players this year, and I would be content. I saw for my own eyes how great Beltre was. And I kept waiting for him to regress -- as I thought he would -- and everyone else thought he would. But he didn't. He played good defense, even after a shaky start out there, error-wise. And he hit A TON. Seeing him really doesn't impact my voting much, those who have read me in the past know this. Neither does exceeding the production that we all expected. It is all about who the best player is, and Beltre was clearly up there with the rest of them. And if you care about this sort of stuff...He was an awesome player while injury after injury kept mounting up around him, hindering the teams chances on making the playoffs.
Robinson Cano was my MVP nearly all year long. But he tailed off a tad. I still don't trust the defensive metrics a ton, as they say he was basically average (UZR). One year of UZR is not the be all, end all. He appears to get to a decent amount of balls, turns the double play well. And makes the part look quite easily, actually. Cano has made strides on the defensive side of the ball throughout the early years of his career. But then again, he has made strides offensively as well.
I had to include Felix in there as well. He was the best pitcher in the AL, and yes, a pitcher should be in the discussion for MVP.
Cliff Lee? Look at his K/BB. Yea, incredible. Really, really incredible.
Beltre is my choice, as seen above. But this award is really a toss-up as far as I am concerned.
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Cano's been pretty consistently below average his entire career.
Even with his improvement, I don’t think he’s any better than average now. The games that I’ve seen of him, he seems to do well on the balls he gets to, but he just doesn’t have anything close to good range. Whenever I watch Cano I see him not get close to balls that (Red Sox fan) I’m accustomed to Pedroia getting to every time.
Reply: Cano
I guess that I can live with average. I tend to not trust my own eyes, seeing how I am not a scout. But he definitely looks smooth out there. And “smooth” can be deceiving. But it could be deceiving either way, I suppose…
by goeaglesxxxix on Oct 27, 2010 12:44 AM EDT up reply actions
I'd definitely agree that he's smooth, and that he makes all the plays that he's supposed to.
It’s just that he smoothly watches/waves at balls that pass by him that I’m accustomed to seeing Pedroia dive for and get.
I think that’s verified by the stats, as his error runs (by UZR) were significantly above average this year (and about average most other years) while his range runs have been pretty far below (and even farther below in previous years).
Hamilton for me
He’s in the picture in terms of stats, and unlike the other guys in that picture, he was the difference between the team making the playoffs and not making the playoffs.
Bad Left Hook - The SB Nation boxing blog
"Baseball is played on the field, not on a calculator."
Playoffs
I do not take the playoffs aspect into account because I do not believe a single player impacts a team nearly as much as the mainstream audience sometimes leads us to think. I don’t want to penalize a player for not making the playoffs, when said player can only make a relatively small impact on a team. For example, I do not mind anyone voting for Hamilton, not at all. But I do not want to penalize Beltre for not making the playoffs, when all the good-great players around him were getting injured, along with everyone else (role players too). But I understand this all comes down to how we define “valuable.”
by goeaglesxxxix on Oct 29, 2010 12:15 PM EDT up reply actions
FP'd!
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Bautista too
Could have included them in my poll, for sure. But they didn’t make my top 5. Have to draw the line somehow.
by goeaglesxxxix on Oct 29, 2010 12:11 PM EDT up reply actions
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