Jump to content
The Official Site of the Vancouver Canucks
Canucks Community

The MLB Thread- 2014 Season


gmen81

Recommended Posts

The R.O.Y. is a lock, but the real question is can he match Ichiro and Fred Lynn by winning the MVP as well.

As it sits right now, I think Miggy wins it...

I'll laugh so hard if he doesn't get the ROY

I think it comes down to Cabrera vs. Trout. I'm not sure who should get it but I know Cabrera hits like this consistently and Trout had a monster year as a rookie.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

If Trout doesn't win MVP I will be very pissed off at the voters. His and Miguel's "Slash lines" are very similar, to be sure. Miguel has more homers and RBI and strikes out less, and those are traditional but very antiquated measures of a player's value. Conversely, Trout leads the league in runs scored and stolen bases, showing that his value extends from the batter's box to the basepaths. However, you have to give Trout such a huge edge defensively that it should more than cancel out any bias in Miguel's favour. Trout is the second best defensive player in the AL (0.1 behind Seattle's Brendan Ryan in dWAR), whereas Cabrera is a defensive liability. Don't get me wrong, Trout's offence should be enough to get him the award anyways, but his defence should keep it from being even close. My post earlier about his WAR pace? He's now sitting at 10.4 and on pace for 12.1 for the season. Babe Ruth is the only position player to achieve that high of a value in a single season since the 19th Century. Again this can't be overstated, in terms of his value, Mike Trout is having the best season by a position player not named Babe Ruth in the modern history of baseball. If that doesn't win the MVP then the award is rigged and misnamed.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Well, at least all is becoming normal again in the world of Pennsylvania baseball. The Phillies are scratching at .500 (and somehow, beyond all probability, still in playoff contention), while the Pirates are in a complete and utter freefall back to sub-.500, where they're very used to being and despite an MVP-calibre season from centerfielder Andrew McCutchen.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

After watching the BoSox squeak out a win against the Pinstripes, it got me thinking that I would love nothing more than to see the Beantown Boys play spoiler and knock the Yanks out from the 2nd Wild Card spot.

Would love to see this too. Doesn't really matter that much to me who does it, as long as the Yanks are out. However, considering the rivalry between the two teams, it would rub a little well-deserved salt in the wound...

Link to comment
Share on other sites

The Sox get the Tiggers out of the way, now off to a series against the dreaded KC Royals. Don't know why, they somehow have the pale hose number this year. Hey Rup glad to see another bball fan that doesn't like the Yankmees. Growing up in the early 60's everyone liked them, except me. Game of the week always seemed to feature Mick and the boys.

Agree with you GM, how in *ell are the Phillies still relevant?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Jeff Passan from Yahoo wrote his column this week about how the second wild card has rewarded mediocrity in baseball http://sports.yahoo.com/news/10-degrees--shameful-that-sub--500-phillies-still-contenders-in-wild-card-race.html

It's a fair point really, and makes sense when you think about it: you're basically talking about the 9th & 10th best teams in the league making it, so really, a couple of teams only a couple of ticks above average. In some seasons (like last one), that's less the case, but mostly it will probably be true. The first wild card was a cool thing because it allowed in that one team that was really strong but stuck with another strong division rival, and because it opened up a competition amongst all divisions to see which second place team was actually top calibre. But now, they've allowed for a much weaker second place team, or a third place team, to hold a playoff spot, so they've sort of pushed the level of competition downwards, and all of the sudden you're going to get average teams going on a little run because that weaker team is really just an above average team.

Having said that, I think the two leagues are quite different this year in that respect. In the AL, the second wild card is lining up to have the effect of letting 4 teams, locked into 2 division races, off the hook a little bit. Maybe the Rays and Angels can stay with the race and make it interesting, and the fact that the division races are still so close does make that pretty neat, but you don't need a second wild card for that to be the case. However, it's just as possible that they'll fall off and the teams will start to separate, in which case what would have been a strong push from the O's and A's to take the wild card could easily culminate in both teams easing up and saving their ace for the 1-game playoff. Conversely, in the NL, the Braves would have had the only wild card sown up by now, as they are the only non-division leader that deserves a spot. However, the fact that there are no other particularly good teams in the NL means that all the average ones are in the wild card race.

I'm all for the idea of playing "meaningful" games down the stretch. I just want to see good teams playing those games, not mediocre ones.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 weeks later...

I hope he doesn't win, because then people will vote for him for MVP when it should belong to Mike Trout.

Alas, I thought the Angels should go far this year (not really a fan, just thought they had the tools), but it looks like they'll fall short of the playoffs. Conversely, the A's are probably going to make it (amazingly), though barring a sweep of the Rangers at home, they'll have to play their way in to the series rounds by beating Baltimore or New York. Somehow the White Sox have fallen flat at the worst possible time, and need a miracle to make the playoffs.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Well, the playoff pictures are a lot clearer after last night's games. All the AL participants are accounted for, with the Athletics clinching a spot last night, and unless the Orioles can win and get a favour from Boston over the Yanks, they will be a wild card participant. The A's could still win the AL West, if they can sweep the Rangers, otherwise they will play Baltimore, and do hold the tiebreaker for home field advantage (I believe they hold it over the Yankees too, though I'm not 100% sure). The Tigers also clinched the Central, and probably an undeserved MVP award for triple crown candidate Cabrera, while the deserving winner went 4 for 5 in an ultimately unimportant win as the Angels were eliminated.

In the NL, the Dodgers kept their very slim hopes of catching the Cardinals alive with a walkoff over the Giants, however St Louis did ensure itself at least a play-in to the wild card round with a win over Cincinnati. It seems somewhat inevitable that the Cards grab the second spot and a chance to play the Braves (who by losing ensured they can do no better or worse than the 1st wild card), but the Dodgers hold out hope, and their arch-nemeses have very little to play for themselves, as they can also finish no better than the lowest seeded NL division winner.

I'd say the series to watch now is the head-to-head Oakland vs Texas one, as an Athletics win tonight sets up a 1 game showdown on Wednesday for the AL West crown and a bye through the wild-card play-in. If Boston and Baltimore both win tonight, then tomorrow's games become significant, and if the Dodgers and Reds win, then Wednesday games may dictate a one game playoff for the second NL wild card.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.

  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
×
×
  • Create New...