LAT: On Baseball: There's no calling the MVP race at this point

[Angel Oracle]

9 hours ago, beatlesrule said:

I just wanted to post that Ken Griffey Jr is my favorite player of all time.

Trout = righty Griffey Jr.

Imagine how many extra HRs Trout would have, if he had a place like the Kingdome to play 81 games a season in.   Of course, the turf might have been harder on Trout's legs. 

[Ace-Of-Diamonds]

10 hours ago, arch stanton said:

Both statements are debatable but not really the point. Someone complained about Trout not being properly marketed and it hurting his MVP chances. Jeter was ultrahyped and writers swooned over his intangibles and leadership, the immeasurable qualities of which he was the posterboy in American sports. He was "the Captain". But he never won an MVP so how important is marketing in the discussion?

2006 was arguably Jeter's best year, he was second in the MVP vote.
.343/.417/.483/.900, 118 Runs
14 HR, 97 RBI, 34 SB, 69 BB,
132 OPS+, 5.5 WAR in Yankee Stadium and East Coast Band Boxes

Trout this year with 5 games to play
.318/.441/.560/1.001, 121 Runs
29 HR, 98 RBI, 27 SB, 112 BB
176 OPS+, 10.5 WAR in Angel Stadium and West Coast Pitchers Park

Except for BA and SB, Trout destroyed Jeter's best season and Jeter was second in the MVP vote. It will be joke if Trout isn't the MVP. Betts, Altuve or whomever wins should have an " * "  beside their award.

  

[arch stanton]

Yeah that's his best season unless you count the one where he led the league in position player WAR and still lost the MVP to Ivan Rodfiguez. I don't get the point of quoting me. I never argued that Jeter deserved an MVP. 

[Ace-Of-Diamonds]

5 hours ago, Blarg said:

If he did asshat things like Harper he would garner more attention. Pretty happy Trout is Trout and I'm pretty sure he is as well. 

I don't think I've have ever seen Trout lose his temper, He is a great role model for kids today.

[Angel Oracle]

44 minutes ago, Ace-Of-Diamonds said:

I don't think I've have ever seen Trout lose his temper, He is a great role model for kids today.

Nothing, outside of the classic bow and arrow sign to Crooked Hat; although that was the perfect response.

[kevinb]

11 hours ago, arch stanton said:

I don't know why I'm responding to you, Mr. LJ, but I'll throw you one more. The entire point I was making was that marketing doesn't win the award. Now you can go find someone else to engage in an argument you just yanked out of your ass.

LJ? I never said marketing wins u an award u twat. I said it helps. All I did was say my opinion and you wanna talk like that shit to me. I didn't say anything rude or anything trying to be a dick I was just saying what I thought. 

[kevinb]

7 hours ago, Blarg said:

Los Angeles is the second largest media market and the Angels are included in that. He isn't in the over hyped East Coast market and doesn't try and bring attention to himself. If he did asshat things like Harper he would garner more attention. Pretty happy Trout is Trout and I'm pretty sure he is as well. 

When did I say he wasn't happy being him. I never said anything like that. All I said is it would help being on a better team better market and having marketing behind him. Also Anaheim is in OC not LA. 

[ABC]

OC is part of the LA DMA.

[kevinb]

17 minutes ago, #CF8 said:

OC is part of the LA DMA.

Yep never said they weren't. Just said they were in OC

[VariousCrap]

11 hours ago, Dollar Bill said:

Here's a story from last year in which Kershaw and his agent, Trout's agent, Boras and MLB discuss why baseball players are not marketed like NBA players.

http://www.latimes.com/sports/angels/la-sp-kershaw-trout-mlb-face-20150405-story.html

On Trout:

Craig Landis, the agent for Trout, said his client would rather spend the off-season hunting, fishing, golfing and spending time with his family in New Jersey than getting on a plane to meet with advertisers. During the baseball season — unlike the NBA season — there are precious few days without a game, or a flight to a game.

"We're very conscious of him getting his rest," Landis said. "All these things come from high performance on the field. If you get distracted by marketing and endorsements to where it affects your performance, they all go away anyway."

From the agents:

"The NBA is good at marketing five people," said baseball agent Scott Boras, who does not represent Trout, Kershaw or Posey. "That's all they ever market. When you're talking about the elite of our game, we don't even get that."

Casey Close, the agent for Jeter and Kershaw, identified shoe contracts as "the No. 1 reason" why major league stars do not command the marketing power of NBA stars. The Nike Lunar Vapor Trout cleats look cool, but the biggest bucks go to the players who lend their names to everyday footwear.

"A young kid can wear a LeBron James shoe down the hallway," Close said. "The spikes of Clayton Kershaw or Mike Trout or Derek Jeter are not in the same ballpark, so to speak."

 

 

Nice post.  Good info here.

[Ace-Of-Diamonds]

http://www.sportsonearth.com/article/203391772/mike-trout-mlb-wild-card

1. You make me want to Trout

If two players are both having extraordinary seasons legitimately worthy of the MVP Award, but one of them is October-bound and the other is not, by all means, feel free to use the postseason as a tiebreaker.

But in the American League in 2016, THERE IS NO TIE. Mike Trout is the league's best player, its most valuable player, its most outstanding player. Period. And I don't particularly care that his Halos are horrible.

Trout entered the final week…

    With the league lead in Wins Above Replacement (10.3 to Mookie Betts' 9.5). The only other player to lead his league in WAR five straight years, as Tout is about to do? Babe Ruth.
    With an OPS (.997) second only to that of David Ortiz (and no DH has ever won the AL MVP Award).
    With the Major League lead in OPS+ (175), which adjusts for park factors (Big Hint: Mike Trout plays 81 games in a pitcher-friendly park not named Fenway).
    With the Major League lead in runs created (134) and weighted runs created plus (172), which also adjusts for park factors.
    With the Majors' best on-base percentage (.440) and the AL's third-highest slugging percentage (.556, second only to that of Ortiz and Brian Dozier).

Care more for the traditional measures? Trout will finish with an average above .300 and at least 120 runs scored, 110 walks and 25 stolen bases. Only five players in history have done this: Ty Cobb (1915), Lenny Dykstra ('93), Barry Bonds ('93, '96 and '98), Jeff Bagwell ('99) and the 2013 installment of Mike Trout.

I come here not to condemn the candidacies of Betts or Ortiz or Josh Donaldson or Manny Machado or Jose Altuve or whoever else you might want to put on the plate. My only goal is to celebrate that which ought to be obvious but, for a very strange reason,* is not: Mike Trout is the league's best player. That was true before 2016 started, and it's true now that it's wrapping up.

To deny Trout yet another AL MVP Award because of issues with club construction is to somehow assert that in between impacting ballgames with his bat, glove and legs, Trout should have done a better job being the GM (Very Important Note: Trout's not the GM). The fact that Trout has done what he's done for a team going nowhere takes none of his value away. Take him off the Angels, and they're a 100-loss club. Isn't there some value in avoiding that ignominy?

And furthermore, isn't it fundamentally more difficult to have the season Trout's having on a lousy club than it is to have the season Betts is having in a loaded lineup?

Bottom line: Mike Trout is the game's best player.

You'd think there would be some kind of trophy for that.

[Angels#1Fan]

I can agree with that.

[Ace-Of-Diamonds]

If Trout doesn't win the MVP there will be a lot of people that will disagree with the decision. On the other hand, I doubt there will be much of an uproar if Trout is awarded the MVP. After all there is little doubt who had the best season in the ML, let alone the AL.

[Taylor]

On 9/27/2016 at 1:00 PM, Ace-Of-Diamonds said:

I don't think I've have ever seen Trout lose his temper, He is a great role model for kids today.

Some here wish he had more "fire" like Harper has.

[Troll Daddy]

I wouldn't mind seeing Trout show more emotion but every player handles emotion differently. There's no right or wrong in my book. 

The Trout/Pujols combo shooting a arrow to mimic Rodney was one of my all time favorites. 

[Stradling]

39 minutes ago, Vladdylonglegs said:

Miggy has had another monster season. If Detroit gets in then he will be another one ahead of Trout according to the voters.

This will not happen. 

[Troll Daddy]

On 9/28/2016 at 11:24 AM, Ace-Of-Diamonds said:

If Trout doesn't win the MVP there will be a lot of people that will disagree with the decision. On the other hand, I doubt there will be much of an uproar if Trout is awarded the MVP. After all there is little doubt who had the best season in the ML, let alone the AL.

Nobody is doubting that Trout is the best all-around player in 2016. That won't be the reason if he should lose.

" The BBWAA does not offer a clear-cut definition of what "most valuable" means, instead leaving the judgment to the individual voters."

Wikipedia 

[Ace-Of-Diamonds]

2 hours ago, Troll Daddy said:

Nobody is doubting that Trout is the best all-around player in 2016. That won't be the reason if he should lose.

" The BBWAA does not offer a clear-cut definition of what "most valuable" means, instead leaving the judgment to the individual voters."

Wikipedia 

I know but this year, Trout is just so much better than the competition.

[Troll Daddy]

17 minutes ago, Ace-Of-Diamonds said:

I know but this year, Trout is just so much better than the competition.

I hope your right. I have a large bet on him winning MVP. I think Altuve is out ... Betts and possibly Miggy have me a little concerned. 

[Ace-Of-Diamonds]

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/sports/wp/2016/09/29/who-should-win-the-al-mvp-its-mike-trout-vs-josh-donaldson-and-maybe-david-ortiz-too/

Sportsanalysis

Who should win the AL MVP? It’s Mike Trout vs. Josh Donaldson — and maybe David Ortiz, too.

[Ace-Of-Diamonds]

On 9/25/2016 at 6:53 PM, Kevinb said:

The Angels have nothing to do with his marketability it's on him and his team to do that. The Angels are not a national brand. If Trout wanted to go big into commercials, ads, and to be a name brand im sure he could have that ability. It's just doesn't seem like that's a priority to him. Which no one can fault him for. He plays 162 games a year plus spring training etc. in his off time he probably wants to just relax. 

http://www.ocregister.com/articles/nike-498913-company-trout.html

[Stradling]

On September 30, 2016 at 7:49 AM, Vladdylonglegs said:

It shouldn't but I wouldn't be surprised. Voters don't look further than AVG, HR, RBI it seems.

Keep in mind the voters also vote for Cy Young and it wasn't that long ago they voted for Felix Hernandez when he was like 13-12 or something close.  

[ScottT]

21 hours ago, Ace-Of-Diamonds said:

http://www.ocregister.com/articles/nike-498913-company-trout.html

 

Whatever happened to the Phiten phase?  I don't notice those necklaces as much these days.  CJ Wilson hasn't been on the mound much, though.  

[Ace-Of-Diamonds]

I was looking up the history of the MVP award and I found this funny story about the precursor to the MVP.

Before the 1910 season, Hugh Chalmers of Chalmers Automobile announced he would present a Chalmers Model 30 automobile to the player with the highest batting average in Major League Baseball at the end of the season. The 1910 race for best average in the American League was between the Detroit Tigers' widely disliked Ty Cobb and Nap Lajoie of the Cleveland Indians. On the last day of the season, Lajoie overtook Cobb's batting average with seven bunt hits against the St. Louis Browns. American League President Ban Johnson said a recalculation showed that Cobb had won the race anyway, and Chalmers ended up awarding cars to both players.

[Angel Oracle]

Wasn't one of the legend stories that the infielders may have been lackadaisical on purpose on those Lajoie bunts, so that Cobb didn't win the batting title?