http://tinyurl.com/cyfe7gc
The eyes have it.
In a battle of computer analysis versus people who still watch baseball as,
you know, a sport, what we saw with our Detroit vision was what most voters
saw as well:
Miguel Cabrera is the Most Valuable Player in the American League this year.
"It means a lot," he told reporters over the phone from Miami. "I'm very
thankful. ... I thought it was gonna be very close."
So did everyone. But the debate ended Thursday night when the results were
announced, with Cabrera earning 22 of the 28 first-place votes from the
Baseball Writers' Association of America. It reinforced what Tigers fans have
been saying all season: This guy is a monster.
It also answered the kind of frenzied cyberspace argument that never shadowed
baseball 20 years ago but may never stop shadowing it now.
Statistics geeks insisted Cabrera was less worthy than Angels rookie
centerfielder Mike Trout. Not because Trout's traditional baseball numbers
were better. They weren't. Cabrera had more home runs (44), more runs batted
in (139) and a better batting average (.330) than Trout and everyone else in
the American League. It gave him the sport's first Triple Crown in 45 years.
But Trout excelled in the kind of numbers that weren't even considered a few
years ago, mostly because A) They were impossible to measure, and B) Nobody
gave a hoot.
Today, every stat matters. There is no end to the appetite for categories