It was a banner year for baseball, but two players had a bigger year than pretty much everyone else. One man won a World Series; the other won the first Triple Crown since 1967. Both of them deserved their respective league MVP awards. San Fransicso Giants catcher Buster Posey won the National League MVP; Detroit Tigers third baseman and Triple Crown winner Miguel Cabrera won the American League MVP. The AL race was the one most interesting to outside observers; even Buster Posey followed the war between Cabrera’s domination of traditional stats and Mike Trout’s domination of modern player metrics.
“It definitely intrigued me,” admitted Posey of the AL race. “Anyone who follows baseball – it intrigued everybody. It was so unique what Cabrera did with the Triple Crown. What an accomplishment, especially in today’s game with the way bullpens are used and matchups. On the flip side, looking at Trout’s numbers, they blow your mind. Having a chance to play the Angels in interleague, it seemed like he had 15 hits in three games. He’s a great player.”
I guess the AL MVP award was a win for, if not traditional standards per se, but historic achievements. Nobody cars about WAR so much as everyone is interested in the first anything in 45 years.
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