2012 MLB Regular Season Running Thread

The impact of Moneyball was on the fans and the media. Inside baseball, things never changed.

Sure, it's a bit of revisionism, but only because now that we're no longer in the excitement of the moment (and it was an exciting time for fans and in the media), we have a better perspective. The revision is giving us a more accurate picture.

 

And to bring it full circle back to how it all started ... fans and media are talking about the MVP award and media are the ones who decide it. And my question was about how we've gone from defense doesn't mean shit to defense is enough to decide an MVP award even though everyone admits the numbers themselves aren't trustworthy.

 

Okay, in that case the answer should be "Because Fangraphs started putting UZR on the front page."

 

One thing the Cabrera/Trout discussion has reminded me is that I cannot WAIT until Jack Morris gets into the Hall of Fame. I am looking forward to that day more than I am looking forward to Christmas. But I don't really get anything at Christmas anymore anyway.

 

Jack Morris is like Ichiro: I'd put him in the Hall of Fame, but I don't think he's any better than a lot of players that other people voting for Morris would be horrified to put in.

 

How one goes from "defense was for a time wildly overvalued dollar-wise" to "defense doesn't mean shit" has always escaped me.

 

LOL. Now that right there is the most apt description of any thread discussion in SportsJournalists.com history.

 

Saw this written last night (although I can't remember where).

Cabrera has 200-plus hits, 40-plus doubles, 40-plus home runs and 130-plus RBIs.

Lou Gehrig did it twice. Babe Ruth once.

 

There are two games left in the regular season - does anyone else think it's unfair that the only team that is guaranteed to not have to do a play-in game is Detroit? They have the worst record of the 5 teams that have clinched the playoffs...

 

Defense isn't "deciding" the MVP vote. If Mike Trout wasn't the, at worst, second-best hitter in the American League, we wouldn't even be having this discussion. Cabrera would win unanimously.

Look, here it is a nutshell (paraphrasing what JC Bradbury just posted on Twitter):

[quote
Trout is just as good a hitter as Cabrera, plus stolen bases and defense.
[/quote]

Ignore the numbers. It's that simple.

 

Adam Greenberg strikes out on three knuckleballs.

Oh well.

 

He isn't as good a hitter, though. He hits substantially fewer home runs. He also had one super scalding month -- 1.259 OPS in July -- that is not indicative of how his whole season went. Cabrera has been a machine the last three months --1.086, 1.092, 1.083.