MLB 2013!!

[Imran Siddiqui]

In the NL, it was too close to call between Dickey and Kershaw (though Kershaw slightly more deserving). In the AL, the sabr folks were going for Verlander.

[SlowwHand]

Who should win the AL MVP award?

74% Miguel Cabrera

22% Mike Trout

4% Someone else

http://espn.go.com/

[snoopy369]

I'm guessing Price won from people not wanting to give Verlander two in a row. Also, Verlander was a bit more inconsistent, I think (IIRC in the middle of the season he had a significant slump where he looked almost human, then came back and finished strong). Price certainly was deserving, but I'd vote for Verlander.

[Imran Siddiqui]

Cabrera wins the AL MVP over Trout. Ah well, would have voted for the other guy, but not like I'm terribly upset or anything.

And, oh yeah, Posey won in the NL, but there was no controversy at all over that one (though look at Posey's 3 year career so far - Rookie of the Year, MVP, and 2 World Series wins - and the middle year was one where he was injured).

[snoopy369]

Yep, both guys were deserving of MVP awards in my book.

Posey may be the greatest catcher of our time, but I wonder what the odds are of him staying healthy. Joe Mauer looked pretty darned good as well for a while, didn't he? No WS wins, but his teams were never as good around him; give him that pitching staff and they'd have won several.

[Imran Siddiqui]

Joe Mauer looked pretty darned good as well for a while, didn't he?

Joe Mauer is STILL pretty darned good. Had a great 2012 - .319/.416/.446, for an OPS+ of 141. WAR of 4.1 (BR) / 5 (Fangraphs) - interestingly enough his fielding wasn't on par this season.

He will be a Hall of Fame catcher... just that Posey is better. Kind of a banner era for great catchers (add in Yadier Molina to the group).

[snoopy369]

Hrm, I didn't realize his season was that good this year (his decreasing SLG is probably why I forgot about it - not a great fantasy player and not particularly scary vs. the White Sox this year, which is mostly how I interact with him). How does he consistently have such high BABIP that a .317 year is probably a 'bad luck' year??? It seems like .375 is an average BABIP year for him, which is utterly insane. Even someone like Tony Gwynn (a very fast player who can be assumed to have a higher BABIP than normal since he runs out some of those routine grounders) was normally more like .325 ...

[Imran Siddiqui]

Definitely has a knack for high BABIP - that seems to be his normal.

[snoopy369]

I'd think his LD% would be higher given that BABIP. 25% is higher than average, but it's not nearly high enough to justify a .375 BA%.

[snoopy369]

Blue Jays sign Melky Cabrera to a 2 year $16MM contract (which seems really cheap to me, even with the roids). They're really going all-in this year... what's that lineup now?
C: JP Arencibia / Travis d'Arnaud
1B: ? (Adam Lind? Edwin Encarnacion? Say the other one is DH)
2B: Maicer Izturis
3B: Brett Lawrie
SS: Jose Reyes
LF: Melky Cabrera
CF: Colby Rasmus
RF: Jose Bautista

That's a pretty stacked roster. Imaginary lineup would be:

Reyes
Rasmus
Lawrie
Bautista
Cabrera
Lind
Arencibia
Encarnacion
Izturis

I wouldn't want to face that lineup, especially with competent pitching, most days...

[-Jrabbit]

Cabrera wins the AL MVP over Trout. Ah well, would have voted for the other guy, but not like I'm terribly upset or anything.

I am actually impressed with the restrained and reasonable levels of complaint from the stat nerds on this. They seem to recognize that what Cabrera accomplished is pretty damned awesome and worthy of recognition. I was expecting much more vociferous objections.

Our politicians would to do well to take note.

[Imran Siddiqui]

Blue Jays sign Melky Cabrera to a 2 year $16MM contract (which seems really cheap to me, even with the roids). They're really going all-in this year... what's that lineup now?
C: JP Arencibia / Travis d'Arnaud
1B: ? (Adam Lind? Edwin Encarnacion? Say the other one is DH)
2B: Maicer Izturis
3B: Brett Lawrie
SS: Jose Reyes
LF: Melky Cabrera
CF: Colby Rasmus
RF: Jose Bautista

That's a pretty stacked roster. Imaginary lineup would be:

Reyes
Rasmus
Lawrie
Bautista
Cabrera
Lind
Arencibia
Encarnacion
Izturis

I wouldn't want to face that lineup, especially with competent pitching, most days...

I wonder if the Jays are going to be looking for a new 1B. Lind hasn't lived up to what he was anticipated to become (esp expectations after 2009) and Encarnacion can't really field that well. Though I don't know which 1B are on the market these days.

Of course the question is whether the Cabrera of the last 2 years were a prohibited drug creation or more a factor of a player coming into his prime years? If its the later, the Blue Jay got a steal. If not, well it wasn't that much cash anyways.

[Imran Siddiqui]

I am actually impressed with the restrained and reasonable levels of complaint from the stat nerds on this. They seem to recognize that what Cabrera accomplished is pretty damned awesome and worthy of recognition. I was expecting much more vociferous objections.

Our politicians would to do well to take note.

It's more of a "what more can you say", I think . One day in the future Trout would have won this award, but this is not that year .

[snoopy369]

I wonder if the Jays are going to be looking for a new 1B. Lind hasn't lived up to what he was anticipated to become (esp expectations after 2009) and Encarnacion can't really field that well. Though I don't know which 1B are on the market these days.

Of course the question is whether the Cabrera of the last 2 years were a prohibited drug creation or more a factor of a player coming into his prime years? If its the later, the Blue Jay got a steal. If not, well it wasn't that much cash anyways.

Right - I think $8MM/yr for 2 years is very reasonable. Even the pre-drugs Melky was not all that bad considering his age.

I do think they're on the market for a 1B, though another option they would have is moving Bautista to 1B and putting someone else in the OF (either Rajai Davis, or someone else). Also, they have two good young catchers - perhaps one of them could manage a position change, or even a time-share-position-change where they both C and 1B alternately.

[snoopy369]

Oh, and I forgot about Emil Bonifacio, who can play any position he's asked to... he could cover first, or second with Izturis either at first or on the bench, or an OF spot with one of the OFs at first.

Also, how fast is that team going to be? Rajai Davis, Emil Bonifacio, Maicer Izturis, Jose Reyes... the four of them could hit 200 SBs together, before you get to the rest of the team.