If this were any other year, Mike Trout would be a lock for both rookie of the year and American League MVP. Trout is having a season for the ages, he was an April call up for the Angels so he’s only played 129 games but what a 129 games they have been. His stats: .325 average, 28 dingers, .953 OPS and 46 stolen bases in 50 attempts. He is also fielding at gold glove level with a 13.0 UZR. His WAR is between 9 and 10 depending on who is calculating it. To put this in perspective that WAR is on par with Willie Mays and Barry Bonds during their best years. To put it further in perspective no 21 year old has put up numbers like this since Mickey Mantle.
While Trout is a lock for Rookie of the Year, MVP is still up for grabs. The reason for the later is, Miguel Cabrera. Right now Cabrera leads the league in batting hitting .332, RBIs with 131 and he is tied for the lead in homers with 42. In other words, Cabrera is winning the triple crown with less than a dozen games left in the season. Nobody has won the triple crown since Yaz did way back in 1967 (with far less impressive numbers.) The thing is Miguel has very little speed with only four stolen bases (mostly by surprise) this year. Plus in the field he won’t make people forget Brooks Robinson. He actually gives a run or two back with his defense. This lowers his WAR to around 6.9. Still impressive but not nearly 10.
So who wins the AL MVP? Well right now Miguel’s Tigers have 80 wins and are 0.5 out of first. Mike’s Angels have 83 wins but they are 6.5 out of first and 2.5 out of the wild card. If the Tigers make the playoffs I think Cabrera wins the MVP. If the Angels make the playoffs Trout. If neither make the playoffs but Cabrera wins the triple crown then he wins the MVP, else Trout ends up a double winner. My prediction Cabrera, but it should be Trout.
John Zakour
Yesterday the National League East leading Washington Nationals clinched their first playoff spot since becoming the Nationals. Heck this is only the second time in franchise history the Nationals (or the Expos) have made the playoffs. The other time being the strike shorten season of 1981. Though to be fair the Expos were having a great season in 1994, they were in first place when that season got canceled. (But that is a season all baseball fans want to forget.) The 2012 Nationals deserve a big tip of the cap.
I would like to point out that way back before the start of the season I did pick the Nats to win the NL east. This Nats team reminded me a lot of the 1985 Mets team, a team with a lot of young talent, strong pitching and a few veterans. Of course that Met team didn’t make the playoffs that year, but they kind of made up for it the next. Sorry about the little Mets’ rant there, when you are a Mets fan you gotta cling to whatever good memories you have.
As for the Nats, while they aren’t as strong as the 86 Mets (last Mets plug I promise) they are a team that could still do much damage in the playoffs. With the likes of Ian Desmond, Adam LaRoche, Ryan Zimmerman and Bryce Harper in the everyday lineup they have a steady enough offense. Steady enough on offense is good enough to make it far in the playoffs when you have the top pitching in the league. Yes, Stephen Strasburg with his 15 wins, 197 K’s and 1.15 whip won’t be making any starts until next year. Yes, that will hurt the Nats – a little. But the Nats can still roll out Gio Gonzales (19 wins, 1.14 whip 2.95 ERA), Jordan Zimmermann (1.17 whip, 2.96 ERA) and Ross Detwiler (1.17 whip and 3.10 ERA) to pitch any series. All three of these guys had lower ERA’s than Stras. The bullpen is anchored by Tyler Clippard with 32 saves. Even without Strasburg the Nationals are going to be a dangerous team this year in the playoffs and this may only be the start of better things to come.
Sigh. Oh how the Mets have really blown up this season. Before the all star break there was some promise, not a lot of promise but some. I thought maybe if the ball bounces the right way, they get a couple of good call ups and who knows maybe even make a trade then the Mets can compete for a wild card birth. None of that happened. In fact since the all star break the Braves and Rockies have won more games in Citi Field than the Mets. That is down right embarrassing.
Well it’s been a tough run for both the Yankees and the Mets. But I still thought I’d put some random thoughts together.
First the Mets because they are easier. Sigh. Wow how they fell apart after the break. They have been pretty sad to watch. Still some positive signs: Ike Davis is starting to hit, Tejada has been better than expected. Murphy can it. I still think Duda will be decent some day. The Mets must sign Wright and Dickey. Then if some of the young arms develop, dare a dream it, the Mets might challenge for a playoff spot next year.
According to ESPN.com’s POFF the NY Yankees have a 94.8% chance of making the playoffs this year. To put that in perspective the second place Orioles are 3.5 out and given a 26.2% chance. The third place Tampa Bay Rays are 4 out but have a 65.4% chance. Quite frankly, I don’t think the Yankees are nearly that much of a lock.
Okay, I don’t get it. The Red Sox have apparently thrown in the towel and decided to rebuild the team with the third largest payroll in baseball. (Behind the Yankees and Phillies – who also have been slowly tossing in the towel.) In a trade like none I have ever seen (in over 40 years of baseball watching) the Red Sox unloaded three all stars Adrian Gonzalez, Josh Beckett, Carl Crawford and another guy Nick Punto to the LA Dodgers for a poor hitting first baseman: James Loney, a pitcher with a 27.00 ERA in his one start, a double A pitcher and Ivan De Jesus. In other words this was a massive salary dump by Red Sox, around $260 million. The Red Sox are basically saying, “let’s redo what Theo did.”
First of all, the good from August 15th, 2012. The Seattle Mariner’s ace Felix (the King) Hernandez went out and pitched a perfect game, beating the Tampa Bay Rays 1-0. It was the 23rd perfect game in major league baseball history, the third this season alone. Yep, this is truly the year of the pitcher. King Felix’s struck out 12, four of those coming in the last two innings. I love the way the major league baseball network lets the entire nation watch no hitters these days. It’s great being able to watch a little piece of history. I started to watch the game in the seventh and after watching how King Felix dealt with the first two hitters I was pretty certain he’d get the perfect game. His stuff was dead on. I didn’t see one Ray hit the ball hard. A big tip of my ball cap to Hernandez, who is now 11-5 on the season.
I’ve been quiet lately as I’ve been wrapping up both a new novel and also closing down my mother’s estate. Truthfully though even if I didn’t have all this going on right now I still wouldn’t have much to say. Why? Quite frankly because the Mets are bad.
I know this was meant to be a rebuilding season. A season of growth. I accepted that and the growing pains that come along with a young team. But the thing is the team showed such progress going into the all star break. They were just a couple games out of a playoff spot. Santana had just pitched the first no hitter in Mets history. David Wright was having an MVP type year. Dickey was having a Cy Young year. Tejada was hitting over .300 and so was Daniel Murphy. There was hope not only for the future but for now. I got my hopes up.
Yesterday the Yankees acquired future hall of famer, Ichiro Suzuki for two prospects. The Yankees will be picking up two million and change (which is chump money for the Yankees) to rent Ichiro for the rest of the season. Despite the fact that Ichiro is now 38 and not the player he once was I still like this deal. The Yankees are trying to catch a bit of lightning in a bottle, if it works they look brilliant. If it doesn’t work, they tried and don’t appear to have lost much.
Ichiro is not having a good year, he was hitting .260 with a couple homers and a few triples and 15 stolen bases. But Ichiro if nothing else makes a good replacement for Bret Gardner. Even at his worst Ichiro can field and steal bases, two things Gardner also excels at.
Okay, the Mets lost to the Dodgers 8-5 yesterday. The game was actually close until the top of the ninth when the Mets for some reason decided to bring in Ace RA Dickey to pitch the ninth. Dickey gave up a bloop and a blast. The loss dropped the Mets to 47 – 47. The Mets have one win since the all-star break. The big problem, is pitching.
