American League MVP

[Lfbj00]

There are only two candidates, Miguel Cabrera of the Detroit Tigers, and Mike Trout of the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim. *Trout will be a landslide winner of the A.L. Rookie of the Year Award. *The debate, if there is any, seems to be from baseball purists, and modern day baseball statisticians. * *Baseball purists will point to the following:

Miguel Cabrera became the first player to win a Triple Crown since Carl Yastrzemski in 1967, 45 years ago. *Cabrera's Triple Crown is one of just 12 in modern major league history.

PLAYER ** * * *YEAR HR RBI AVG
Cabrera, DET 2012 44 139 .330
Yastrzemski, BOS1967 44 121 .326
F. Robinson, BAL 1966 49 122 .316
Mantle, NYY 1956 52 130 .353
Williams, BOS 1947 32 114 .343
Williams, BOS 1942 36 137 .356
Medwick, STL 1937 31 154 .374
Gehrig, NYY 1934 49 165 .363
Foxx, PHI ** * * *1933 48 163 .356
Klein, PHI ** * * *1933 28 120 .368
Hornsby, STL 1925 39 143 .403
Hornsby, STL 1922 42 152 .401

Mike Trout's historic rookie season--.326 average, .399 on-base percentage, .564 slugging percentage, 30 home runs, 129 runs, 49 stolen bases, A.L. All-Star. *Trout is the first major league player to hit 30 home runs, score 125 runs and steal 45 bases in a season and to hit .320 or above with 30 home runs and 45 stolen bases. Only Joe DiMaggio (132 in 1936) and Ted Williams (131 in 1939) scored more runs as rookies. *Trout could join Fred Lynn in 1975 and Ichiro Suzuki in 2001 as the only players to win MVP and rookie of the year in the same season.

Modern Day Stats guys will point to the WAR rating. *Wins Above Replacement Player is Prospectus' attempt at capturing a player' total value. This means considering playing time, position, batting, baserunning, and defense for batters, and role, innings pitched, and quality of performance for pitchers.

2012 WAR LEADERS:
Trout (10.7)
Cano (7.6)
Verlander (7.4)
Posey (7.2)
McCutchen (7.1)
Braun (7.0)
Molina (6.9)
Cabrera (6.9)
Wright (6.7)
Beltre (6.6)

Only three players posted a better WAR at age 25 or younger, Babe Ruth (11.6 in 1920), Lou Gehrig (11.5 in 1927) and Mickey Mantle (11.1 in 1957 and 11.0 in 1956).
*
Me...I'm a purist, so I say without hesitation, it's Cabrera without a doubt. *The question being, what do you think?

[jazyd]

One guys team won their division, the other didn't . In this case I go with the division winner although that kid had one heck of a year and in most years would win it outright, he had the unlucky year to have Cabrera have his record year with a team that won the division.

[Catfan73]

Cabrera hands down. The side by side comparison:

Cabrera: .330, 44 homers, 66 walks, 139 rbi, .393 obp, .606 slugging
Trout: .326, 30 homers, 67 walks, 83 rbi, .399 obp, .564 slugging