AL and NL MVP Races Heat Up

By Ryan Henry

     It’s getting close to the end of the season, which means that it is time to look at those in the running for MVP honors. In both the AL and NL there are two that distill to the top and a few that are fighting to stay in the conversation.  First, let’s take a look at the AL race.

American League

1.       The first person you have to talk about when considering the AL MVP is the Angels’ Mike Trout. He currently leads the league in four statistical categories: batting average at .346, stolen bases (33), runs (86) and OPS+ (182). On top of that, he is sitting at an absurd 6.7 wins-above-replacement  (WAR) according to Fangraphs.com. He is playing for a contender, and could very well be the third player to win both rookie of the year honors to go alongside his MVP trophy, which would also go nicely alongside his likely Gold Glove.

photo courtesy of the Los Angeles Angels

2.       Next up is Robinson Cano. He was a finalist for this award last year, and would have won it had Josh Hamilton not had the monster year he did. Unfortunately for Cano, it looks like he will fall victim a second time to somebody having a career year, and the distinct anti-Yankee culture that pervades MVP voters. Cano is sitting at 5.1 WAR, currently second behind the aforementioned Mike Trout. Additionally he is hitting .313 (tops among second basemen), 24 home runs (also tops among second basemen) and 64 RBIs (second among second basemen). Cano also has the advantage that his team will probably be playing in the postseason, while it remains to be determined if the Halos will even be there.

3.       If Trout doesn’t make the playoffs and the voters really hate the Yankees as much as it seems, then Miguel Cabrera could find himself hoisting MVP honors. He has been on an absolute tear this year batting .325 with 27 HRs and 91 RBIs. He currently site second in the AL in batting average, first in RBIs and third in slugging percentage. He is also third in AL in WAR at 4.8. Despite all this, voters may be turned off by the fact that he may not even be the MVP of his own team, as Austin Jackson is having a similarly ridiculous statistical season.

photo courtesy of the Detroit Tigers

National League

1.       Ryan Braun is an absolute beast. He leads the NL in HRs with 29 and is tied for third in RBIs with 74. He is putting these numbers up while playing for a Brewers team that has very little going for them. However, the reigning NL MVP was the subject of some controversy regarding performance enhancing drugs in the offseason. These allegations coupled with the fact that Braun isn’t on a contending team (the Brewers are 8 games under .500) could be the perfect storm to ensure that he doesn’t repeat.

2.       The biggest threat to Braun (other than the PED allegations) is Andrew McCutchen. He is hitting an out of this world .373 for the season, a full 25 percentage points ahead of rookie phenom Trout. McCutchen gets on base 43.1% of the time, trailing only the injured Joey Votto in that category and leads the majors in slugging percentage at .628. To top it all off, he leads the NL in WAR at 6.1. He has made the Pirates a contender. The only reason I rank Braun above McCutchen is because he has had some help in the form of Garrett Jones, Neil Walker, Pedro Alvarez and the recently acquired Travis Snider. This looks like the year that the Pirates end their playoff drought, and McCutchen should benefit from it.

photo courtesy of the Pittsburgh Pirates

3.       Melky Cabrera hits singles. He hits a lot of singles. He is hitting .348 but only has 10 HRs. His OPS is a ridiculous .998, while his wOBA (weighted on-base average) sites 8^th in the National League at .396. He is an offensive equivalent of a Rolex watch. You can count on him getting to first base two to three times a game. The problem is that he may not even be the best offensive player on his team. If McCutchen gets points taken off because he has help, then Cabrera is in trouble. Buster Posey is also having a career year, and is one of the reasons that opponents can’t pitch around Cabrera. And, while Cabrera is doing exceptionally well getting on-base, he doesn’t do as good of a job as either of the other two in this list.

     If the voting ended tomorrow, I would give it to Trout and McCutchen. Trout is having a one-of-a-kind type season and the allegations of Ryan Braun are too severe to justify giving him an MVP, especially since baseball likes to shy away from controversy. Any of these six candidates are deserving of the award, and the last quarter of this baseball season promises to be an exciting one either way.