[Homer Bailey]

Originally Posted by RedsBaron

There are a lot of very good arguments for giving Trout the MVP award but the "doing something no one has done before" argument isn't itself a very good argument.

Originally Posted by M2

There are many excellent reasons to vote for Trout. This isn't one of them.

The point was, there are people that are making that argument for Cabrera (the rareness argument), and it isn't even exclusive for Cabrera. I agree there are much better arguments to be made for Trout, but I made this point to show that the rareness argument doesn't work in Cabrera's favor.

I supposed if I didn't consider WAR horrible at what it attempts to do, that would sway me. As an aside, I think you've just come up with an excellent argument against putting much stock in WAR. Anyway WAR is not strictly cumulative. It primarily relies on weighted measures. Cabrera has 64 TB and 21 TOB on Trout. Does that play a role over the course of a season? You bet it does. It's not the most important thing in the universe, but it is a case of accumulation that matters.

The rate that Cabrera and Trout get bases and get on base is essentially the same. The difference is negligible. But even in less PA's, Trout has put together a higher wRC+ (175 to 166) than Cabrera. Again, the difference there is not large, but it essentially shows that Trout has provided more offensive value than Cabrera on a cumulative basis than Cabrera has. So Cabrera has been on more and gotten more bases than Trout simply because he's had more opportunities to. If you (or anyone for that matter, not directing this directly at you) want to hold that against him, I'm not really sure that's fair.

Though I agree Trout's defensive awesomeness and jackrabbit speed give him a decided advantage over Cabrera, which is what that WAR differential is driving at. I just happen to think that gets overtaken by Cabrera's positional shift to the left of the defensive spectrum. For those who feel compelled to process these things in WAR terms, that move plugged a gaping hole for the Tigers and allowed the team to add Fielder, worth about 5.0 WAR overall.

I'll admit I hadn't considered the positional shift, and think you have a decent point here. However, I personally think you're giving it too much weight. Cabrera's shift to 3B dramatically decreased his defensive value, and I don't think he deserves "credit" for the front office going out and signing a $214M first baseman. If anything it shows that the guy they signed is a pretty comparable player to Cabrera (their stat lines aren't that dissimilar), and guys with huge bats and less than stellar gloves/speed aren't that unique in baseball.