Quote:
Originally Posted by Johnny Footstool
It's not like he agreed to play catcher, though. He went back to his old position. That's not as much of a sacrifice as some people think.
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And more than that, I honestly don't see why willingness to play a position should even factor-in to whether or not his play was the most valuable on the field. That shouldn't even be in the discussion.
I still don't get the argument for Cabrera. I still find it ironic that a lot of people are citing the dislike for stat-driven measurements (like WAR), but it's actually only sensible to vote for Cabrera if you ignore base-running and defense -- which are not very stat-savvy. Funny thing is, Trout, in playing fewer games due to not starting until late April, actually created almost as many runs offensively for his team as Cabrera.
I realize not everyone fancies WAR, and I'm sympathetic as I think there's some margin for error. But the 3-win value difference for each player at their respective positions marks the same value from Cabrera to David Freese. That's a heck of a huge margin for error.
People wanting to award the MVP on the basis of the triple crown and how infrequent it happens... well, in terms of B-Ref's WAR calculation, Trout just had one of the top-20 best seasons in the history of baseball. Just something to consider.