Who's the AL MVP?

[revo]

Who's your pick for AL MVP? Here's some of the top candidates and their stats:

Mookie Betts: .320/.365/.538, 119 R, 31 HR, 112 RBI, 26 SB, 131 OPS+, 9.4 WAR
Mike Trout: .318/.441/.556, 123 R, 29 HR, 99 RBI, 27 SB, 175 OPS+, 10.4 WAR
Jose Altuve: .337/.396/.534, 107 R, 24 HR, 96 RBI, 28 SB, 155 OPS+, 7.6 WAR
Josh Donaldson: .285/.406/.556, 122 R, 37 HR, 98 RBI, 7 SB, 154 OPS+, 7.4 WAR
David Ortiz: .315/.402/.620, 78 R, 37 HR, 124 RBI, 2 SB, 161 OPS+, 4.9 WAR
Edwin Encarnacion: .266/.358/.536, 98 R, 42 HR, 127 RBI, 2 SB, 134 OPS+, 3.8 WAR
Adrian Beltre: .298/.356/.520, 88 R, 32 HR, 103 RBI, 1 SB, 126 OPS+, 6.2 WAR
Manny Machado: .296/.346/.535, 103 R, 36 HR, 95 RBI, 0 SB, 128 OPS+, 6.7 WAR
Corey Kluber: 18-9, 3.14 ERA, 1.056 WHIP, 227 K, 149 ERA+, 6.5 WAR


Some others include: Mark Trumbo, Robinson Cano, Kyle Seager, Justin Verlander, Brian Dozier, Miggy Cabrera, Rick Porcello.

[TranaGreg]

Funny timing, I was just thinking about this today. Tough call ... I was going to go with Altuve, but that .441 obp for Trout is just too much to ignore ... I knew he was having another great season but he's almost 30-30. I had to take him.

[revo]

Funny timing, I was just thinking about this today. Tough call ... I was going to go with Altuve, but that .441 obp for Trout is just too much to ignore ... I knew he was having another great season but he's almost 30-30. I had to take him.

Does the fact the Angels have a 72-87 record hurt Trout's chances badly? Obviously, it was not his fault they sucked, but voters tend to go with players on the contenders. I wonder if the Red Sox all split their votes and it goes to Trout. No denying he had an awesome year.

[wannabegriffey]

No matter how much papi love is floating around, I just can't see him as mvp. Not even top 5 or top 10 but he'll end up there on, I believe, sentiment. I wonder if he is top 3 on his own team (betts and bogaerts are ahead of him in my estimation).

[revo]

No matter how much papi love is floating around, I just can't see him as mvp. Not even top 5 or top 10 but he'll end up there on, I believe, sentiment. I wonder if he is top 3 on his own team (betts and bogaerts are ahead of him in my estimation).

Bogaerts fell off the cliff in the second half, despite having a great overall year.

[cleo]

Take Trout and put him in the Red Sox lineup and consider how much better his RBI and Run totals would be. Why should Trout be penalized for playing on a crap team? Andre Dawson come to mind?

[revo]

Take Trout and put him in the Red Sox lineup and consider how much better his RBI and Run totals would be. Why should Trout be penalized for playing on a crap team? Andre Dawson come to mind?

Andre Dawson does come to mind -- but that was 30 years ago, so it goes to show you how long it's been since a player on a last-place team won MVP. Plus, Dawson's award came in a pre-sabermetric era (which actually benefits the Trout argument), as he finished well outside the Top 10 NL players in WAR that year.

[TranaGreg]

Does the fact the Angels have a 72-87 record hurt Trout's chances badly? Obviously, it was not his fault they sucked, but voters tend to go with players on the contenders. I wonder if the Red Sox all split their votes and it goes to Trout. No denying he had an awesome year.

Ah but you are addressing the question "who will win the AL MVP". That's a different matter.

[virgonomic]

I voted for Kluber because I think he anchored that staff and team. I do not expect him to win.

Halos were terrible with Trout and would have been terrible without him. I think Mookie wins even though he has a pretty good supporting cast. He had a monster year.

[onejayhawk]

Yawn. Trout again.

J

[revo]

Trout takes it.