Neyer: Should a Triple Crown guarantee an MVP award?
From SABR member Rob Neyer at Baseball Nation on October 4, 2012:
I wasn’t sure I would ever see a player win a Triple Crown.
I mean, I was alive for the last two, but I don’t think my parents propped me up in front of our little black-and-white set, just so I could witness Frank Robinson and Carl Yastrzemski. I didn’t actually start paying attention to baseball until 1974, which makes it … well, roughly a 38-year wait. A wait so long that I was just about ready to give up. There had just been so many great hitters in all those years … If none of them could do it, maybe nobody could.
Of course, we never thought anybody would hit 70 home runs until someone did. We never thought someone would draw 120 intentional walks in one season until someone did. It’s hard to believe someone will do something astounding until someone actually does it. But when it happens, you feel lucky to have been there for it.
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What I can’t understand is the notion that Cabrera’s singular accomplishment means, ispso facto, deserves a Most Valuable Player Award. But that seems to be a popular sentiment out there in Webland.
Read the full article here: http://mlb.sbnation.com/2012/10/4/3452862/miguel-cabrera-triple-crown-mvp-mike-trout-debate
Originally published: October 4, 2012. Last Updated: October 4, 2012.