2012 Baseball Season Discussion Thread

[E.H. Munro]

Gawdammit, two weeks ago it looked like Boston could be drafting as high as third or fourth next June and they'd have an outside shot at Mark Appel, now they have to win a bunch of meaningless games at the end of the year.

[Cris]

Originally Posted by E.H. Munro

Must've been an A's fan, because he lasted much longer than you'd expect.

That joke would have been funnier about Baltimore because the A's are clearly using a performance enhancers.

[Floods]

Originally Posted by FSH

Yes he does....BUT WAIT TROUT WAR IS AMAZING OMGOMG OMGOGMGOMG

So WAR doesn't matter, but RBI does?

Please stop talking baseball.

[Dornado]

If Miguel Cabrera really wins the triple crown he should be a no-doubt-about-it MVP in my mind... people in the know already seem to think he's a lock anyway.

He can have the triple crown... he can have the MVP... just leave the division title for the White Sox, please

[Prince]

He is no doubt the MVP if he wins the triple crown. It has been 45 years since the last triple crown and honestly I was never sure if I would actually see one anytime soon in life if at all.

[Dornado]

No shit... Yazstremski was the last, right?

On a side note the Brewers are 21-6 since August 20th and Ryan Braun has gone for .314/389/601 40 hrs 104 RBI 96 runs 30 doubles and 27 steals in 139 games. He gets my NL MVP vote.

[FSH]

Originally Posted by Floods

So WAR doesn't matter, but RBI does?

Lol what? Your saying Wins Above Replacement. A stat that makes no sense because you cant tell if a team would really have 10 fewer wins without Trout. Means more then RBI's?

[Basel]

Huge double-header today for the Dodgers.

[E.H. Munro]

Originally Posted by Prince

He is no doubt the MVP if he wins the triple crown. It has been 45 years since the last triple crown and honestly I was never sure if I would actually see one anytime soon in life if at all.

As Yaz is one of my two all time favourite players (Willie Mays being the other) I always liked that he had that distinction. But I'm ready for another in my lifetime, so I'm rooting for Miggy.

[Prince]

Originally Posted by Dornado

No shit... Yazstremski was the last, right?

On a side note the Brewers are 21-6 since August 20th and Ryan Braun has gone for .314/389/601 40 hrs 104 RBI 96 runs 30 doubles and 27 steals in 139 games. He gets my NL MVP vote.

Yep.

I only wish Braun's batting average was in the neighborhood of last years so we would be talking about him contending for the triple crown as well. He gets my NL MVP vote as well, though it will be interesting to see what the voters think. I think Buster Posey and McCutchen are the other front runners, though I think McCutchen's chances have diminished considerably (IMO) since the ASG.

[Prince]

Interesting facts on Cabrera's season and where it stands historically:

This is Year 45 A.Y. (After Yastrzemski). And according to the Elias Sports Bureau, this is the first time in any of those seasons that any player has reached the final two weeks of the season, and was leading his league in batting and RBIs, and within two of the lead in homers.

Think of all the great hitters who have roamed the baseball earth in all those years: George Brett, Johnny Bench, Albert Pujols, Barry Bonds, Mike Schmidt,. Kenneth Griffey Jr. and many more. None of them ever made this kind of run at a Triple Crown. But now Miguel Cabrera has. So he's already on historic turf.

• And now another tidbit that astounded us September History Watchers. Suppose Cabrera wins two-thirds of the Triple Crown but winds up second in home runs. That would seem like a disappointment, but maybe not after you hear this:

Would you believe that we're closing in on nearly a half-century since anyone won a Triple Crown, and nobody has had a season since in which he won two legs of this trifecta and finished second in the third category? That word, again, was "nobody." In fact, we've only had two third-place finishes by players who led in the other two:

Jim Rice 1978 (led in HRs and RBIs, third in batting race)
Matt Kemp 2011 (led in HRs and RBIs, third in batting race)

• And now another incredible feat on Cabrera's plate: He leads the league in batting and RBIs. Plus, he has already hit 40 homers. Would you believe that, in the history of baseball, only two men have ever done that without winning a Triple Crown? Here they are:

Jimmie Foxx 1938 (hit 50 HRs, eight behind Hank Greenberg)
Todd Helton 2000 (hit 42 HRs, eight behind Sammy Sosa)
• Speaking of Foxx, he's had his own unique Double Crown all to himself for more than 70 years, only to find himself in danger of having Cabrera crash his party. Amazingly, in the live ball era, Foxx is the only man ever to lead the American League in batting and RBIs but not win a Triple Crown. So even if Cabrera can't catch Hamilton in the home run race, if he leads the league in the other two categories, he'll still have done something cool and historic.

• Over in the NL, for some reason, that particular Double Crown (batting and RBI titles) hasn't been quite as rare. But it's still been done just six times in the past 85 years:

Stan Musial 1948
Tommy Davis 1962
Joe Torre 1971
Al Oliver 1982
Helton 2000
Matt Holliday 2007
Of that group, only one man had a real shot at a Triple Crown in the last two weeks of the season. And that was the great Stan Musial, in 1948.

Ralph Kiner and Johnny Mize tied for the league lead in homers that year, with 40. Musial was sitting on 38 home runs with nine games left in the season but hit only one more and finished one behind them.

• Hold on. It gets better. Other than Musial, only one other player in the live ball era managed to lead his league in batting and RBIs and wind up as close to the league lead in home runs as Cabrera is now (two or closer). This man:

The immortal Rogers Hornsby in 1921 -- hit 21 homers and finished second in the league, two behind the eloquently nicknamed George (High Pockets) Kelly.

• Triple Crowns aside, Cabrera has a shot at a few other feats that got the September History Watch's attention. For one thing, he's on the verge of becoming a back-to-back batting champ.

The only other active player who can make that claim: Joe Mauer (2008-09).

The only other Tiger who has ever done that: Some dude named Ty Cobb, whoever he is (did it eight times).

• Back-to-back or not, just being a two-time batting champ is a rarity here in the post-Gwynn-and-Boggs era. The only two active players who have won a batting title more than once at any point: Mauer and Ichiro Suzuki (2001, 2004).

• Finally, even if Cabrera doesn't win the Triple Crown, he's already one of only three active players who have led their league in all three Triple Crown categories at some point in their careers -- just not in the same year. The others:

Albert Pujols (batting title '03, HR title '09-10, RBI title '10)
Alex Rodriguez (batting title '96, HR title '01-03, '05, '07, RBI title '02, '07)

http://espn.go.com/mlb/blog/_/name/s...g-triple-crown

[hobojoe]

Kris Medlen's insane run continues tonight...

[Prince]

Cabrera with another home run. Only one behind Hamilton now. We might be witnessing something special.

[FSH]

Originally Posted by Prince

Cabrera with another home run. Only one behind Hamilton now. We might be witnessing something special.

No we are not because his WAR isnt 10 like Trouts

[ATLien]

Originally Posted by hobojoe

Kris Medlen's insane run continues tonight...

Best pitcher in baseball right now.