MVP

Today Clayon Kershaw and Mike Trout were awarded the MVP, the most sacred award in baseball. I don't believe either of them deserved to win it, however. In terms of Trout he was a fine player, but he was nowhere near as good a hitter as Victor Martinez and his defense measured below-average. He had by far the worst season he's ever had which may have no bearing on whether he should have won or not, but it is also an argument against him. Considering that Miguel Cabrera won back-to-back MVPs and was basically a DH. The common baseball taboo of a DH winning the MVP is not the correct way of thinking. A poor fielding 1B is the same as a designated hitter: only their for the bat.

Verdict: Victor Martinez should have won AL MVP

In Kershaw's case, the NL was kind of a different situation. Instead of four hitters all tightly clumped together it's two almost identical hitters and one historic pitcher, all of whom missed some time. After missing the first month of baseball Kershaw went on a historic run, posting a 1.77 ERA , 0.86 WHIP, 10.9 K/9, and a 1.81 FIP. He is an outstanding pitcher and deserves the cy young. However, he is not deserving of the MVP. His counterparts were more deserving because they were elite as an everyday position. Both missed about 15 games this season and while that hurt them, I don't think it should have taken the MVP away from them. My personal preference would be for Andrew McCutchen to win it but Stanton is just as equally deserving. Each posted an OPS over .950 and had OBP over .400. \

Verdict: Andrew McCutchen should have won NL MVP

Analysis: Victor Martinez Contract

Yesterday Victor Martinez received a new 4yr 68m dollar contract. Coming off an MVP type season (Victor posted career numbers in OBP, SLG, OPS, BA, hits, TB, and OPS+). the contract initially seems well-deserved. But looking through his age: going into his age 36 seasnon and the fact that he has had leg issues the contract is very concerning and shows the Tigers realization that their window is starting to close and that they need to win now.