SocraticGadfly: McCutchen right choice for NL MVP?

November 15, 2013

McCutchen right choice for NL MVP?

I'm not sure why Fox Sports, and perhaps some others, think that Paul Goldschmidt was "robbed" by Andrew McCutchen winning the National League MVP award.

There's far less controversy here, in my opinion, than Miguel Cabrera beating out Mike Trout again this year. And, in that race, compared to last year, there's less controversy this year, in my book at least, given that to the degree voters emphasize the "most valuable" angle, Cabrera shows that by grittily continuing to play late in the season.

Anyway, here's Fox's stand on the NL side:
Let's revisit the facts. Goldschmidt led the NL in slugging percentage (.551), OPS (.952), total bases (332), home runs (36), RBI (125), extra-base hits (75), intentional walks (19) and other important stats that some mathematic [sic] genius invented like: RE24, WPA, WPA/LI, REW. I think those acronyms speak for themselves, but I will elaborate further as I imagine you are not a statistician and are thinking that Goldy's deficiencies appear on the defensive side. 
Not disputing any of those true things.

But, Cutch lead in WAR, oWAR, dWAR and WAA, or at least was ahead of Goldschmidt. To me, it was about a toss-up, with a slight edge to McCutchen, perhaps. But, there was no "robbery."

The only "robbery" might be Fox trying to gin up a fake controversy for click-bait reasons, but I've taken care of any visitors coming from this page.

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