I can't
imagine what the political junkies are thinking today.
Baseball talk on
the FiveThirtyEight blog?
Blasphemous!
If you have a
few extra minutes today, check out Nate Silver's lengthy article on the New
York Times' website – it's
on the FiveThirtyEight politics blog – explaining why Mike Trout, not
Triple Crown winner Miguel Cabrera, should win this year's American League Most
Valuable Player honor.
If you're
familiar with his work, both in baseball and politics, it'll come as no
surprise to you the "statistically-minded" Silver picks the Los
Angeles Angels star.
Many of those
supporting Cabrera point to his hitting numbers, a .330 average with 44 home
runs and 139 RBI, but Silver looks at the all-around performance of each
player, including their performances in the field and on the base paths.
"Between
his defense and his base running, therefore, Trout was about 35 runs more
valuable to the Angels than Cabrera was to the Tigers," Silver writes.
The article is
a must-read if you're still on the fence between the two candidates.
And let's be
honest, why try to argue with a guy who, through a ton of numbers crunching and
analysis, correctly predicted the outcome of all 50 states in the presidential
election?
The American
League and National League MVPs, voted on at the end of the regular season by
members of the Baseball Writers Association of America, will be announced Thursday
on a MLB Network hour-long special, which airs at 6 p.m.
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