Judge is gonna win it . NY Bias will carry him to a landslide . It won't even be close . Most MLB voters still look at avg HR R RBI , they don't give a **** that altuve has the higher ops on a consistent basis . No one from Houston will ever win a national award unless they are so far ahead of the field that it's ridiculous.
Except, you know, he doesn't. Judge has a higher OPS by nearly 100 points, and had a better OPS than Altuve in 4 out of 6 months.
Thanks for the correction . I was going off of what Leventhal was saying during the broadcast . In all honesty , it's close . Judge has had a fantastic year . I think the fact that he plays for NY will be a huge factor in his favor . Rookie, 52 bombs , ROY , MVP , NY ... It all seems to fit so perfectly into a narrative .
The new Two-ston is 2nd place. '14 Watt '15 Harden '17 Harden '17 Altuve At least Gordon won 6th Man. Yippee !! Winning the World Series would cure all.
I think the number he was trying to mention was WAR, not OPS. Altuve leads substantially in Baseball Reference/Prospectus, and it's about even on Fangraphs. But it's not really relevant arguing who should win. I think altuve will win because the voters are not fans, or biased announcers for that matter. They're the analytics savvy nerdy baseball writers. They take their jobs seriously, and they'll dig deeper than simple stats. I do think the tiebreakers will still be consistency, offensive scarcity at the position (2B vs RF), and team wins (100 vs 90).
For your reference here are some articles written in the past week and their arguments for why they chose the MVP the way they did: Altuve: NY Daily News The Ringer Sports Illustrated Bleacher Report Judge: NY Times
I think Altuve wins it, but for different reasons. I think the narrative was well established post-ASB once Judge went into his massive slump at the same time Altuve went nuts in July, and then Judge's resurgence came a bit too late. And that's great for us / Altuve, but when I look at two players, it's harder and harder for me to make the case for Altuve. His performance has dipped the last couple months along with the team slump, while Judge is going to end up with an eye-popping numbers and is closing insanely strong. I think Altuve wins, but I don't think it requires NY-bias for Judge to win.
I think you're worrying a bit about how this will look in ten years, but even that invokes some bias towards the traditional stats. "How can someone with 24HR 81RBI 112R beat a 52HR 114RBI 128R guy?!" It'll be fine. Like you said, narrative of the season is Cleveland and Houston winning 100 games. Cleveland had 3 contenders for MVP while Altuve is the consistent clear cut choice in Houston. In 2001 Ichiro (8-69-127) beat Giambi (38-120-109) and his own teammate Boone (37-141-114) to take MVP, and no one has a problem with it. Ichiro was an MVP, his Mariners were the story of the year. Altuve will be a HOF. We'll look back on this MVP race fondly and without buyer's remorse.
Sure - they split WAR, and Judge leads in basically everything else except for avg and steals. OPS, OBP, SLG, RBIs, Runs, HRs, Walks, etc. I think it's a bit easier to make the case for Judge than Altuve. Altuve's argument is that while he's not as good offensively, he does it while playing 2B (thus the WAR split). Oh to clarify, I'm not concerned about it, and really don't care much about individual awards to be honest. I'm just saying that if I were voting, I'd probably favor Judge, though Altuve has a case to be made. My only point is that I don't think it takes any NY-bias to decide Judge is deserving.
The numbers and eyes don't lie: Jose Altuve for MVP A list of 2017 statistics tell the tale, and they don't lie, pointing to Altuve, not Judge, as the AL's top player By Brian T. Smith, Houston Chronicle Photo: Karen Warren, Staff IMAGE 2 OF 6 Houston Astros second baseman Jose Altuve (27) chats with Los Angeles Angels Mike Trout (27) after Trout's double during the first inning of an MLB baseball game at Minute Maid Park, Sunday, Sept. 24, 2017, in Did I mention that Altuve entered Game 159 of 162 with career highs in batting average (.350), OPS (.970), OBP (.415), runs (111) and slugging percentage (.555)? Or that the 27-year-old from Venezuela - who is 5-6, 165 pounds and was never supposed to even make the majors - leads MLB in WAR (8.5), tops the AL in hits (204) and is batting a league-best .44If you're back on the fence, dig deep. The incredibly consistent Altuve hit .347 with a .968 OPS before the break. He's batted .354 with a .973 OPS since the season paused, pushing the Astros to their best year since 1998 and never wavering. Only five other players in AL history have hit at least .350 with 32 steals and a .970 OPS. Ty Cobb and Shoeless Joe Jackson are two of the legendary names. Altuve's slugger-like OPS is also the fifth-highest by an AL second baseman in history and hasn't been touched since Charlie Gehringer in 1937. How about indisputable modern stats that can't be bent to personal bias? Altuve's .391 average and 1.111 OPS on the road also lead MLB, while his Astros own a franchise-record 51 wins away from home. Voting in America can be difficult in 2017. In baseball, it should be easy. Jose Altuve for AL MVP.
Altuve's main advantages are SBs, position, and being First player with 4 consecutive seasons of league leading 200 hits. Hope it's enough....
The Times is a good reference for just about anything. Whatever they say, just think or do the exact opposite, and you're good.
2. Aaron Judge, the American League equivalent of Stanton, AL MVP. The reasoning, though, is sound. The whole ballot: 2. Jose Altuve 3. Jose Ramirez 4. Mike Trout 5. Corey Kluber 6. Carlos Correa 7. Josh Donaldson 8. Francisco Lindor 9. Justin Upton 10. Chris Sale While it’s fair to compare Judge and Stanton – both enormous men who hit balls harder and farther than anyone today and among the hardest and farthest of anyone in history – Judge was simply a better player this season. Their slugging percentages are practically identical. Judge’s on-base percentage, on the other hand, was nearly 40 points higher. Judge vs. Altuve vs. Ramirez vs. Trout, on the other hand, makes for one hell of an MVP conundrum. They were clearly the four best players in the AL. Even though Trout was the best of them, he played nearly 40 fewer games than the other three, and his excellence couldn’t overcome that gap. Correa and Donaldson both missed large chunks of time, too, preventing this from becoming an even more crowded race. Ramirez’s versatility added a significant amount of value to someone whose bat already made him among the most dangerous players in the game. The offensive production of Judge and Altuve, though, positioned them in the top two positions. As with the NL, a vote for either of the top two is perfectly acceptable, and valuing Altuve’s consistency is entirely understandable. Judge disappeared for more than six weeks in the second half. Those other 4½ months were transcendent. As great as the 52 home runs were, Judge – the entire package – beats Altuve on the merits of his game writ large. Altuve may have won the batting title, but Judge still got on base 15 more times than him. And between that and a slugging lead of more than 80 points, Judge and his solid glove in right field just nick Altuve’s positional advantage and baserunning prowess. It’s close, _________________________ Has Verlander 4th in CY; A.J. Hinch 2nd in MOY
