Throwdowns > Closed

Marlins Fan said 07/26, 04:05 PM
Trout's been fantastic. Best player in baseball-fantastic, if you ask most people. But there are a couple of factors working against him.

First off, he's a rookie. Granted there have been cases of rookies winning MVP in seasons past, but its a rare occurrence and baseball writers are weird enough where some will no doubt hold Trout's lack of experience against him.

There's also the standings. Its not set in stone that the MVP has to play for a pennant-winning team but it certainly helps. Last year when JV was being considered as a MVP candidate there was discussion about his merits as a pitcher compared to say, Ellsbury's merit as a position player for a non-pennant winking team. Verlander won, thanks in some part to his Tigers' first place finish as opposed to Boston's awful September collapse.

The third factor working against Trout is that he has another MVP candidate on his second place team. Mark Trumbo has compiled some nasty stats this year and the separation between Trout and himself isn't as great as people think. Conversely, guys like Cano, Cabrera and Hamilton have their teams in first place despite not playing with another MVP candidate.

Marlins Fan said 07/27, 05:15 PM
NBA? Little League? What?

All this hyperbole explains why you didn't understand my argument.

No whit Trout is the MVP. You yourself said there wasn't even anyone else who you could think of as a real challenger. This was a homerism-driven easy win attempt, which is why I took the only possible alternative and mentioned a few points that might POSSIBLY detract from Trout's MVP chances.

As I said in my first argument, its not set in stone that a rookie cant be MVP. Its not a guarantee that the MVP will come from a division winner. And yes, its possible and even likely that Trumbo will hurt Trout's MVP chances, if for no other reason than that he will steal some votes from his teammate.

But the bottom line is that this is an easy win attempt. Trout has the best collective numbers of anybody in the AL, therefore its logical to assume that as of right now he has the best chance to won the award.

What were you expecting from an opposing argument? Somebody dumb enough to say that Trout isn't good at baseball?

Come on, man.

Marlins Fan said 07/27, 09:29 PM
Well its not just that I agree with you (which I do, obviously) but EVERYBODY agrees with you. MLB is a numbers game, more than any other sport. And all the numbers, or stats, prove that Trout has been the Most Valuable Player. So all that's left for me to do is poke holes in your reasoning, which I did in my first argument, or bring up hypothetical situations in which Trout might lose. For example, if Cabrera or Hamilton go on a tear over the last couple months then they might surpass Trout. But that's a weak argument so I'm not gonna even try.

I probably overreacted in my second argument. If so, my bad. I thought it was a given that everybody knows Trout is the leading candidate so far, though.

Anyhoo, going back to my previous tactic, I think the only way Trout doesn't win the award (except for injuries) is if the voters hold some kind of bias against him. Like I mentioned previously, that could be because hes a rookie, or because his team misses the playoffs, but the most likely of those scenarios is the Trumbo factor, IMO.

If Trout and Trumbo finish as strong as they've started then they will take votes from each other. Otherwise Trout wins.