Cage Match: Cabrera vs. Trout 3 - The Aftermath.

Damn it all to hell. Anyone who thought this would be over once the AL MVP was officially announced, you clearly don't know baseball fans. All right, let's get this over with...again...

So, as we all know, the new AL MVP is Tigers third baseman Miguel Cabrera, who won 22 of 28 first place votes to beat out Angels centerfielder Mike Trout, who got the remaining 6. It's truly shocking that, considering the debate that's been raging since September, the voting wasn't closer. But, as has always been the case, you can't predict baseball. Even though hundreds of analysts and bloggers have made or have attempted to make a career out of doing so (hence what you're reading at this very moment). If we can't accurately predict it, though, we can sure put our two cents in once the results are announced. And in the interest of time (and my sanity), I'll keep this one short.

I won't throw any (or many) stats at you wonderful people in this final installment of CM:CvT. The stats are already in the first two posts, if you really need to go over them. The simple fact is that old-school thinking beat out new-school in 2012, over 150 years after the creation of the sport. That in itself is a clear statement on the game as it is played. This demonstrates that, above all else, stats like batting average and RBI are still respected enough that they're preferred units of measure when determining what a player is worth, as opposed to WAR, which actually determines what a player is worth. And a Triple Crown win is impressive, no matter how you may try to skew the usage of supposedly outdated stats. If these numbers were so outdated, wouldn't we have moved away from them? OPS+ and UZR aren't listed in the box score after every game, but runs scored and runs batted in still are. If they weren't important, or still an appropriate way to figure out how good or worthy a player is, they would have gone by the wayside like the spitball or the Expos. But they're still the most recognizable, most tangible thing to point toward when talking about position players.

This really better be the last time I have to talk about this. I can't write another word without clawing my eyes out.

Once again, we have to ask ourselves the most difficult question in baseball: what truly makes a player Most Valuable? It's easy to point to Cabrera's win as the final word that basic statistics win out in a debate, but you needn't go further back than 2010 to find that isn't always the case. Even though he had a 13-12 record on a Mariners team that lost 101 games, pitcher Felix Hernandez took home the Cy Young award because his peripheral stats, both basic and sabermetrical, blew everyone else out of the water. It appeared, for quite some time, that this year would see the same kind of thing happen, with Trout besting Cabrera. But does Trout's edge in the advanced metrics make him more valuable to the Angels than Cabrera's raw power made him to the Tigers? Does Cabrera's ability to smash a baseball into the stratosphere mean more than Trout's blinding speed on the basepaths? Is taking your team to the World Series and losing every single game better than missing the playoffs entirely? Does having one of the best hitters of this generation batting behind you (Albert Pujols for Trout in Anaheim, Prince Fielder for Cabrera in Detroit) make an impact on your value overall? It's hard to say. It's even harder to say that one of these two was better than the other, when in the minds of rational baseball fans everywhere (there have to be a few left in the world besides me, I desperately wished to myself), the vote could have gone either way and there would be plenty who cheered and plenty who grimaced.

Cabrera's .330/44/139 stat line in 2012 is certainly one for the ages, and his Triple Crown will look quite nice next to his new MVP award on the mantle I assume he has. Trout, for his part, had a historic season too, with his .326/30/83 giving him one of the best rookie campaigns in history, and his leading all of baseball with 49 stolen bases and 129 runs scored is nothing to stick your nose up at. He took home Rookie of the Year honors, and even though he lost this year, everyone expects him to remain in contention, with Cabrera, for MVP for years to come.

And, of course, congratulations are in order for all the other award winners this year:

NL Rookie of the Year - Bryce Harper, Washington Nationals.
AL Manager of the Year - Bob Melvin, Oakland Athletics.
NL Manager of the Year - Davey Johnson, Washington Nationals.
AL Cy Young - David Price, Tampa Bay Rays.
NL Cy Young - R.A. Dickey, New York Mets.
NL MVP - Buster Posey, San Francisco Giants.

Can we finally put this debate to bed? (The sound of a million baseball fans screaming "NO" before going back to punching each other in the face while wearing a Cabrera or Trout jersey is reverberating in my weary head right now)

We'll be back later in the week to analyze the pending blockbuster trade between the Marlins and the Blue Jays. Stay tuned.