Endemic to baseball’s new age of advanced metrics is the hard truth that any modern mathlete can deal you a dozen numbers that demonstrate why Andrew McCutchen is the Most Valuable Player in the National League today.
And a dozen more for why Paul Goldschmidt should have been the MVP of the National League.
And a dozen more for why Yadier Molina was most deserving among the top three vote-getters.
And somewhere out there along the algebraic continuum, I’m sure there’s a set of integers that strongly suggest the award should probably have gone to U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, who, for all that most of baseball knows, probably spent a couple of weeks in the bullpen of the Houston Astros this summer.
But here’s the number that best defines McCutchen, who on Thursday night became only the sixth Pirate to take the honor since its creation in 1931, and no, it’s not WAR, the wins above replacement figure we all respect so much for expressing exactly how far above average a player who is so obviously above average is. Exactly.
Read more: http://www.post-gazette.com/sports/gene-collier/2013/11/15/Gene-Collier-It-s-the-thrills-that-make-the-MVP/stories/201311150121#ixzz2kijdCtoO
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