jimmer

Even crazier is that he just turned 25 last month and should already have four.

Didn't watch it yet. Plan to tonight. DID watch Kevin James' new one. I liked it, but not enough to continue watching it. Casting doesn't even seem to work.

ah yes, but he can bunt.

He will, deservedly, be on some ballots, since they vote for 10 players. He should be on most (if not all) ballots, but less deserving players will find their way on there. Big Papi will likely be on every ballot.

Vargas with his 1.1 WAR. Took him 35 games to accomplish what future MLB regular (and possible HOFer one day) Parmelee did in 21 games back in 2011 :-)

I'm a firm believer that once the cancer that is Mauer is gone, the team will use that money to sign a top notch FA ace and we will return to the dominance that his attendance on this team for so many years stopped us from achieving.

Yes, the narrative was a big thing. I mentioned narratives as a factor in voting earlier. This year we have the narratives of Altuve and Donaldson. Altuve: Little Man doing big things. We have the Donaldson narrative of how he could win back to back MVPs and he's doing even better this year.

Some people forget this part though In 1973, Riggs saw an opportunity to both make money and to draw attention to the sport of tennis. He came out of retirement to challenge one of the world's greatest female players to a match, claiming that the female game was inferior and that a top female player could not beat him, even at the age of 55. After Billie Jean King declined, he challenged Margaret Court, 30 years old and the top female player in the world. In their May 13, 1973, Mother's Day match in Ramona, California, Riggs used his drop shots and lobs to keep an unprepared Court off balance. His easy 6–2, 6–1 victory landed Riggs on the cover of both Sports Illustrated and Time magazine. The match was called the "Mother's Day Massacre". Following Court's loss to Riggs, King accepted his challenge, and on September 20, 1973, the two met in the Houston Astrodome, in a match billed as The Battle of the Sexes. King beat Riggs, 6–4, 6–3, 6–3 for the $100,000 winner-take-all prize. Unlike a similar match between Jimmy Connors and Martina Navratilova in 1992, in which the rules were altered to favor the female player, this match was played using the normal rules of tennis. According to an extensive article by the ESPN program Outside the Lines,[10] Riggs took advantage of the overwhelming odds against King and threw the match to get his debts to the mob erased. This would confirm the suspicions held by many of Riggs' peers, including Don Budge. On the other hand, the article says Riggs' close friend and estate executor Lornie Kuhle vehemently denied Riggs was ever in debt to the mob or received a payoff from them.

I was wrong there. Riggs was actually #1 for like three years. Still never the player Johnny Mac was but obviously good enough to be #1 for awhile.

Because Riggs was the one talking smack about male superiority.

yup. I'm thinking there is no way he gets it.

This is the first sporting event that I can actually remember watching. I remember my Mom talking to me about how big of a deal this match was. I responded by asking why two guys playing tennis against each other was such a big deal :-)

And Dawson got it because of HR. There were quite a few players who deserved it way more than he did. Don't know what the voters were thinking, really. If their idea was, 'We want to prove standings don't matter in our voting' why not pick Gwynn or the guy I would have picked, Dale Murphy.

I don't think too many people have issues with fast people trying to bunt for hits. SAC bunt attempts (especially ones in the 2nd inning) are more of an issue.

http://www.fangraphs.com/library/the-beginners-guide-to-measuring-defense/

If all voters looked at was a player's total contribution to his team, as opposed to narratives, just offense, and if his TEAM made the playoffs, Trout would be working on his 5th MVP now and Cabrera wouldn't have any top 2 finishes, much less two actual MVPs. Donaldson would have also been recognized as a real MVP candidate way before 2015 (when he finished 2nd in AL WAR), since he finished 2nd in AL WAR in 2013 and 2014 as well.

Happy Birthday!!!!!!! And, as always, a great game thread intro!

So, you're saying FP% is the best stat to look at when judging defense? I just want to make sure I'm reading your post right.

It would be absolutely miraculous if the Twins didn't lose 100 or more games. We'd have to win 66% of our remaining games to avoid 100 losses and we've won around 37% this season.

Those are how the top 5 should look. I imagine that's how it will end up with the order switched up a bit.

Due to the title of this thread, when I opened it, I expected the original post to have something in it like 'I got nothin'. Usually when a player from a last place team wins the MVP, it's because his performance so far outweigh everyone else's, there's no other choice. Not at all the case here, at least not with Dozier being the guy. Trout should be the example here, if we're looking for an MVP from a last place team. Dozier will likely sit around 8-10th

Not significant enough to change the fact that NL pitchers have 4,664 PAs while AL pitchers only have 414 PA. One would understand that NL teams utilize the bunt quite a bit more (since most pitchers can't hit a lick) which would significantly raise the MLB team average amount of bunt attempts you quoted. For example, the Cubs pitchers have more successful sacrifice bunts than our whole team combined has. In any event, what do the numbers you quoted look like when just looking at AL teams? I'd look for myself, but I have no idea where you're getting your stats from.

you including the NL where pitchers bat? Anyway, Twins rank 13th in the AL for % of bunts that result in hits. So they are above average in attempts and pretty bad on actual results. And only 3 AL teams have more SAC bunts.

Sometimes people cite stats without actually knowing what they mean or what they are for (like, a lot of people hear/read 'range factor' and think it measures a player's range). The stat most use for range is RZR and like I said, Dozier is tied for 4th with Kipnis. Interesting to note that it seems range has dropped almost across the board for 2Bs, cause his .807 RZR (even though he's tied for 4th) is categorized between below average and average. So I guess it depends on if you measure him against starters (making him above average) or all people who play 2B (making him below average and most other starters even farther below average). 'RZR measures a player’s range, taking three things into account: the amount of Balls In Zone (BIZ) a player receives, a player’s total Plays Made, and a player’s total amount of Out Of Zone Plays Made (OOZ).' But yeah, there are some other decent stats like RngR that measure range which has him below average. How shifting affects this is being worked on, though.

Dozier has +2 DRS this season and his range is tied for 4th out of 21 qualifying 2Bs. Metrics aren't saying he's a crap defender.