Bregman has better plate discipline. Altuve has better bat to ball skills. Springer has more power. Brantley is better contact and line drive with less pop. I’m not going to dig way in on one guy over another bc the main point I’m making is that there is not any particular separation between like 5 of the guys on the team when heathy. Yordan is the best hitter, Yuli is the worst (of our top 7 guys) and the other are pretty indistinguishable to me with each having their areas they excel at and being al star level. All 5 of those guys are somewhere between the top 5 and 20 hitters in the AL, which is crazy stupid good. I’d go Trout, Yordan, Martinez, Judge and Betts and then you could throw all 5 of the other Astros names in a hat and I wouldn’t have a preference one way or another. But yeah, Trout is the MVP unless he takes the month of September off with injury or has a lousy month.
Sounds like Trout is having surgery and will be out for the rest of the season. Is still a chance for a MVP for Bregman if Bregman finishes strong?
Yes. Trout, as awesome as he is, should not be the MVP if he misses an entire month of the season. Attendance counts (or should) with an award like that imo. Bregman makes as much sense as anyone with Trout on the shelf for ~15-20 percent of the year.
Production counts. If a guy misses a month and still produces more, he should be MVP. This should be close.
The door is officially open for Bregs if he doesn't slump these last 2 weeks. Their WAR would be close enough to overlook and one could a make a reasonable argument that Bregman contributed more overall.
Wow, Trout has been shut down! Coincidence or are you a baseball insider? Trout is a phenomenal player and talent. Bregman is probably the hardest or one of the hardest working person in baseball. Both guys deserve it, but Trout has longevity in his arsenal.
He’d been out for a week when I wrote that. They said he was coming back but had a minor procedure and should be in full on tank mode. Didn’t take much reading between the lines to see this might be possible.
Just keeping light humor on the thread. But good call anyways... True, Bregman has an outside shot now. It’s crazy to say with Bregman posting an OPS of .995 to 1.000 through the season with 11 games remaining. If Trout gets the award, most Astros fans are so respectful of what Trout has done, few would complain. But shoot we still want Bregman to bring the MVP award to the Astros.
Trout is about to lead MLB in OPS+ for the 6th year in a row, this is unprecedented. We're actually lucky to be in the ALW and get to witness this with regularity.
How were they "gifted" Ohtani? I love watching Trout play ball, so yeah, I like that he's in our Division. I'm really glad that Artie Moreno is horrible at spending money on baseball. Hope it stays that way.
Probably because the only teams in contention to get him were those West Coast teams... I don’t even think the Astros got a meeting with him. Probably by gifted he means, by the situation. It’s probably like Oshanti fell into their lap from out of the sky.
Rules changed that prevented Ohtani from being paid well. Angels didn't have to use draft pick to get him or pay him nearly anything, I'd call that a gift
A "gift" that every other MLB team had the option to use, and he got to pick the one? Sure. Still don't see how this was a "gift" to any particular team.
What did Angels give up of value to acquire Ohtani? No team had the option of choosing Ohtani. Ohtani got to pick where he went, and give whichever team he picked a ton of surplus value.
Ehh if Bregman plays well and the Astros get home field through out the playoffs, he likely wins the MVP. Trout has been a deserving candidate for 7 straight years, so cannot be upset if he wins it.
Trout: 134 games, .291 batting average, 1.083 OPS, 45 home runs, 104 RBIs, 110 runs, 137 hits, 11 stolen bases, 110 walks. Bregman: 145 games, .295 average, .999 OPS, 36 home runs, 104 RBIs, 114 runs, 153 hits, five stolen bases, 109 walks. 2 weeks left for Bregman...
