Yankees fans felt Altuve was more valuable primarily because he's putting up these numbers as a 2B. One may think that seems pretty arbitrary... but it does also play in the minds of award voters.
good freaking point. guess i was just led to believe that judge was the presumptive winner due to the constant knob-slobbing by that four letter network.
Voters will *no doubt* consider position because 2B and RF is a big difference. I'm still fearing Jose loses because 1) it's NYC and 2) Judge's numbers are HUGE.. his K's are big too, so hopefully that hurts him.
I know this probably has no real bearing, but if Judge wins rookie of the year as well as MVP, I'll be pretty butthurt.
The city of New York has won two MVP awards since 2000. And none since 2007. If you expand the scope to 1994, Texas has six to New York's two. And if that doesn't convince you there's no New York bias, how about this: Derek Jeter has zero MVPs. When you also consider all postseason awards, as well as Hall of Fame voting, the BBWAA has never shown any New York and/or Yankee bias. It's a fantasy. Yes; they are. He had a monster year and, if he wins it, will be well-deserving. He's by no means an inferior candidate.
BUT, Jeter IS overrated and favored, in general. NYC's influence needs not be limited to MVPs. Judge is worthy, but better if a Red.
Media coverage is very NYC biased (for obvious reason of its market size), but BBWAA voting is often about the story. Altuve has an incredible story as this unheralded prospect, shortest guy in baseball, who has become a top 10 player to help turn around a franchise. Unfortunately Judge has his own incredible story as the tallest guy in baseball, that went from likely AAA guy to superstar on the biggest stage ending the Yankees rebuild before it ever really got started.
26 of 27 "experts" at ESPN picked Altuve over Judge. They nailed some of the other awards. I'm feeling good about his chances today.
The only real weakness I saw out of Altuve all season is he had a tendency to come up empty in key situations with runners on base. That's not saying he had a bad BA with RISP (I'm not sure what it is). But, he seemed to revert to almost immature, rookie tendencies swinging wildly at pitches out of the strike zone with runners on. I just remember seeing a lot of that this season. That was my impression...that he hit a lot more when runners weren't on. But, you'll may be able to prove me wrong. I could be confused. He had what...something like 87 RBI? Just seems kind of low for a guy with 204 hits imo. I'd like his chances to win better if they counted his 200+ hit streak for four seasons and two batting titles (including this season). But, I don't think they do and just concentrate on the one season. And, I'm not sure his short stature is really a factor even though it is incredible how great he is for his height. I really hope he wins. I just don't think these writers see the value as much over 50 homeruns and 100+ RBIs hit by Judge. Judge's SO numbers are bad but all rookies rack up SOs...albeit I think he broke the record on rookie SOs. I hope to be proven wrong. The big thing working against Judge is he slumped for a stretch, i.e. disappearing act.
I keep reading one of the key advantage he has over Judge is that he has superior numbers in high leverage situations.
