Most Valuable Player
There are a lot of ways to look at the Most Valuable Player award. Everyone seems to have their own take on how it should be judged. Is it the player with the best stats in the league? Is it the player who made the biggest impact on their team? Should players on teams with no playoff hopes get considered? It really doesn’t matter how you consider the nominations. An MVP is elite. You know who they are when you see them.
Mike Trout (OF-LAA) is the indisputable, clear-cut winner in the American League. Yes, he suffered an unfortunate injury and will miss a few weeks. But, if the season ended today, Mike Trout is your Most Valuable Player in the AL. If they gave just one of these awards for Major League Baseball in it’s entirety, Trout would still walk away with it. Currently hitting .337, Trout has knocked 16 balls out of baseball parks. He is an on-base percentage of .461. Trout is an offensive machine. That isn’t all he can do. Defensively, Trout is just as amazing. The man is all over the diamond. With a fielding percentage of .991, he doesn’t have many issues.
In the National League, Bryce Harper (OF-WAS) takes the honors. His stats are right in line with his American League counterpart. Harper is hitting .337, has 15 home runs, an OBP of .447, and a fielding percentage of 1.000. There was a lot of hype on who would win MVP in the NL, prior to the start of the season. Several names were thrown about. Nolan Arenado (3B-COL) was one of the bigger contenders. He started out the season well, but just hasn’t been able to keep up with Harper. Maybe playing for the Rockies is taking a toll on him. Who knows? For now, Bryce Harper is the National League elite.