04/26/24
July 18, 2010
Miguel Cabrera Has Triple Crown Shot: Detroit Tigers first baseman Miguel Cabrera leads the American League in average and runs batted in and is two down in home runs, prompting some talk he'll win the first Triple Crown since Carl Yastrzemski in 1967. Cabrera's response: "It's not possible. That's too hard."
Texas Rangers outfield Josh Hamilton leads the American League in average, is second in homeruns and fourth in runs batted in, prompting some talk he'll win the first Triple Crown since Carl Yastrzemski in 1967. Will be interesting to see them against each other in upcoming series, though Texas never plays well in Detroit.
Reality is that you have to wait until some time in September to see if anyone really has a chance. There are so many ups and downs, injuries, etc. that could play into this. Rangers Nellie Cruz was supposed to challenge season homerun record after first week of season. Talk died quickly with two trips to disabled list.
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posted by graymatters at 12:32 PM on July 18, 2010
Yeah, strange none of the talking heads are mentioning Hamilton's chances, and despite being 12 rbi's behind Cabrera, I think the hitters in front of Josh are gonna give him plenty more chances in the second half.
posted by mjkredliner at 02:24 PM on July 18, 2010
Yeah, the best thing about this is that it looks like a two horse race. Would almost be a three horse race if Morneau could stay healthy. Three great players, playing great. Cabrera has the best shot at it, because, he's probably the best hitter. The other two guys are hitting way above their career averages.
Does anyone think the Triple Crown is a bit devalued since the metrics of batting average and RBI have been shown to be overvalued compared to OBP and VORP and the like?
It's not like Cabrera, Morneau and Hamilton aren't up there in those categories, but the RBI focus especially hurts guys like Youklis and Cano who are having equally great years.
posted by WeedyMcSmokey at 02:26 PM on July 18, 2010
I don't think it's devalued- it's value is in a) it's scarcity, and b) the breadth of skill (and luck) necessary to win a Triple Crown. The kind of hitters who can collect batting titles more easily (like Ichiro, or Boggs, or Gwynn) do not put up massive homerun totals. Sometimes you get the HR and average totals, but then it's pure luck (and power) to have the base running situations to get the RBI as well. The one that sticks out is RBI, as it's outside of your control as a player (and thus one of those overvalued stats old ig'nant fogies like Joe Morgan still cling to) but it's also what makes the TC rare.
There is a sabermetric triple crown (OBP, Total Bases, and Runs Created, to replace AVG, HR, and RBI), and there's Joe Posnanski's "modern" Triple Crown, which is Avg, OBP, and SLG (isolating the TC numbers to those purely by the hitter- but there's also an overlap since avg/obp feed into each other).
Unsurprisingly, Rogers Hornsby and Ted Williams won the most of these "modern triple crowns", while we are reminded how insane Barry Bonds' numbers were in the first decade of this century- he was competitive for TCs a couple of times, but like most people who are competitive, they end up falling behind in one of the categories.
posted by hincandenza at 08:49 PM on July 18, 2010
What gives Hamilton an edge over Cabrera is that he plays in Arlington whereas Cabrera has to contend with spacious Comerica Park half the season. That said, Cabrera has been phenomenal this year so I'd say a Triple Crown is within his reach. It'll be difficult to keep his average up above guys like Ichiro though.
He certainly has benefited from having the players in front of the order getting on base. It is a wonder what your offense can do when the leadoff man is hitting better than .240 (how is Granderson working out New York?).
posted by Ying Yang Mafia at 09:15 AM on July 19, 2010
It is a wonder what your offense can do when the leadoff man is hitting better than .240 (how is Granderson working out New York?).
Granderson isn't the lead-off man for New York. Derek Jeter is (for 86 of the 91 games), and is batting .272/.335/.387 as the lead-off batter.
By the way, since a smoking hot start to the season (April), Austin Jackson has a mighty .700 OPS since then, which is lower than Granderson in the same time span.
posted by grum@work at 12:54 PM on July 19, 2010
Ol' Cabrera had a little to say about it last night against Rangers pitching, 2HR's and 2 other towering shots to the warning track.
We got the win, though.
posted by mjkredliner at 09:36 AM on July 20, 2010
Granderson isn't the lead-off man for New York. Derek Jeter is (for 86 of the 91 games), and is batting .272/.335/.387 as the lead-off batter.
I know. Granderson was the lead off man for the Tigers last year where he managed to post a wonderful OBP. However, he really hasn't worked wonders for the Yankees (or done much of anything for that matter) regardless of where he is in the order.
posted by Ying Yang Mafia at 01:37 PM on July 20, 2010
Cabrera's attitude makes it more likely he'll win the crown. If he really doesn't think it will happen, he's less likely to tighten up in the fall and start pressing.