Keith Olbermann: Worst Person in the World (this week)
Can I write about baseball for a moment?
There's a lot of talk going on right now about Justin Verlander for AL MVP. Part of me completely supports this; JV has had an outstanding year. He will (and deserves to) win the AL Cy Young unanimously. He's been the best player on the Tigers all year, a year that has already seen them win 90+ games and the AL Central title. So it's a great individual effort in the context of great team success.
But what rankles me is that most of the sportswriters touting Verlander for MVP are insinuating or even flat-out claiming that the Tigers are a "one-man team" (Keith Olbermann's exact words). This is patently ridiculous.
The Tigers had five representatives at the All-Star Game. Victor Martinez, arguably their second-best hitter, was not one of them. If they had a full-season All-Star Game, all five of those guys (plus Martinez) would still be invited. They weren't one-half wonders.
Miguel Cabrera is the second-best hitter of his generation, behind some guy named Pujols, and is a future Hall-of-Famer in the prime of his career. He's currently leading the AL in batting and OBP, he's second in walks, doubles, SLG and OPS, and he's in the Top 10 in just about every other hitting category (including hits, HR, RBI and runs). How can you have a "one-man team" when MIGUEL FLERKING CABRERA is your second man?!?
Beyond him, you have iron man Alex Avila, the best offensive (and possibly defensive) catcher in the league; Victor Martinez, a "professional hitter" batting .320 with 100 RBI; Jhonny Peralta, a shortstop batting .300 with 20 HR; and assorted scattered contributions from guys like Brennan Boesch, Ryan Raburn, Austin Jackson, Wilson Betemit and Delmon Young, who didn't have good seasons, but had good stretches. Almost every day, the Tigers have had at least five high-quality hitters in their lineup, though it was often impossible to predict who the fifth would be. Heck, they're fourth in the league in runs scored. In other words, they're a good offensive team, with Justin Verlander contributing absolutley nothing to the offense. (He went 0-for-4 in interleague play.)
Doug Fister is 8-1 since joining the Tigers, and has arguably outpitched Verlander since joining the team. Max Scherzer and Rick Porcello have been up and down, but they've each won 14 games - games that Justin Verlander did not throw a single pitch in. Before Fister arrived it was admittedly not a good rotation, but with Fister (and obviously with Verlander) it's awfully solid.
The bullpen features two guys who have been outstanding all year in Jose Valverde and Al Alburquerque, two guys who have been lights-out over the past three months after early struggles in Joaquin Benoit and Phil Coke, plus a very solid Daniel Schlereth and a resurgent Ryan Perry.
The bench has guys like Ramon Santiago, Don Kelly and Andy Dirks, all of whom have had some big moments in limited opportunities to shine.
Overall, there are at least 20 players who have made tangible positive contributions to the 2011 Tigers. Hardly a "one-man team." They were much more of a "one-man team" last year when Miguel Cabrera was out of his mind and no one else helped him. (Though Verlander, Scherzer and Valverde were pretty good.) This isn't the NBA. One-man teams don't win division titles.
There's a lot of talk going on right now about Justin Verlander for AL MVP. Part of me completely supports this; JV has had an outstanding year. He will (and deserves to) win the AL Cy Young unanimously. He's been the best player on the Tigers all year, a year that has already seen them win 90+ games and the AL Central title. So it's a great individual effort in the context of great team success.
But what rankles me is that most of the sportswriters touting Verlander for MVP are insinuating or even flat-out claiming that the Tigers are a "one-man team" (Keith Olbermann's exact words). This is patently ridiculous.
The Tigers had five representatives at the All-Star Game. Victor Martinez, arguably their second-best hitter, was not one of them. If they had a full-season All-Star Game, all five of those guys (plus Martinez) would still be invited. They weren't one-half wonders.
Miguel Cabrera is the second-best hitter of his generation, behind some guy named Pujols, and is a future Hall-of-Famer in the prime of his career. He's currently leading the AL in batting and OBP, he's second in walks, doubles, SLG and OPS, and he's in the Top 10 in just about every other hitting category (including hits, HR, RBI and runs). How can you have a "one-man team" when MIGUEL FLERKING CABRERA is your second man?!?
Beyond him, you have iron man Alex Avila, the best offensive (and possibly defensive) catcher in the league; Victor Martinez, a "professional hitter" batting .320 with 100 RBI; Jhonny Peralta, a shortstop batting .300 with 20 HR; and assorted scattered contributions from guys like Brennan Boesch, Ryan Raburn, Austin Jackson, Wilson Betemit and Delmon Young, who didn't have good seasons, but had good stretches. Almost every day, the Tigers have had at least five high-quality hitters in their lineup, though it was often impossible to predict who the fifth would be. Heck, they're fourth in the league in runs scored. In other words, they're a good offensive team, with Justin Verlander contributing absolutley nothing to the offense. (He went 0-for-4 in interleague play.)
Doug Fister is 8-1 since joining the Tigers, and has arguably outpitched Verlander since joining the team. Max Scherzer and Rick Porcello have been up and down, but they've each won 14 games - games that Justin Verlander did not throw a single pitch in. Before Fister arrived it was admittedly not a good rotation, but with Fister (and obviously with Verlander) it's awfully solid.
The bullpen features two guys who have been outstanding all year in Jose Valverde and Al Alburquerque, two guys who have been lights-out over the past three months after early struggles in Joaquin Benoit and Phil Coke, plus a very solid Daniel Schlereth and a resurgent Ryan Perry.
The bench has guys like Ramon Santiago, Don Kelly and Andy Dirks, all of whom have had some big moments in limited opportunities to shine.
Overall, there are at least 20 players who have made tangible positive contributions to the 2011 Tigers. Hardly a "one-man team." They were much more of a "one-man team" last year when Miguel Cabrera was out of his mind and no one else helped him. (Though Verlander, Scherzer and Valverde were pretty good.) This isn't the NBA. One-man teams don't win division titles.