Tale of the MVP Tape

Jacoby Ellsbury is routinely mentioned as an MVP candidate in the AL, but Adrian Gonzalez is not. I never questioned this; AG dropped off (a lot, it seemed) and never really felt like the MVP after the All-Star break. But to me Jacoby never felt like MVP either.

So I looked at the numbers. Baseball Reference knows all.


Jacoby Ellsbury

Adrian Gonzalez

Average

.321

.338

HRs

32

27

RBIs

105

117

The Sacred OBP

.376

.410


More on Jacoby here, and more on AG here. Maybe AG should get some MVP votes too.

I don't have a vote (We're working on it), but if I did I'd vote for Justin Verlander. His so-so postseason doesn't matter, because the votes are taken at the end of the regular season. Does anyone think the Tigers would have done as well without him? Yes, he's a pitcher, and is a shoo-in for the Cy Young, but he can be MVP too. We've been over this.

Who wins? I don't know, but my guess is: none of these three guys. Most voters will look right past Ellsbury and Gonzalez, because of September.