The following table will show the names being discussed on radio shows and articles for MVP in the National League and one very special player in the American League, for reference. To begin with, there has been much talk about Cespedes being the MVP. But, upon looking at the numbers, even I admit that Harper has had a great year. To be sure, Cespedes has been a very clutch performer and has helped the Mets be ten games better than the Nationals since he was traded to the Mets on July 31st. Looking at the data below, we realize that Harper has been almost as good during that period and for Cespedes to win on just two months’ production, he would need to be head and shoulders better than Harper and to my chagrin, he wasn’t.
| PA | R | HR | RBI | SB | CS | BB | SO | BA | OBP | SLG | OPS | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cespedes | 595 | 95 | 32 | 97 | 7 | 4 | 28 | 122 | 0.298 | 0.333 | 0.554 | 0.886 |
| Harper | 565 | 104 | 36 | 85 | 6 | 4 | 109 | 113 | 0.336 | 0.467 | 0.657 | 1.124 |
| Trout | 582 | 88 | 34 | 76 | 10 | 7 | 76 | 137 | 0.293 | 0.393 | 0.570 | 0.963 |
| Rizzo | 597 | 81 | 29 | 88 | 15 | 5 | 67 | 89 | 0.285 | 0.392 | 0.535 | 0.927 |
| Since August 1 | ||||||||||||
| Cespedes | 168 | 33 | 14 | 36 | 4 | 0 | 9 | 35 | 0.312 | 0.345 | 0.650 | 0.995 |
| Harper | 163 | 36 | 7 | 17 | 2 | 0 | 35 | 30 | 0.352 | 0.485 | 0.600 | 1.085 |
| Trout | 157 | 12 | 2 | 9 | 0 | 3 | 27 | 41 | 0.225 | 0.357 | 0.364 | 0.721 |
| Rizzo | 151 | 25 | 10 | 31 | 1 | 0 | 16 | 32 | 0.277 | 0.424 | 0.569 | 1.139 |
| Pro-rated for the year at the current pace | ||||||||||||
| Cespedes | 660 | 108 | 37 | 111 | 9 | 4 | 32 | 136 | 0.300 | 0.329 | 0.563 | 0.893 |
| Harper | 626 | 118 | 39 | 91 | 7 | 4 | 122 | 124 | 0.338 | 0.463 | 0.652 | 1.114 |
| Trout | 642 | 93 | 35 | 79 | 10 | 8 | 86 | 153 | 0.287 | 0.378 | 0.551 | 0.929 |
| Rizzo | 657 | 91 | 33 | 100 | 15 | 5 | 73 | 102 | 0.284 | 0.424 | 0.538 | 1.139 |
Harper has had a tremendous sabermetric year and traditional statistics year. While Cespedes has been huge with a clutch bat, Harper has been great all year. Rizzo has also had many great clutch moments, but his numbers aren’t like the big boys.
The MVP is not an award for the best hitter. It has been won by relief pitchers, starting pitchers, and leadership type shortstops. I can define what it is not, but I can’t define exactly what it is. The definition I choose this year is the player with the most impact on a pennant race and with my biased opinion I choose Cespedes.
Thank you for your comment Metsense. I am biased too, but his National League numbers are a bit short. However, there’s three weeks left and deGrom won the Rookie of the Year with his production down the stretch, so, you never know.
In 5 weeks, Cespedes has nearly as many HR as a Met as he did in 4 months in Detroit. DET 18 HR NYM 16 HR
Good point Charlie. That’s how hot he has been.
Its simply not going to go to a guy with 2 months of time. Is Cespedes amazing? Sure. And he has transformed the team directly and indirectly. But he’s not going to overcome the overall value of Harper or even Rizzo for that matter who have contributed to their teams equally and all in the NL. Maybe if there is a transformation of how the MVP is considered given the amount of interleague play he would have a chance. In this case, he will garner some lower place votes, but you can put Harper in the books for MVP.
We made a move that eliminated his personal achievement for an award, but at the same time, that move made the team better and hopefully will get us a couple nice pieces of hardware and flags to hang. Im sure he would prefer it too.
Chris, it seems like all the talk has disappeared with Cespedes’ cold streak. But I agree, he hasn’t been on the Mets long enough.