Kris Bryant is new MVP

It’s been almost 20 years since the Chicago Cubs have had a player win the National League MVP award, but that streak came to an end on Thursday as third baseman Kris Bryant won the trophy in convincing fashion.

Justin Turner finished ninth with 44 points and appeared on 13 ballots, and Yasmani Grandal only received one seventh-place vote.

Trout, though, is in a class by himself; he’s on a trajectory which could potentially give him the title “best player in baseball history” if he keeps it up. Even so, I’d like to see the Cubs sign him to a long-term extension soon. “It’s weird, being five years now, we’re watching games and whenever and he does something great, it nearly becomes common and we have to remind ourselves to not ever take that for granted”.

“It’s one of the best feelings I’ve ever felt”, he said.

“I think it’s just a testament to the players in Spring Training and Jayson Werth and Bryce Harper and Ryan Zimmerman and Anthony Rendon, all these guys”, Murphy said on the MLB Network. “He’s a special talent, and it’s going to be a fun battle hopefully the next 10 to 15 years”. Trout, Mookie Betts and Jose Altuve are the finalists for the American League Most Valuable Player award.

He also hit.315 with 32 doubles, 5 triples, 29 homers, 100 RBIs and 30 stolen bases.

The Red Sox won the AL East with a big assist from Betts, who opened the year as their leadoff hitter, but ended it hitting in the middle of the lineup.

“I can only go out there and do what I can do”, Trout said. I’ve been here for a fifth time and I know how it works. I was pretty surprised and just happy. “It’s just surreal. You pinch yourself sometimes”.

Individually, the two great outfielders each compared similarly in almost every statistic except walks and hits.

Altuve helped lead the Astros to a huge second half run for a playoff run, but just finished short of the postseason.

So the MVP stands for Most Valuable Player, and these three guys can argue that they deserve it more than the other, exclusively based on their numbers. The best number to judge overall offensive performance is adjusted OPS, which rolls up two of the most important offensive stats – on-base percentage and slugging percentage – and adjusts them for the ballpark and league averages. He also finished second in runs scored (122), won a Gold Glove in right field and stole 26 bases in 30 attempts.

Not a believer in defensive statistics yet?

Each voter selects their top ten players on the ballot; the ranking is done on cumulative points.

As a side note, two other Rockies earned votes in the MVP competition.

I don’t have any problem with Feinsand giving Ortiz a first-place vote.

Eventually, the Red Sox will pay for it. The Cubs sporting the best record in baseball with 103 wins surely didn’t hurt Bryant’s case.

“It says a lot about our team being so young and being able to win a World Series this year”, Bryant said.

Throughout those seasons, his numbers have been fairly consistent, starting with leading the league in wins above replacement (WAR) each year, according to both Baseball-Reference and FanGraphs.

King III gave Ortiz his only second-place vote.