The battle for the National League’s Most Valuable Player Award has been very close all year, and arguably, four candidates from four different teams are currently in the mix. The Cardinals’ Matt Carpenter, the Dodgers’ Adrian Gonzalez, the Pirates’ Andrew McCutchen, and the Braves’ Freddie Freeman are all part of this wide open race to win this prestigious award. And interestingly enough, each one of these teams have clinched a playoff spot, and the named players have been the best on their teams.
Freddie Freeman boasts a very compelling argument in an incredibly tight race. He has been the most important contributor to an offense that has powered the best team in the National League. His .319 batting average is third in the league, and his 109 RBI’s are tied for second with Cincinnati’s Jay Bruce. Freeman is a run producer who doesn’t strike out as much as his teammates (121 strikeouts as compared to Justin Upton’s 161 and B.J. Upton’s 151), and, most importantly, gets on base; his On-Base Percentage, at .396, is sixth in the league. Freddie Freeman is what baseball analysts call “the full package”, as he hits for power (52 XBH), gets on base (.396), drives in a lot of runs (109), and scores quite a few for himself (89). As a first baseman, the accumulation of these statistics is rare, and his argument is solid.
Matt Carpenter has to be the one of the most interesting stories this year. At the start of the season, Carpenter wasn’t even a starter. He had to switch positions once again, going from third base to second. It’s really an incredible story; a player without a position learns a new one on the fly, and his bat helps set the best lineup in the Senior Circuit. His .318 batting average and .392 On-Base Percentage are best in the league among other second basemen, and his 126 runs scored top the National League by a wide margin. His ability to get on base (.392 OBP) in front of the National League’s most prolific lineup has been a huge boost to not only this lineup, but the team’s season.
Just so we are all clear, Yasiel Puig isn’t the only Latin superstar on the Dodgers. The man who belongs in this argument has the track record and has been a force in the Dodgers’ lineup all year; this man is first-baseman Adrian Gonzalez. Gonzalez has played fifteen more games than any other player on his team, as he only missed five games. He has been a model of consistency, hitting over .280 in five of six months this season. He leads the Dodgers in at-bats, runs scored, runs batted in, hits, and home runs. Gonzalez is tied for fifth-best in the league in RBI’s on the season with 100. His stats may not be the best of the bunch, but he has been the calming force that led the Dodgers through their trying times early in the season, up through their dominating NL West takeover in July and August.
The Pirates; what a story are the Pittsburgh Pirates. Who is more deserving of the MVP award among the incredible bunch of stars in this article than the pulse of the upbeat Pirates squad: Andrew McCutchen. He is one of six National League players to join the 20-20 club this year, and has the seventh best batting average (.317) in the Senior Circuit. Andrew McCutchen is a Gold Glove caliber outfielder who can get on base and hit for power (an OPS of .911, good for sixth in the National League). McCutchen has done all this with a relatively weak lineup surrounding him, as only two regulars (out of eleven players with at least 300 at-bats) have an OPS above .780 on his team (McCutchen and Starling Marte). With some very inept regulars (Clint Barmes anyone?) and the lack of a true ace, the Pittsburgh Pirates have won; they have won around MVP favorite Andrew McCutchen.
Every one of these players highlighted are deserving of the award. We are far from the days of Barry Bonds, where 40 home runs and 120 RBI’s were musts to win the MVP. In today’s MVP race, players like Andrew McCutchen can be favorites with only (only!?) 84 RBI’s. He, being the heart and soul of a Pirates team that hasn’t seen the postseason since George H.W. Bush’s administration, deserves the National League’s Kenesaw Mountain Landis award.