2013 National League MVP

McCutchen has a WAR of 7.9, which means he's most of the difference between the Pirates being in the playoff race and having a losing record.

Grilli's WAR is 0.7. Had Pittsburgh not had Melancon when Grilli went down, they could have traded a middling prospect for Jose Veras or K-Rod or Kevin Gregg or any of six or eight other guys and still been in roughly the same position.

But if McCutchen had gone down, no way do they match his production without trading away half their farm system.

That's the point, and the entire point.

Hypotheticals aside, the Pirates are in the playoff race and McCutchen is one of the top players in the league. He's the MVP.

 

Irrelevant, because that didn't happen.

And despite your whiny repetition, Grilli was not even the Pirates' most valuable player through the end of July, much less coming close to McCutchen for the season. The fact that they replaced him so easily proves that.

But hey, keep sticking your fingers in your ears and making a fool of yourself if you like.

 

Let's say McCutchen wins the MVP. Is his the hardest to spell MVP name since Carl Yastrzemski? I only ask because so many people refer to him as "Cutch" because his name is "somewhat" hard to spell...ie no"o"

 

Riiiight, because Melancon *did* pick right up where Grilli left off invalidates the No. 1 hypothetical.

And that's why Melancon excelling makes you think that your point is bullet-proof. That Melancon was a stud makes it even more difficult to try to argue what I'm trying to argue. Every anti-Xan post that ensued would be underscored with "BUT IT AIN'T SO DIFFICULT TO SAVE A GAME -- LOOK AT MELANCON! HE DONE DID IT!"

Yes, he did done do it. I like Melancon. I liked him on the Red Sox last year. He's a good pitcher with mad closing skills.

But the hypothetical flip side is as I stated -- look at the team save percentages, it's not the easiest job in the world -- and *had* it come to fruition starting August 1, the lament of Pirate diehards far and wide would have been "Man, we came so close again! We would've made the playoffs if Grilli didn't get hurt."

Mariano Rivera blew 3 games in 3 nights in August -- and he's been doing this 19 years. Yankees lost all 3. Yankees are 3 games out of the playoffs. Gonna take a miracle now. The Nationals have 5 more blown saves (turned losses) than the Pirates. The Nationals would be neck and neck with the Pirates today if they had won 4 of those games. Know what I mean?

Don't tell me for one second that Pirates fans on this board didn't get all pessimistic soon as you heard Grilli wrecked his arm. I like every one of you, but if you're saying today that you didn't feel a sense of defeat on August 1, I'd call you the biggest fucking liars on the planet. He was your closer. His saves made sure Andrew McCutchen stayed relevant in the chatter that became louder and louder, because a team that's out of the playoffs by mid-July won't have an MVP unless he's putting up Pujolsian numbers, which Cutch wasn't. Nice numbers, but on a team that's out of it by mid-July that's all they are -- nice numbers.

You needed Grilli closing win after win after win. Then he gets hurt. It's all over, Pirates. Tough break. See ya next spring!

Then Mark Melancon comes in and closes 16 more wins and there goes Xan's hypothetical because anyone can close a game!

Done-diddli-do!

But you don't get to say my hypothetical is irrelevant because the opposite happened. Either Melancon would get his 16 saves (he should have a few more) or the Pirates fade because they replace Grilli with a gravy train of 9th-inning failures.

The funny thing is this isn't about the importance of closers. It's about why the Pirates succeeded and it just so happens I'm using a closer in my example. You could say things changed for the better this season because Russell Martin made pitchers better, from A-starter to long-reliever. You could say it's because Pedro Alvarez broke out to become one of the best third basemen. You could say it's because Andrew McCutchen everything-everything-everything.

I'm saying Jason Grilli allowed for all of that momentum to build for the first 120 days because he got the final 3 outs 31 times. He was the Craig Kimbrel of the Pirates. This year it just *felt* different. He was saving wins AFTER the All-Star Game.

Would you prefer the alternative?

NOW LET'S STOP FOR ONE SECOND. LINE BREAK.

Andrew McCutchen is the MVP of the National League in 2013. I never said otherwise.

Anyway, this has been fun.

I'm just surprised tried and true Buccos fans here want to hate on someone who's celebrating their MVP -- and their most vital player for the first 4 months ;D

 

How fans feel has nothing to do with how baseball players play.

It's classic sports writer syndrome: More interested in what makes a good story than reality.

 

Has nothing to do with how fans feel.

 

Point being, Rick, that he went down and I saw a lot of FB'ing and tweeting about it being the end of the Bucs' season.

Then a new thing happened not related to all the woe-is-me-ism: The Pirates kept winning.

Separate things.

 

His point being that was all completely irrelevant to your foolish argument that Grilli was the Pirates most vital player, even if you try to manipulate it later to say you only meant through the end of July.

 

No, OOP, that's all I ever said -- that he was every bit as important through July.

 

At best, you did a terrible job of making your point if you mean that. And you were still wrong.

 

How about you go back and read my posts.

I never strayed from the original post this morning:

If you want to pick nits about "equally, if not more" yadda-yadda be my guest.

But everything after that post explained my rationale.

I also posted this 4 days ago (2nd post on the thread):