Does Bautista stand a chance at the AL MVP?

http://www.cbssports.com/mlb/stats/leaders/regularseason/yearly/AL/HIT/OBP

Obviously, somebody's stats are off. This one has Bautista ninth, just ahead of Cano.

http://sports.yahoo.com/mlb/stats/bycategory?cat=Batting&conference=AL&year=season_2010&qualified=1&sort=23

Edit: Yahoo also has Bautista 9th and Cano 10th. Maybe baseballreference isn't as up-to-date?

 

Regardless of whether he's 9th or 11th or 10th or whatever, point is that Bautista plays 2/3rds of his games at corner outfield, so he doesn't get much of a position bonus. He's clearly not the best hitter in the league at getting on base and avoiding outs, and he's near the top but not at the top in getting extra bases. His defense is debatable, but unless it was absolutely amazing, I don't see how that would add up to MVP.

If you believe that his defense is above average, he deserves to be top 5.

 

He switched positions in mid-season to accommodate what was best for the team and didn't miss a beat. That is worth some credit in his direction.

He is third in slugging percentage, and one of the guys ahead of him (Hamilton) missed a significant amount of time. That is why you have to look at counting statistics as well as ratios, to give credit to guys who play more.

Again, I'd put him behind Cabrera. Probably Hamilton as well. But you can make a damn good argument that he belongs in the top three.

 

I can buy that. And very good point about in his raw playing time.

 

The more you post about Jose Bautista, Ricky, the more uniformed and unintelligent your initial posts on the topic become.