I really don’t think so, no. Donaldson is the centerpiece of the AL’s biggest narrative and his counting stats are the sort MVP voters love. I’d cheerily put $100 on him with anyone who cares to take the bet he’ll win the award and I will be actually quite surprised if it’s a close vote.
Trout would only have a chance if he was WAY better than Donaldson by some advanced metric, but he isn’t.
I’ve called it the Gary Carter Effect because I think at least once that he was talking about that, James was referring to the Expos blaming their disappointments on Carter, rather than the 20-24 other players they had who weren’t as good as he was.
The sucky babies can whine all about Harper’s personality all they want.
Nasty collision between the Cardinals’ Peter Bourjos and Stephen Piscotty in Pittsburgh. Piscotty was out cold for quite a while. Managed a weak wave as he was carted off (which triggered a standing ovation). Scary moment.
That was scary. I hope he’s ok. That was a heck of an agonizing game and I was sure Rosenthal was going to give up another lead for a minute there.
Tough loss for the Bucs. Cards have the division all but clinched.
MLB.com is reporting Piscotty tested negative for fracture or serious brain injury. He’s going to be in the hospital at least over night. I’m just watching the clip now. The Cardinals announcers said they had film of the collision from other angles, but they were only going to show the wide angle shot “out of respect for Stephen”. :eek: The closeups must be damned scary.
This Giants-Dodgers game is a nail-biter, into the bottom of the 11th now…
ETA: 3-6-1 double play, we’re going to the 12th…
At this point I’m torn between “Don’t go down without a fight!” and “Eh, you’re just prolonging the inevitable”.
I was originally scheduled to attend a batchlor party this weekend that’s central feature was attending Giants/Rockies. That got dropped back a weekend.
That being said I swear to only watch the Dodgers on TV for the rest of the season. Hopefully they’ll clench tonight.(tied in the 12th).
Not today, Dodgers.
Let’s do it again tomorrow: Kershaw vs. Bumgarner.
Giants win!
Yeah baby.
ETA: I was tape delayed for the 12th. How sweet it is.
Yeah they clenched it, alright.
Wow, Wainwright is going to be on the roster for tomorrow’s double header. The Cards say they’ll try to get him three appearances out of the pen before the end of the season to see how he does before deciding on his role in the playoffs. I hadn’t followed his progress that closely. I knew he was getting close to coming back, but I didn’t expect it this week. Now if they can just get Molina back at something close to full strength…
But they sure made up for it tonight. That is the most dominant I’ve seen kershaw all season and the most I’ve seen the Mad Bum abused. If we could play like that for the whole playoffs we’d have a great chance.
Trout deserves the MVP. He is more important to his team than Donaldson and is simply a better all around player.
That they did. Kershaw was untouchable. He was dealing. And the Dodgers spanked the Giants. Congrats and good luck to them in the postseason.
Considering how “riddled with injuries” doesn’t even begin to cover what your boys dealt with this season, I think congratulations are in order to them for making this race stretch into the last week.
I think this is the least confident I’ve been in the Dodgers’ chances since they began their recent spate of postseason appearances in 2008. At least if we bow out in the first round this year, it won’t be to the Cards.
Yeah! This year the Cards will trounce us in the second round! 
Last night sure was pretty, though.
Better offensive player I’ll grant you, but Donaldson provides better defense from a more difficult position (3B). Penalizing Donaldson for playing on a better team is just bizarre. Sure, without Donaldson the current Jays would still be in a wildcard position (just based off of his WAR), but that basically means that Donaldson is the difference between a middling playoff team and the league pennant. Without Donaldson, nobody’s talking about the Jays going to the World Series this year. That’s not MVP caliber?
Finally, don’t forget that without Donaldson’s first half contributions, the Jays never would have been buyers at the trade deadline, and we would have seen the Jays sputtering below .500 again.
But you are a Jays fan ;). I think it’s going to be waaay closer than you think it is with either having a decent shot.
And I’m curious… is the counting stat you are talking about RBI? Because Trout and Donaldson are neck and neck in Home Runs (and, thought not a counting stat, very close in Batting Average - though Trout is above Donaldson in OBP and SLG).