Big Day For The American League, New Triple Crown Winner

In the shadow of the presidential debate, Major League Baseball had a memorable day for the 2012 season. Miguel Cabrera of the Detroit Tigers officially won the Triple Crown Award. This means leading your league in batting average, home runs, and runs batted in (RBI). The last time it was won was by The Boston Red Sox’s Carl Yastrzemski in 1967. Miguel Cabrera finished with a batting average of .330 with 44 home runs and 139 RBI’s.

Not only is Miguel Cabrera the first triple crown winner in 45 years, He is also the first Latino American player to ever win the award.

There also happened to be 2 Division  Champions crowned in the American League (AL). In the AL East, the Yankees grabbed the championship after a 14-2 win over the Boston Red Sox and the Orioles losing to the Tampa Bay Rays 1-4. Also in the AL West, The Oakland Athletics clinched the championship when they beat the earlier leaders Texas Rangers 12-5.

Withe the American League playoff spots locked, the big question remaining is who will win the AL MVP. Miguel Cabrera would be the clear decision with this incredible feat on any other year, but Mike Trout of the Los Angeles Angels is making this decision a bit harder. With the addition of new ways of counting stats like Wins Above Replacement (WAR) which counts how many more wins you would have as a mid level replacement,  Mike Trout has jumped right into the MVP talks. His WAR is 10.4 while Cabrera’s is only 6.8. Trout is also looked at as the better base runner, run scorer, and defender but with all that it’s hard to look past the historic achievement that Miguel Cabrera has made this year.

For baseball, tis will be a huge day with a new triple crown winner.  The debate makes this also a big day for the future of our country.