Miguel Cabrera’s race for the Triple Crown
Bill Chuck | Wednesday, September 19, 2012 at 12:33PM Prior to the start of the season, if you had to pick one player who had the best chance to win the Triple Crown, many pundits would pick Miguel Cabrera.
Miggy is doing everything he can to make those pundits look smart.
Miguel Cabrera's 2012 Season:
Here’s the AL batting race:
| Rk | Player | BA | PA | AB | H |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Miguel Cabrera | .333 | 636 | 567 | 189 |
| 2 | Mike Trout | .327 | 576 | 507 | 166 |
| 3 | Joe Mauer | .325 | 578 | 493 | 160 |
| 4 | Derek Jeter | .323 | 665 | 617 | 199 |
Here’s the Home Run race:
| Rk | Player | HR |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Josh Hamilton | 42 |
| 2 | Miguel Cabrera | 40 |
| 3 | Edwin Encarnacion | 40 |
| 4 | Curtis Granderson | 39 |
| 5 | Adam Dunn | 39 |
| 6 | Josh Willingham | 34 |
| 7 | Adrian Beltre | 33 |
Here’s the RBI race:
| Rk | Player | RBI |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Miguel Cabrera | 129 |
| 2 | Josh Hamilton | 123 |
| 3 | Josh Willingham | 106 |
As a bonus, Cabrera also leads in slugging:
| Rk | Player | SLG |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Miguel Cabrera | .612 |
| 2 | Josh Hamilton | .588 |
| 3 | Edwin Encarnacion | .565 |
| 4 | Mike Trout | .558 |
| 5 | Adrian Beltre | .557 |
And, he also leads in OPS:
| Rk | Player | OPS |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Miguel Cabrera | 1.008 |
| 2 | Mike Trout | .954 |
| 3 | Edwin Encarnacion | .947 |
| 4 | Josh Hamilton | .947 |
Before the All-Star break, Miggy was pretty, pretty, pretty good:
Look at Cabrera's plate coverage as he had great success against pitches up-and-away diagonally down-and-in. He hit .324 with 18 homers and 71 RBI in 86 RBI. His OPS was .938.Since the All-Star break, Miggy has been pretty, pretty, pretty great:
It's hard to imagine that Cabrera could expand his batting range, but he has done that in the second part of the season.
Look at the plate coverage Cabrera has exhibited:
There are very few places for a pitcher to throw a ball and have a sense of assurance of getting Cabrera out.
In the 60 games since the All-Star break, Cabrera has hit .348 with 22 homers, 58 RBI and an OPS of 1.114.
Baseball's Triple Crown winners:
|
Year Lg |
Player |
Team/(BA, HR, RBI) |
|
BOS .326, 44 HR, 121 RBI |
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BAL .316, 49 HR, 122 RBI |
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NYY .353, 52 HR, 130 RBI |
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BOS .343, 32 HR, 114 RBI |
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|
BOS .356, 36 HR, 137 RBI |
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|
STL .374, 31 HR, 154 RBI |
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NYY .363, 49 HR, 165 RBI |
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PHA .356, 48 HR, 163 RBI |
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PHI .368, 28 HR, 120 RBI |
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STL .403, 39 HR, 143 RBI |
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STL .401, 42 HR, 152 RBI |
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DET .377, 9 HR, 107 RBI |
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PHA .426, 14 HR, 125 RBI |
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STL .435, 14 HR, 123 RBI |
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PRO .358, 4 HR, 50 RBI |