Predicting the AL & NL MVP Award Winners

The most prestigious and honorable award in all of Major League Baseball, the Most Valuable Player Award. Unlike the Cy Young Award a pitcher, either reliever or starter, can technically win an MVP Award in either league while the positional players look to make that not even a discussion at the end of this season. Which players will specifically make it difficult for a pitcher to win the award in either league this season according to my “spot-on” predictions? Let’s take a look.

In the American League there isn’t many times I go against the safe pick in the Angels Mike Trout but you know what, I’m feeling it today. I’m feeling either incredibly foolish or incredibly lucky today so I will not pick Trout even though he’s as likely a candidate as anyone to win the award year in and year out and instead I will move to Jose Abreu of the Chicago White Sox. Abreu has had little in the way of true protection in his years in the Major Leagues but with Todd Frazier hitting somewhere in the lineup around him or behind him I can see a lot more fastballs and a lot more home runs and RBI this season for the Cuban-born star.

In the National League I have gone with Giancarlo Stanton using the whole “I’m going to keep picking him until he proves me wrong” philosophy and every year he proves me wrong. He’s injured or he simply gets outperformed by Andrew McCutchen of Pittsburgh so I’m going to go against the grain once again here, but not by much. What about Paul Goldschmidt of the Arizona Diamondbacks? He’s probably the best first baseman in the game and probably the best hitter in the National League but he hasn’t received much attention due to the fact that his team has struggled. With Shelby Miller and Zack Greinke now in the desert that shouldn’t be the case any longer.