Bellinger vs. Yelich - MVP

[Peter_Spaeth]

Yelich will not win. As between Bellinger and Rendon, Bellinger is the massive betting favorite, but I would not give it to him in light of the fact that after May he didn't play at anywhere near an MVP level and his season stats are skewed by his otherworldly start. Anyone want to give me 8 to 1, I'll take Rendon.

[Touch'EmAll]

Bill, thank you for the great analytical job. Very interesting to note that is was the Brewers pitching that predominately got them the end of season winning streak. And I contend that if Yelich wasn't so darn good, they wouldn't have even been in position to take advantage of a pitching based hot streak to get into the playoffs.

As of Oct. 15th, the Las Vegas odds:
Bellinger -200
Yelich +175
Rendon +800

I love Rendon, what he did, how he did, when he did - very nice season, indeed. Love to have him on my team. But that is long Vegas odds - over 4 times less likely to win than even the second choice. Realistically however, wayyy slim chance. This coming from Vegas with actual hard money being put on the line.

From May onward (majority of season), a .260 hitter is kinda hard to choke down as an MVP is it not. Yes, Bellinger better defensively, but I don't think Yelich stunk up the joint with his defense.

Hands down the best hitter, the most consistent hitter, the hitter with better averages, the hitter with better power, across the board is Yelich. C'mon you guys, can't really honestly against argue that. Side note not yet mentioned - Not sure if stolen bases go into WAR calculation, but Yelich dominates over Bellinger there.

Curious - Anyone know which player to ever win MVP going into announcement had longest odds?

[Touch'EmAll]

Another note on Stolen Bases. Yelich had 30 stolen bases and only 2 caught. That is the highest success ratio of any of the top base stealers. Bellinger not even remotely close.