AL Wednesday (Matthew Taylor)

Every Wednesday here at The Stand-Up Double we will have a post highlighting the American League. Whether it is and article on an AL team, an AL player, or discussing the pros and cons of the designated hitter position, you will be able to find it here every Wednesday. This Wednesday I will be focusing on the best player in the American League. This, of course, is Miguel Cabrera.

We all know about what Miguel Cabrera did last season. The Triple Crown, the .330 average, the 139 RBI. There's a reason that Cabrera was the first player to win the Triple Crown since 1967; it is incredibly difficult to do. If I were to tell you this past March that Cabrera would actually have a BETTER season this year than he did last year, you would have told me I was crazy. However, Cabrera is quietly having a better season than he had last season and is on pace to crush his AVG, HR, and RBI numbers that he put up last year. Through 42 games, Cabrera is boasting an insane .337 average with 14 HRs and 57 RBIs. If he keeps up this pace he will surely be right in the Triple Crown Race again which would make him the first player to ever hit for the Triple Crown in back-to-back seasons.

(Completely off topic, but here is an awesome .gif courtesy of fangraphs showing the incredible plate coverage of Miguel Cabrera. This shows six different Cabrera ABs with six completely different pitch locations and Cabrera knocks each of them out of the part. There simply is no way to pitch around Miguel Cabrera.)



Just how great of a career is Miguel Cabrera having? The graphic below shows Cabrera's season-by-season statistics. I have highlighted his HRs, RBIs, and AVGs for each season. Never once (not including Cabrera's rookie season where he was called up midway through the season) has Cabrera hit less than 25 HRs, hit less than 100 RBIs, or hit worse than .290. If you were to take Cabrera's WORST season in the majors (once again, excluding his rookie season) you would be looking at a .294 hitter with 33 HRs and 112 RBIs. Which would still be better numbers than Hall of Famer Harmon Killebrew averaged for his career (sorry Twins fans). Cabrera has never missed more than 12 game in a season. He is the definition of consistency. I cannot stress enough how incredible it is what Miguel Cabrera is doing, and he is still only 30 years old!!

What I really appreciate about Miguel Cabrera is that he doesn't demand the limelight. He is one of the greatest offensive baseball players of all time and he seems to slide under the radar year after year. Apart from a 2011 DUI charge, Cabrera has stayed out of the news and merely goes about his business and quietly gives nightmares to pitchers everywhere. He doesn't celebrate after hitting home runs, and he doesn't trash talk. Miguel Cabrera is the best player in baseball right now and we all need to take the time to enjoy what he is doing.