National League Heavyweights :Troy Tulowitzki & Giancarlo Stanton

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Baseball is a great game and in my estimation it’s really the only fair sport out of all the 4 major sports here in America. You can have the best player in the league and still not make the playoffs (See Mike Trout and last years Angels team). You get 6 months to prove that you belong in the playoffs and to advance to that stage you must put together a full body of work. Well the same thing applies when speaking about the MVP award in the national league where we have 2 of baseball’s absolute best players in contention for the most coveted individual award in the game. On one end we have Troy Tulowitzki of the Colorado Rockies, an all around great player leading baseball’s most high-powered offense in nearly every offensive category. On the other end we have the most feared power hitter in the game in Miami Marlins outfielder Giancarlo Stanton. Both players are the driving forces behind overachieving teams in the NL that most people pick to finish at the bottom of their respective divisions. At the end of June both the Marlins and Rockies find themselves right in the thick of the NL east and west division races, but who deserves the honor of being NL MVP more at this point? Well lets explore some the candidates credentials up to this point.

Troy Tulowitzki has done just about it all in his 9 seasons in the MLB, all-star games, gold gloves, silver sluggers and a world series appearance. His all around greatness as a shortstop is very reminiscent of Barry Larkin, Tulowitzki has is better power hitter than Larkin but very similar to him none the less. Todd Helton retired from baseball last season so with him now officially gone the faces of baseball in Denver is Troy Tulowitzki and I must say he is doing an exceptional job so far.

The Rockies offense is the most high-powered offensive juggernaut going now as they lead the majors in runs per game at 5.8. In fact they are the only national league team within the top 5 in runs scored per game which speaks to the level of production they are displaying now. The Rockies have always been one of the most high powered offenses in the NL but to outscore AL teams is a whole new ball game. The leader in nearly every statistical category for Colorado so far is Tulowitzki who leads the team in batting average (.369), home runs (14), runs batted in (37), runs (45) and OPS (1.174). He’s getting it done and on top of all of that he happens to lead all of baseball in wins above replacement at 4.7.

The guy who paces him in that department 2nd in the NL is Giancarlo Stanton with a WAR of 3.8. For Stanton this year seem to be the one that everything is finally coming together, the team is good, his health is in tact and he is developing as a complete hitter. He is still on pace to strike out well over 100 times but is also in line to have his first season as a +300. hitter this season. People forget he is only 24-years old and just now entering the prime of his career. The Marlins are only half a game out of first place in the NL East behind the Atlanta Braves and it’s almost June, no that is not a typo.

Like I alluded to earlier Stanton is the most feared power hitter in the game right now, guys just simply don’t want to pitch to him because he can muscle just about any pitch out of the ballpark. He leads the National League by a wide margin in runs batted in with 49, as well the entire major leagues slightly ahead of Baltimore Orioles slugger Nelson Cruz who has 48 RBI. Not very many players of his caliber come around very often and we are witnessing is what could be the best player in baseball developing right before our very eyes.

Now about who deserves the title as early season NL MVP favorite you can’t real go wrong and its a matter of preference. The fact of the matter is that even though the Rockies lost 90 games last season that they still scored the 2nd most runs in the national league (706) behind only the St.Louis Cardinals (783). The Miami Marlins on the other hand were the worst offense in all of baseball scoring only 513 runs while ranking dead last in just about every offensive category. A huge reason the Marlins offense was so inept was Stanton only played in 116 games and didn’t have the offensive firepower last year like they do this year. Marcell Ozuna got injured during the middle of the year, Christian Yellich was a late season call up and they got no offensive production from the catchers spot. Couple all of that with playing in a pitcher’s park and you get the worst offense in baseball. In Denver the ball just flies out the park and it never seems to stop.

While Tulowitzki leads nearly every offensive metric category such as OPS, slugging and OPS+ I have to always keep in mind that he gets to play his home games at Coors Field which is every hitters dream. Stanton plays in Marlins Park which is not hitter friendly and allows 1.75 home runs per game. That number is significantly higher than last years 1.04 home runs per game but the Coors field last year was still in top 5 in home runs per game with an average of 1.96. This year it’s jumped up a whole point to 2.96 leading the major leagues in home runs per game. Coors field has always been known as the best hitters park in the game but thats not to take anything from Tulowitzki but rather show you that what Stanton is doing is impressive. He has hit 9 of his NL leading 15 home runs at Marlins Park as well as collect 35 of his major league leading 49 runs batted in at Marlins Park. He is dominating from on an offensive standpoint in a park that doesnt favor hitters and because of that he is my MVP now. You can’t go wrong with Tulowitzki though and I wouldn’t get mad at anybody who does pick him for national league MVP.