For the First Time Since 1967 MLB Has Triple Crown Winner

History was made last night in Kansas City as Detroit Tigers Third Baseman Miguel Cabrera became just the 15th player in Major League Baseball history to capture the Triple Crown of leading the league in batting Average Home Runs and Runs Batted In all in the sames season. This is the first time a players has won the triple crown since 1967 when Carl Yastrzemski of the Red Sox took the crown. No National League player has won the triple crown since Joe Medwick of the 1937 St. Louis Cardinals. This is also the second time in Tigers history that a Detroit player has won the triple crown. The last to do it was Ty Cobb all the way back in 1909. The year Cobb won the crown he hit .377 for the year with nine home runs and 107 RBI's. Cabrera won the crown with a .330 average, 44 home runs and 139 RBI's.

Now this isn't the first time Cabrera has won a batting crown either. He also won the crown last year when he hit .344. Prior to Miggy, the last Tiger to win a batting crown was Magglio Ordóñez, who won the title back in 2007 when he finished the year hitting .363. The 44 homers hit by Cabrera won him the home run title this year. This was a first for a Tigers player since Cecil Fielder won the title outright in 1990 with 51 and then split the title when he and Jose Canseco each hit 44 in 1991. This year Cabrera won the RBI crown with 139. He also won the RBI title back in 2010 with 126. The last Tiger before him to win the RBI Crown was Cecil Fielder in 1991 with 133. These numbers put into perspective some history as to what Cabrera has just accomplished. Now of course this is going to bring about the question of is he the American League MVP?

Well lets take another trip through the history books first shall we. Justin Verlander of the Tigers won the MVP award last year. Detroit hasn't had a position player win MVP award since 1st baseman Hank Greenberg won it in 1940. Between then and now four Tiger players have won MVP and they have all been pitchers; Hal Newhouser (1944, 1945), Denny McLain (1968), Willie Hernandez (1984) and finally Verlander last year. Here's another surprising bit of information. Of the 14 previous winners of the triple crown in baseball, five guys won the MVP award in the same year. The five guys were Jimmie Foxx in 1933, Joe Medwick in 1937, Mickey Mantle in 1956, Frank Robinson in 1966 and Carl Yastrzemski in 1967.

Now then, the real question is who will win the American League MVP award this year. The choices seem to be between Cabrera, Mike Trout of the Angels and Josh Hamilton of the Rangers. A good part of me feels that the award will probably end up going to Cabrera. here is why I say this. With Mike Trout his offensive numbers were good and his skills in the field were great. Pretty good chance he walks away with the American league Rookie of the Year. but his numbers were QUITE on par with what Cabrera did, and the Angels missed out on the playoffs this year. As far as Josh Hamilton goes, he already has an MVP under his belt, winning the award in 2010. He had great numbers in the power and run production categories. Take him out of the lineup and its a good sized loss for Texas, and they struggled a bit without him playing. The only downside to Hamilton was he struck out 160 times and was only hitting .285.

I could throw numbers like this at you all day long. Fact of the matter is that there aren't too many guys, hitters or pitchers, who had a big a year as Cabrera. Only other guys I MIGHT throw into consideration for the MVP in the American League are David Price of the Rays and Jared Weaver of the Angels, just because of their stellar pitching numbers. But at the end of the day, big time congratulations still go out to Miguel Cabrera for becoming the first player since 1967 to win the batting Triple Crown!