Hey Neil, did you see what Baseball Prospectus said about Miguel Cabrera this year?

Remember the year they had Josh Phelps on the cover? That sucked.

I like the general Baseball Prospectus approach to projecting player performances every year: nobody is going to be good, and the players who, last year, appeared to be kind of good, will this year be revealed not to be any good at all. And they're not wrong. But every year there are, like, I don't know, maybe six guys who they say totally positive things about.  This year, there's Halladay, Ichiro, and I'm sure a couple others, but this one really jumped out for obvious, Neil-related reasons:

After an offseason featuring alcohol counseling and questions about his commitment, Cabrera let his bat do the talking and put to rest any doubt that he can become one of the game's all-time greats.  Cabrera produced an MVP-caliber season, hitting for power and average, leading the league in on-base percentage and RBI, and setting career highs in home runs, slugging percentage, TAv, and WARP.  Perhaps most importantly for his future, Cabrera improved both his walk and strikeout rates and has become a reliable glove at first base.  Still years shy of his 30th birthday, given continued good health, Cabrera is likely to get top billing in pitchers' nightmares for the foreseeable future. Only two questions remain: How far will he climb up baseball's career leaderboards, and how much gaudier might his statistics be if he spent more time in hitter friendly ballparks?

I don't know, Neil, do you think there's maybe a third question, too? Because I think there sort of could be.


KS