6,930,001

The post-MVP vote storm has subsided and few minds have been expanded. Miguel Cabrera, a better MVP candidate than everyone in the American League -- by Prince Fielder's waistline -- except for Mike Trout, won the award. 

There are two simple conclusions to draw: 

1. The optimist's: a player with an MVP-quality season was so honored. The result was far from the travesty sometimes reported.
2. And the pessimist's: the MVP didn't get the hardware. The fight for knowledge is incomplete.

The "traditionalists" who focused on the Triple Crown and a playoff berth, previously debunked here and so many elsewheres that a Google search of Mike Trout MVP yields 6,930,0000 returns, have attempted to demonstrate that 59 is more than 76. (Their respective offensive runs against replacement.) That dog won't hunt, but if you don't hunt, and you've never had a dog, it's hard to understand. To the rest of us, the argument is transparently false.

On the other hand, 59 is more than 53 and 49 and every other number in the league. So there's that.

Cry not for Mike Trout. He's 21. He'd be well-advised to lease a gigantic trophy case. 

As for the writers and their fellow travelers, hey, it's only been 33 years since Bill James's first Baseball Abstract. Give them time to adjust.