By Julian Mininsohn @jminnsohn This is how he does it.. To those some baseball experts and those west of the Rocky Mountains the 2016 National League MVP should belong to Los Angeles Dodgers Rookie Corey Seager. The less sexy pick? Nolan Arenado of the Colorado Rockies. To those others, including those in Chicago? The National League MVP competition seems to have turned into a one-man race.
That man? Kris Bryant. His .302 batting average may be behind Seager’s .318 but Bryant leads the NL in WAR (Wins Above Replacement) with 7.11(.01 ahead of Seager). And although Arenado leads the NL in home runs (37) and RBIs(118) Bryant is ahead of the Rockies slugger in both average (.302) on-base percentage(.970) and slugging percentage(.529). Aside from the stats, Bryant has his Chicago Cubs in a position where the others don’t. The Cubs have the best record in baseball and have so-far lived up to the talk as the “World Series favorite.” Granted, they have arguably the better team. But a better team has players that perform, in which Bryant is the top of that list. If Bryant were to win the MVP he would be one of only a few players to win the Rookie of the Year and MVP award in his first few seasons (Fred Lynn and Ichirio Suzukii). Bryant also has the Cubs in the driver seat to do something they haven’t accomplished in over 100 years; win a World Series.
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