Is the Triple Crown ultimately a meaningless little side story that doesn't ultimately mean much? Sure, but that wasn't the case in 2012 when Miguel Cabrera won the MVP purely based on this achievement despite Mike Trout ultimately being the better, truly more valuable player that year.
A counterargument would be that it shouldn't have mattered then and shouldn't matter now, which is completely valid. But that's no fun; it's a lot more enjoyable to sit around and discuss which three statistical categories should matter for the new "Triple Crown" and who would have the best shot at winning it both this year.
The batting average is the first category that needs to be replaced, and replacing it with wRC+ is the easiest decision. BA has been widely cited for measuring overall offensive production (despite how poorly it does this), and wRC+ is the best option in the modern game. If wOBA is preferable, that's okay, too, but wRC+ is the stat this article is going with for now.
The next statistic on the chopping block would be home runs. Is this a stat that needs to be replaced? There's an argument to be made that it's ultimately fine, but for the sake of this article, this metric needs to be replaced, too.
Enter barrels. It's not perfect, and it's a counting stat which isn't usually the preferred method of measurement, but there can be one that sneaks into this list because ultimately a Triple Crown winner has to have longevity, too. So barrels can fully accomplish what home runs try to, which is simply measuring how many times a guy hits the crap out of the ball.
It gets a bit tricky with RBIs, as the incredibly flawed and context-dependent metric has too many problems to list in one article. But what the metric is attempting to accomplish is noble; how does a player directly contribute to scoring runs and ultimately winning games offensively?
If you've been paying attention, wRC+ already basically does this. Still, for fun, this one's going to go off the reserve a bit, a less analytically inclined metric but one that more accurately measures a batter's direct impact on winning at the plate.
Win probability added is the RBI replacement, and it's a fun one. It is still super context-dependent, meaning the opportunity to impact the game in a meaningful way has to present itself. It's not super "sticky," meaning just because a guy has a high WPA one year doesn't mean he will the next season (sound familiar?).
So there they are: The Triple Crown replacement metrics. Now, who would be close to leading all of those categories for the respective leagues? Surprise, surprise, Aaron Judge and Shohei Ohtani are both leading their respective leagues in both wRC+ and barrels, but Jurickson Profar leads the NL in WPA, and Juan Soto leads in the AL.
The good news is that both Judge and Ohtani are close, so by the end of the year, there could be "Triple Crown" (the new version) winners in both leagues, and both are currently MVP favorites. It's nice when it works out that way.
Main Image via Marca
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