Nolan Arenado wins NL Player of the Month over Manny Machado

Earlier today, Major League Baseball announced that the National League Player of the Month award for April is going to St. Louis Cardinals third baseman Nolan Arenado over San Diego Padres third baseman Manny Machado.

I don’t know who the voters for the Players of the Month are but they got this one wrong. Was Arenado great last month? Yes. But he simply wasn’t as great as Machado.

Comparing Machado and Arenado’s Baseball Reference Stats (In April Unless Otherwise Noted)

• Batting Average- Machado: .386, Arenado: .375
• Runs Batted In- Machado: 15, Arenado: 17
• OPS- Machado: 1.067, Arenado: 1.125
• Total Bases- Machado: 51, Arenado: 49
• Wins Above Replacement (Through May 1)- Machado: 2.2, Arenado: 1.9
• Offensive Wins Above Replacement (Through May 1)- Machado: 1.7, Arenado: 1.6
• Defensive Wins Above Replacement (Through May 1)- Machado: 0.6, Arenado: 0.3
• Home Runs- Machado: 4, Arenado: 5
• Hits- Machado: 32, Arenado: 27
• Strikeouts- Machado: 16, Arenado: 14
• Team Record- Padres (Machado): 14-8, Cardinals (Arenado): 11-9

Total Categories Won- Machado: 7 , Arenado: 4

Bias Against Machado

Again, I’ll admit Arenado had a great month just like Machado did but you can’t convince me that there wasn’t any bias in the voting. Machado is viewed by casual fans and by the national media as someone who is a “dirty” player.

He also hasn’t won nine gold glove awards in a row and doesn’t have as many highlight plays as Arenado does because he makes plays look really easy while Arenado doesn’t make those same plays look as easy.

If you want more of my thoughts in video form here’s my reaction moments after the news came down:

Reader Question

Do you believe Nolan Arenado should have won the April Player of the Month over Manny Machado?