Last year a heated debate raged for much of the second half of the season over who should be the American League most valuable player. Characterizing those on each side of the debate by how its opponents viewed them, the traditionalists, dinosaurs and troglodytes favored Miguel Cabrera. The statistical zealots, stats nerds and stats geeks disagreed sharply, pronouncing Mike Trout the rightful claimant to the award.

They’re back, Cabrera and Trout, though the Angels’ outfielder doesn’t seem to have challenged Cabrera as strongly as he did last year when the Tigers’ third baseman won the award in a runaway, 22 first-place vote to 6 and 362 points to 281.

Zach Kram, my occasional substitute on this site, who reads baseball news and opinions far more voluminously than I do had this perspective:

“For those who are, the top reason is …”

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Until this post-season, Detroit pitchers were best known in October for the unprecedented five errors they made in the 2006 World Series that undermined the Tigers’ effort to beat the St. Louis Cardinals

Win or lose these seven years later, the Detroit pitchers, namely the starters, have performed with dazzling effectiveness. They have not been alone, though. Starting pitchers have produced performances that have made this their post-season. Hitters need not apply.

In 29 post-season games through Wednesday night, 30 pitchers, or an average of one of the two starters in each game, had pitched six or more innings and allowed two or fewer runs, earned and unearned. Those figures compute to a 52 percent ratio.

According to Elias Sports Bureau, during the regular season, in which 4,862 pitchers started 2,431 games, pitchers went six or more innings while giving up two or fewer runs 1,943 times. That computes to 40 percent, not as impressive as the post-season ratio.

“I hate to sound like a cliché,” said Dave Dombrowski, the Tigers’ general manager …

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You might have noticed that the New York Yankees have not played any post-season games and are not scheduled to play any post-season games this month. You probably know why.

Loyalists will say the Yankees didn’t make the playoffs because of catastrophic injuries to Derek Jeter, Alex Rodriguez, Mark Teixeira and Curtis Granderson. That’s one excuse. I have a different one:

The Yankees planned for next season before they played this one.

General manager Brian Cashman, who did not return telephone calls over the course of a week seeking comment, was so intent on meeting Hal Steinbrenner’s orders and so obedient in fulfilling his desires that he let productive players defect, leaving the Yankees short of players who could have filled in for the injured.

Russell Martin and Nick Swisher, meanwhile, went to the playoffs while the Yankees went home. Martin was especially instrumental in helping Pittsburgh get where the Yankees wanted to be.

To think that the Pirates were able to outbid the Yankees is …

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