PTOLEMAIC MVP UPDATE 8/20/2012

As the homestretch for the 2012 regular season comes into view (we're now at roughly the 3/4ths mark), we can start dividing our attention between the teams racing toward the finish line and the players who are chasing the Most Valuable Player award.

Therefore, our Ptolemaic MVP rankings (which, for those who've stumbled in here against their better judgement, are overlapping two-month snapshots of hitter performance geared to handicap the MVP race as the season evolves) will start to be updated every 4-5 days (instead of 6-7) to capture a little more detail in the homestretch.

We've had four more updates since last time, and we have a new leader in the AL (though the race, according to Ptolemy at least, is very close).

We have three players (Mike Trout, Miguel Cabrera, and Robinson Cano) who are all within striking distance as of yesterday.

We're providing the top twenty in each league according to Ptolemy. Interestingly, Albert Pujols has just passed Josh Hamilton in the rankings. That would have seemed well nigh impossible back in early June, but things do change rapidly, even across a series of two-month snapshots.

Over in the NL, Andrew McCutchen seems to be building what might be an insurmountable lead. He's had a series of two-month snapshots in which he's exceeded 1.100 OPS and hit a bit over .400, a feat that is (as you've probably guessed) exceedingly rare even over a span of two months.

Joey Votto might have stayed with him, but he's stopped accumulating any points via Ptolemy's "epicyclical" system as a result of his month-long downtime.

The Giants' Buster Posey has been putting on an amazing hitting display over the past several two-month snapshots, but he got started a bit too late to be any real kind of factor in the MVP race. With Melky Cabrera suspended, the Giants are going to need Buster to keep bustin' out.