Some of the Best Individual Seasons of the 2010s 12/29/19

Hey baseball fans!

The 2010s are officially coming to a close, so let's examine some of the best seasons of the decade by individual players! Note: these seasons might not be the ultimate best, but they're ones I'd like to shout out.

Joey Votto, 2010
Votto's NL MVP 2010 season put him on the map for what would end up being the entire decade. He made his first of six career All Star Games and set career highs in home runs (37) and RBIs (113). He also made his impressive on-base percentage numbers known, leading the NL in 2010 with a .424 OBP, his first of four consecutive seasons leading the league in the category.

Justin Verlander, 2011
Your 2011 AL Cy Young Award and MVP winner sure did have a season to remember in '11, winning the pitching Triple Crown and leading the Tigers all the way to the ALCS. His 24 wins and 2.40 ERA that season are both career highs.

Miguel Cabrera, 2012 and 2013
Arguably the best player in baseball for the first half of the decade, Cabrera became the first hitting Triple Crown winner since Carl Yastrzemski in 1967 and again won the batting title in 2013. He was a back-to-back MVP, averaging 44 homers, 138 RBIs, and a .338 batting average over that two-year stretch. The 2012 World Series alluded him, but that doesn't detract from his Hall of Fame candidacy in the slightest.

Clayton Kershaw, 2014
The second same-season Cy Young and MVP of the decade was Clayton Kershaw in '14 and, boy, was he unstoppable. 21-3 record. A 1.77 ERA. 239 strikeouts. If only he performed better in the postseason.

Bryce Harper, 2015
Call him overrated, but his 2015 MVP campaign made him the $300+ million dollar man he is today. He batted .330, with 99 RBIs and a league-leading 42 homers, .460 OBP, and .649 slugging percentage. Bam Bam fell back to Earth in later seasons, but 2015 has been his crowing achievement.

Max Scherzer, 2016
The 2016 Cy Young Award recipient continued his Hall of Fame campaign with 20 wins and a 2.96 ERA. What's amazing about this year for Scherzer is that it definitely wasn't his best, but he won the Cy Young anyway. It just goes to show you how good Mad Max really is.

Jose Altuve, 2017
Aaron Judge and Giancarlo Stanton deserve acknowledgements as well, but the best second basemen of at least the second half of the 2010s deserves just as much praise. Altuve only had 204 hits this year, but that number and his .346 batting average both led the AL. The Astros' first World Series championship cements this season as one of the best in Houston's history.

Christian Yelich, 2018
Remember when we thought Yelich was just fine on Miami? Well, he elevated his game to astronomical levels in Milwaukee. In his first season with the Brew Crew, Yelich led the league with a .326 batting average, while also collecting 36 homers and 110 RBIs. He became one of the best hitters in the league after showing little power for the first few years of his career with the Marlins.

Mike Trout, 2019
You thought I'd leave Trout off this list, didn't you? The 2019 MVP set a career high in home runs (45), while also leading the league in OPS (1.083). He was a shoe-in for MVP from the beginning of the season, only because he's always a shoe-in. Let it be known that Mike Trout was the best player of the 2010s. The funny part about that statement is that he didn't play in the entire decade. Who knows what he'll do in the 2020s?

Thanks for reading this post and I hope you enjoyed it. Check back soon for more of "all the buzz on what wuzz." Happy New Year everyone!