September Is Key In The Andrew McCutchen MVP Race

How amazing is the picture on Andrew McCutchen’s twitter feed showing a young Pittsburgh Pirates fan looking entirely amazed as he clutches his bat with one hand, and shakes the batting gloved right hand of Cutch?

It shows everything that baseball is really about for young fans.  How long has it been since a Pittsburgh Pirates player has caused this much excitement for the city of Pittsburgh?

McCutchen has eight hits in his past 22 at-bats, and will now face the Houston Astros and Chicago Cubs pitching staffs that have been near the bottom of the NL Central all season.  Houston has had a major fire sale this season, and will give the start tonight to a pitcher that recently threw in the Mexican League.

If there ever was a time for Cutch to crush a few bombs, tonight could be it.

We saw this article about what Andrew McCutchen has to do to win the batting title on CBS Sports. Of course, McCutchen is chasing Melky Cabrera. After he won the MVP at the All-Star game, Cabrera was slapped with a 50-game suspension. Now it certainly looks possible that he could also win the batting crown.

Everyone in Pittsburgh, and in other ML cities for that matter would like to see Cutch pull it out. David Fung of CBS Sports did some nice work on this graphic as he projects the hits necessary for Cutch, Joey Votto and Buster Posey to make sure the unthinkable doesn’t happen.

A batting title would nice for McCutchen, but we think it would simply be icing on the cake.

McCutchen has the ability to carry the Pittsburgh Pirates in the month of September, and this afternoon is a great time to start.