Don't have much to add here, just found this interesting since Edman has been red hot lately, is up to 6.4 bWAR on the season and on pace to eclipse 7 WAR, with Arenado and Goldy already there. Only a handful of times in the history of baseball have three players in the same lineup pulled this off. We're pretty familiar with the most recent trio.
Rk Team Season Count Player List
1 STL 2004 3 Jim Edmonds Albert Pujols Scott Rolen
2 DET 1961 3 Norm Cash Rocky Colavito Al Kaline
3 NYY 1929 3 Lou Gehrig Tony Lazzeri Babe Ruth
4 NYY 1927 3 Earle Combs Lou Gehrig Babe Ruth
Wow, it's putting a lot of stock in 1961 fielding numbers to say they were more valuable, but that year Cash and Kaline combined for a higher WAR than Maris and Mantle.
Dan Szymborski
I would vote for Judge in the AL
the NL is really tight between Arenado and Goldschmidt for me.
I may use 3B to break the tie as I think that based on the historical deviations between good and bad 3B defensively, generalized position adjustments possibly shortchange 3B by a run or two
it is crazy to think about how great the lineup is for LAD, and their highest bWAR player is lower than our top 3 (betts checks in at #8 after goldy #3, adenado #4, Edman #6)
Dan Szymborski
I would vote for Judge in the AL
the NL is really tight between Arenado and Goldschmidt for me.
I may use 3B to break the tie as I think that based on the historical deviations between good and bad 3B defensively, generalized position adjustments possibly shortchange 3B by a run or two
Goldy could make this a lot easier if he just wins the triple crown. Id much rather have that award.
This could easily be an AJ Pollock type fluke monster bWAR year from Edman on the back of unsustainable defensive numbers, but OTOH in almost 500 games he has a higher WAR/162 than Bryce Harper and Freddie Freeman, just shy of Manny Machado and Trea Turner.
It's weird that the bullish case for Edman's value kinda relies on the Cardinals consistently mis-evaluating him. Much of that value comes from positional scarcity and defense(though his baserunning is a sneaky source of value), and his peaks like this year are based on him being like a +10 SS and +15 2B. That would be at odds with how the Cardinals have treated him, where he spent significant time in the minors not at SS, and since graduating he consistently gets moved down the defensive spectrum for players like DeJong who are neither superior hitters nor are they +10 SS.