Detroit Tigers: Cabrera's All-Time Greatness Should Not Be Ignored

Miguel Cabrera is putting together one of the all-time greatest performances in the history of MLB.

But for as amazing of a player as Cabrera is, his greatness has been somewhat shoved under the rug in the city of Detroit and around baseball.

Whether it’s his comical DUI arrest in 2011, or his lack of English-speaking skills, for some reason or another, Cabrera’s fame isn’t on the level of LeBron James, Tiger Woods, Sidney Crosby or Tom Brady, who are arguably the most famous individual figures in their respective crafts.

But Cabrera’s numbers should speak for themselves.

Last season, the 30-year-old won the Triple Crown (the most recent player to do so since 1967) with a .330 average, 30 44 home runs and 139 RBI’s.

Cabrera won his first career MVP Award and led the Tigers to their second World Series appearance since 2006.

You would think that accomplishing one of baseball’s holy grails would allow Cabrera to be a runaway favorite for MVP, but he just barely edged out the sabermetric arguments of Los Angeles Angels rookie Mike Trout.

Cabrera wasn't bothered by the doubters who thought he didn’t deserve to be MVP, and has gone out this season and proved exactly why he did deserve the award a year ago.

So far in 2013, Cabrera is averaging .387 with a .459 on-base percentage, 13 home runs and 52 RBI’s in 44 games.

Cabrera, who’s vying to become the first back-to-back Triple Crown winner in history, leads the American League in average by 35 points, in RBI’s by nine and is second in home runs, trailing Baltimore’s Chris Davis by one.

He’s a seven-time All-Star during his 10-year career, and he’s on pace to finish 2013 with 47 home runs and 191 RBI’s.

The Venezuelan slugger continues to confuse opposing pitchers and amaze adoring fans on a nightly basis, and is on the verge of doing things that no has ever accomplished, but somehow he remains somewhat anonymous in the grand scheme of things.

Cabrera, who’s finished in the top five of the MVP vote in each of the last four seasons, doesn’t mind shying away from the spotlight, but for as good as he is, the spotlight should be shining brightest on him.

Opposing pitchers know what he’s capable of and there’s nothing they can do about it.

Cabrera is in the prime of his trailblazing career, and when he’s ready to hang ‘em up, we will all look back and put him on the pedestal among the best players ever.

Maybe even the best of all-time.