While Wall Street Journal writer Allen Barra thinks Derek Jeter deserves the AL MVP, I disagree. Read my piece for The Faster Times on the issue.
Intangibles and past accomplishments shouldn't be enough to get the MVP. People have talked about Mariano Rivera and CC Sabathia for Cy Young because Mo is leading the league in saves, and CC is leading the league in wins. Jeter does not lead the league in a single category. Not only that, but he only leads his own team in two categories - batting average and stolen bases.
True, Jeter is having his best season in years, but the standard for MVP isn't him having a great year as opposed to other years. It's having the best season in the league. And Mauer has him beat there, as I write in my article about it.
What do you think? Leave us a comment!
5 comments:
neither Kendry Morales is.
Eh, Derek Jeter doesn't need the shiny offensive numbers to be the Yankees MVP this year--http://umpbump.com/press/2009/09/01/yankees-war-pie/
I agree that Mauer is the AL MVP--though I don't think it's as much of a no doubter as others. I find it sad, however, that his team's winning (or losing) percentage won't take away nearly as much consideration for him as the Royals' poor offense will take from Greinke for the Cy Young award. As much I as admire his talent, Sabathia shouldn't even be in the discussion with Greinke around. Wins be damned!
Riddering is correct, Greinke is far and away the best pitcher in the AL, you can't fake a 2.22 ERA. I think Mauer is a much more solid case for MVP because he leads in batting, on-base and slugging.
It's Most Valuable Player, not Most Outstanding Player.
With an average player as their catcher, the Minnesota Twins would be out of the Playoff race. With Joe Mauer as their catcher, the Twins are... out of the Playoff race.
The MVP race comes down to two men: Derek Jeter and Mark Teixeira. Jeter doesn't need an MVP award to partially stamp his ticket to the Hall of Fame. At this point, it would be like a lifetime achievement award, sort of like Don Shula and Dean Smith each getting Sports Illustrated's Sportsman of the Year award when each became his sport's all-time leader in coaching wins. Or like Brett Favre did a couple of years ago.
I wouldn't mind at all if Derek got it, but the real story this year has been Teixeira. His bat, his fielding, and his personality which has helped to loosen a lot of people up. That last part cannot be ignored.
I'd go with Mauer. I explain at more length here:
http://sportsphd.wordpress.com/2009/09/15/mauer-for-mvp/
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