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 So I guess we're just pulling names out of a hat now! Pathetic.
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cobra kai 15000+ posts
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He wasn't even the MVP on his own team.
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Morneau edges Jeter to win AL MVP award
By RONALD BLUM, AP Baseball WriterNEW YORK (AP) -- Justin Morneau won the American League's Most Valuable Player Award on Tuesday, edging Derek Jeter of the New York Yankees after a season in which his 34 homers and 130 RBIs helped the Minnesota Twins capture their division.
Morneau received 15 first-place votes, eight seconds, three thirds and two fourths for 320 points in voting by a panel of the Baseball Writers' Association of America. Jeter got 12 firsts, 14 seconds, one fourth and one sixth for 306 points.
"Last night even I was saying I don't expect to get it. I might have given myself maybe a 50-50 chance," Morneau said. "I didn't want to set myself up for disappointment if I didn't get it."
Three Twins finished among the top seven in the MVP voting. Joe Mauer won the AL batting title this year and Minnesota pitcher Johan Santana won the AL Cy Young last week.
"That says a lot," Morneau said. "I'd love to play my whole career here. We have a great young team."
Boston's David Ortiz was third with 193 points, followed by Oakland's Frank Thomas (174), Chicago's Jermaine Dye (156), Mauer (116). Santana got 114 points, receiving the other first-place vote.
It was the 16th-closest MVP race since the current format began in 1938, and the 10th closest in the AL.
Morneau hit .321 in helping the Twins win the AL Central for the fourth time in five years. Jeter batted .344 with 14 homers and 97 RBIs, finishing three points behind Mauer, who became the first catcher to win an AL batting title.
Morneau became the second Canadian-born player to win an MVP following Colorado's Larry Walker in 1997. He is the third Canadian-born athlete to win an MVP in a major pro league this year, following Phoenix Suns guard Steve Nash and San Jose Sharks center Joe Thornton.
Walker telephoned Morneau as the first baseman was arriving at the Metrodome.
"He just wanted to call and say, `Congrats," Morneau said. "He said he thought he was more excited than I was. He said, `Just wait, it's going to be crazy."'
Walker, a coach for Canada, autographed a bat for Morneau at the World Baseball Classic in March.
"To Justin, make Canada proud," Walker wrote.
"I thought that was pretty cool," Morneau said.
Morneau is the fourth Minnesota player to win following Zoilo Versalles (1965), Harmon Killebrew (1969) and Rod Carew (1977).
Earning just $385,000 in his third season as a regular, Morneau proved a bargain. Philadelphia's Ryan Howard, voted NL MVP on Monday, made $355,000.
Ortiz earned a $100,000 bonus for finishing third in the voting. Thomas, who left the Athletics last week to sign with Toronto, received a $100,000 bonus for placing fourth. Dye got $60,000 for fifth.
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Quote:
PJP said:
He wasn't even the MVP on his own team.
Really? Who else on the Twins would be MVP? Johan is the only other person I can think of, but the "not-an-every-day-player" argument comes up.
I'd rather have seen Ortiz win it to at least make up for the travesty of him not winning the award last season, but the fact that the Red Sox just out and out faded away in the second half ensured that he wouldn't win it.
"You kind of get tired giving the other team credit. At some point you've got to look in the mirror and say 'I sucked.'"
Alex Rodriguez, after the NY Yankees were eliminated from the 2006 ALDS by the Detroit Tigers.
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Quote:
jafabian said:
Really? Who else on the Twins would be MVP? Johan is the only other person I can think of, but the "not-an-every-day-player" argument comes up.
howsabout mauer?
Quote:
jafabian said:
I'd rather have seen Ortiz win it to at least make up for the travesty of him not winning the award last season, but the fact that the Red Sox just out and out faded away in the second half ensured that he wouldn't win it.
ortiz didn't deserve it this year or last year, though he had a stronger argument then.
i honestly thought if it wasn't going to go to jeter, it'd go to frank thomas.
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I can see Mauer. Sure. But this is only one season for him. If he can build on it, he'll win it next season.
Overall, this seems to have been a down year for MVP awards.
"You kind of get tired giving the other team credit. At some point you've got to look in the mirror and say 'I sucked.'"
Alex Rodriguez, after the NY Yankees were eliminated from the 2006 ALDS by the Detroit Tigers.
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Quote:
jafabian said:
Quote:
PJP said:
He wasn't even the MVP on his own team.
Really? Who else on the Twins would be MVP? Johan is the only other person I can think of, but the "not-an-every-day-player" argument comes up.
I'd rather have seen Ortiz win it to at least make up for the travesty of him not winning the award last season, but the fact that the Red Sox just out and out faded away in the second half ensured that he wouldn't win it.
howsabout mauer?
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Quote:
jafabian said:
I can see Mauer. Sure. But this is only one season for him.
Eh? Mauer and Morneau have both played only two full seasons(though Morneau played in '03 and '04 some). Mauer was the best position player on the Twins last year. Why should it matter how many seasons he's played, anyway?
The AL MVP race was pretty close this year. There were about four, maybe five, viable candidates. Morneau was not one of them.
Really, maybe sportswriters should just change the name of the award to "best RBI man on a good team". They just don't get it.
MisterJLA is RACKing awesome.
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Here's an article by Keith Law, insider to ESPN: Quote:
I think all carping about the NL MVP voters getting their choice wrong must immediately cease. The AL's voters missed out on identifying the most valuable Twin, never mind wrapping their heads around a whole league.
The reality of baseball is that a great offensive player at an up-the-middle position is substantially more valuable than a slightly better hitter at a corner position. And when that up-the-middle player is one of the best fielders at his position in baseball, there's absolutely no comparison. Joe Mauer was more valuable than Justin Morneau this past season.
Mauer had a 54-point edge in OBP over Morneau, which overwhelms the advantage Morneau had in slugging percentage (a 52-point edge), and he is arguably the best-fielding catcher in the game when you consider all aspects of catching. Catchers who field and hit the way Mauer does are extremely valuable, just as shortstops who hit like Derek Jeter does and play passable defense are extremely valuable. First basemen who hit like Morneau just shouldn't win MVP awards in years when there are Mauers and Jeters and other candidates to choose from.
Even going by the stats that the voters have favored for as long as the MVP award has existed, Morneau's season wasn't all that impressive. He tied for 12th in the AL in homers. He was second in RBI -- seven behind David Ortiz -- and just nine ahead of the least clutch player to ever be clutch, Alex Rodriguez. He was seventh in batting average, a few miles south of Mauer and Jeter, the other major MVP candidate. I have a hard time fathoming why any voter would put Morneau at the top of his ballot with so many obviously better candidates -- Mauer, Jeter, Ortiz, Jermaine Dye, unanimous Cy Young Award winner Johan Santana or the criminally neglected Carlos Guillen (the best player on the AL pennant winner) -- and in reality, more than half the voters did just that.
Incidentally, the following voters failed miserably:
• The one who put Jeter sixth.
• The one who put Mauer 10th ... and the five who left him off their ballots entirely.
• The three who put Frank Thomas second.
• The one who put A.J. Pierzynski 10th.
And while we're at it, how the heck did Thomas -- the third-best designated hitter in the American League -- end up fourth in the voting? It's just more evidence that the bulk of this year's voters didn't take into consideration what is actually valuable in baseball: Players who hit and play good defense up the middle are the most valuable position players in the game. The NL had only one such candidate this year (Carlos Beltran), so it's understandable that that award went to a corner bat. It's time for some of these voters to put aside their fantasy-baseball mentality -- one that assumes that RBI measure something important and that OBP is a hip-hop song from the early 1990s -- and to reevaluate how they go about voting for the MVP.
MisterJLA is RACKing awesome.
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Quote:
Rob Kamphausen said:
ortiz didn't deserve it this year or last year, though he had a stronger argument then.
A-Rod's season last year was significantly better than Jeter's season this year. Ortiz provided pretty much the same value both years.
You wouldn't think so by looking at the MVP voting(and this is something I think I overlooked in my initial MVP selection post), but Manny Ramirez has actually been better than Ortiz every season, even the last two. Offensively they were about the same, but what separated them was, obviously, that Manny played the field. Even if you play a position poorly, that's still defensive value. Ortiz provided none the last two years. Ortiz may have whatever intangible qualities you want to attribute to him, but on the field Manny Ramirez was the more valuable player. He just doesn't get the credit because he's...well, he's Manny.
Really, I don't think there was a whole lot separating the top four guys this year, though I do think the award should have gone either to Jeter or Mauer(depending on how you evaluate Jeter's defense). I'm assuming that the voters looked at two things and decided to give Morneau the edge: RBI total, and the win/loss record. Hilariously, these are the two stats the individual player has the least control over. They might as well have given Morneau the Cy Young, too.
This whole thing reminds me a bit of the '96 AL MVP voting(the '06 vote might be the worst since '96). Juan Gonzalez was a first basemen who had a lot of RBI on a first place team, like Morneau. Alex Rodriguez was a young player who won the batting title at a key defensive position, like Mauer. Seattle finished in second, and so did A-Rod in the MVP voting, even though Rodriguez was much better than Gonzalez.
MisterJLA is RACKing awesome.
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If Mauer or Ortiz won it I would have been disapointed but I wouldn't have thought it was a complete joke like I do now.
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