Quote: Animalman said: You've said in this thread that you'd pick Jeter for team MVP every year, including last year, based on those intangibles
nossir. i said:
Quote: Rob Kamphausen said: i almost always think jeter earns it, but arod clearly had the better statistical season last year -- which, i feel, is what the award is truly defined as.
i think intangibles have a lot of weight, but arod's numbers were by far and away superior to any weight jeter's leadership offered.
as said, i feel those aspects are all part of a whole, and only argue that they should not be ignored or dismissed -- not that they should outrank mathematics.
Quote: Animalman said: Stats, like everything, have to be looked in the right context. One of the big reasons I think the stat community is often discredited is that there are many stats that have incorrectly become accepted a part of the baseball paradigm.
agreed.
Quote: Animalman said:
Quote: exactly. i would add "leadership qualities" to the comparitive whole.
But you can't compare leadership. That's the point.
and thats where i disagree.
the whole award is based on comparisons. this season (to simplify it) it will be ortiz's 50+ homers versus jeter's 350 average. you then have to factor in rbis, stolen bases, on base percentage, and a myriad of other statistics. mathematically, sometimes jeter will come out ahead, sometimes ortiz will.
but there's no precise formula to calculate how many doubles equal an rbi or how many base hits equal a home run. are more homeruns more valuable than more basehits? if there's no explosive, runaway winner, the decision is already based on things that can not directly be compared, and rather on opinion and interpretation of facts and the game.
i'd simply advocate the addition of one more "incomparable" aspect.
