Comments on: Mauer Wins MVP, Tex 2nd, Jeter 3rd

By: JW12

JW12 — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 16:33:15 +0000

I would put Ichiro higher if I was using your criteria.

By: The other Chris H

The other Chris H — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 06:10:47 +0000

I actually think you have to look at each individual defensive and range stat along side UZR and what you see on the field and use the 3 together to come up with who is and who isn’t goof at defense because I think UZR does over look some key things when judging someones “range”.

By: The other Chris H

The other Chris H — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 06:09:12 +0000

I would have voted

Mauer
Arod
Figgins
Mariano Rivera
Youkilis
Derek Jeter
Ichiro
Tex
Cabrera

However my criteria isn’t numbers related it’s who I think is actually more valuable to their team because that is the name of the award.

By: Moshe Mandel

Moshe Mandel — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 02:04:39 +0000

Well, it depends how much faith you put in UZR. If the answer is not a ton, then you can make a strong case for Tex after Mauer, Zobrist, and Jeter in terms of hitters.

By: Troy

Troy — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 00:27:31 +0000

Teixeira finishing 2nd has to be a joke. I’d take Jeter and ARod over him in the voting, and that’s just in his own infield. Mauer, Zobrist, Longoria, Miggy all had better collective seasons, and Youklis could also be argued.

I wanted the Yankees to sign this guy badly in the off-season, but it only took 1 year for Teixeira to finish far too high in MVP balloting, and become somewhat overrated. I had him at the bottom of my ballot. MVP candidate? Ha.

By: Moshe Mandel

Moshe Mandel — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 23:15:20 +0000

Yeah, that’s a great point. Stupid by the writers (as the starter has a lot greater impact on his games than the closer has on his), but definitely dead on.

By: Jay

Jay — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 22:57:15 +0000

Moshe – Pretty much nodded through this whole post.

I very much agree about the “buzz” aspect, which both Greinke and Mauer had very early on this year (later for Mauer, obviously). The sabermetric community (especially guys like Neyer and Posnanski) helped shape that thanks to the increasingly large role the internet is playing in sports writing. Both of those guys have a larger readership than most small and medium sized newspaper writers. But I think you’re right about it not extending past the award winner.

The only reason I think Mo got some MVP recognition is that voters see relief pitchers as closer to everyday players since they impact more games. Of course that doesn’t show up in the Cy Young voting, but for whatever reason, it seems to in the MVP. Mo has placed in the MVP vote 5 times without doing so in the Cy Young.

By: rightclue

rightclue — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 21:39:53 +0000

These are the same media guys who use faulty grammar mistakes (in a JOURNALISM CAREER no less) ranging from

split infinitives (I want to boldly go where no man has gone before… vs to go boldly)
subject verb disagreement (A player should handle their own… a player should handle his/her own…)
misuse of subjunctive mood (If I was… if I were)

etc….