Comments on: Revisiting the AL MVP Race

By: 2009 AL MVP Showdown: Greinke vs. Mauer vs. Mr. X, or, the Race for Second Place, or, Ken Rosenthal, Avert Your Eyes

Thu, 15 Oct 2009 14:54:48 +0000

[...] Kevin Youkilis, Derek Jeter, and dark horse candidate Yuniesky Betancourt. But along with a few others, I've argued (for a while now) that Zack Greinke probably deserves to win it. In light of my [...]

By: The Light is Dimming «

The Light is Dimming « — Fri, 04 Sep 2009 13:35:45 +0000

[...] Thanks Jonah, and thanks Twitter! By the way, make sure you do read his column propping up Greinke's MVP case. I still back Joe Mauer, but there's a pretty decent argument to be made for Greinke. I'd also [...]

By: The Light is Dimming « MLBlogNetwork

The Light is Dimming « MLBlogNetwork — Fri, 04 Sep 2009 12:39:15 +0000

By: Jonah

Jonah — Thu, 03 Sep 2009 00:49:43 +0000

Not all middle infielders are better than all first basemen of course — there’s a balance. Check out FanGraphs, they use a simple stat called Wins Above Replacement which takes everything into account — offense, defense, production, park effects etc. — and measures players based on how many wins they give their team compared to a random replacement guy.

So on the Yankees, Teixeira is more valuable than Cano — but Jeter is more valuable than either of them. See here:
http://www.fangraphs.com/leaders.aspx?pos=all&stats=bat&lg=al&qual=y&type=6&season=2009&month=0

By: sorekara323

sorekara323 — Thu, 03 Sep 2009 00:43:15 +0000

Interesting comments about “adjusting for position”..but can that argument be taken too far? You seem to be implying that a productive 2B or SS will always be more “valuable” than your slugging 1B, because they are harder to find..I just can’t get my head around anyone being more valuable than Pujols is to any club, he’s THAT good..

Closer to home then, is Robinson Cano more valuable to the Yankees than Tex? Cano is having a monster season at 2B..

By: Jonah

Jonah — Wed, 02 Sep 2009 12:46:51 +0000

As for Morneau and Morales, we as fans, and also the voters, need to get over the long-standing bias of voting for “run producers” when picking the MVP.

It doesn’t take that much work to see that Joe Mauer does more for his team offensively than Morneau does, or that there are several first basemen this year hitting like Morneau and Morales, while Mauer plays a much tougher position, and is on pace for the best season EVER put up a catcher.

James, Utley would seem to have more stars playing around him than Pujols, thus your argument that the Cards would be rubbish without him. But the contributions of Pujols’ teammates have always been there, just more subtle than a Rollins or Howard. Check out what guys like Joel Pineiro and Adam Wainwright are doing this season, not to mention the damage Holliday has done since coming over in trade. Utley’s comparable to Pujols because he’s doing what he’s doing while playing second base.

Again, we need to make very big adjustments for position when considering value. A first baseman needs to have a truly epic season to warrant being called most valuable — because there are a bunch of other first basemen who hit a lot too. That’s the point: These guys can’t play any other position than 1B, so they sure as hell better put up gigantic offensive numbers.

By: Jonah

Jonah — Wed, 02 Sep 2009 12:37:19 +0000

I understand that Dawson’s copious RBI in 1987 were attractive to voters, that’s just a lousy way to pick a winner. RBI are an incredibly team-dependent stat. A truer test of value is to look at measures which reflect a player’s own contributions, not those of his teammates.

As for Dawson’s salary, it’s an interesting idea. Certainly a team benefits more when it can acquire a player dirt cheap, then have him put up a huge season. But just like a team’s place in the standings, there’s nothing in the voting rules that says salary should be accounted for when voting.

If salary were a factor, someone like Albert Pujols would never win the award, outside of his first couple seasons before he signs his first big contract. Whichever player pulled a Ben Zobrist in a given season would win every year. Which, again, is interesting, but probably goes a little too far in parsing the concept of value.

By: cbeatley

cbeatley — Wed, 02 Sep 2009 05:11:34 +0000

I agree Mauer should be in the top consideration, but what about the guy batting behind him, Justin Morneau? Second in the AL in RBIs, very clutch. My personal fave this year, Kendry Morales, did anyone expect him to put up numbers Mark Texiera numbers?

I think it is obvious why Andre Dawson won MVP over Dale Murphy in 1987. He had 32 more RBIs and made $1.2 million less. I think that qualifies as “most valuable” don’t you?

Charley
Andre Dawson for the Hall of Fame
http://www.hawk4thehall.blogspot.com

By: sorekara323

sorekara323 — Wed, 02 Sep 2009 00:40:59 +0000

Utley is worthy, but just to be contrary..is he really More “valuable” to the Phils than Pujols is to the Cardinals? I know I am a cro-magnon when it comes to the MVP debate but honestly, Pujols really should win every year as the Cards would be close to rubbish without him..

In the AL it’s got to be Mauer or Jeter..

By: hinckleycoldstorage

hinckleycoldstorage — Tue, 01 Sep 2009 18:56:10 +0000

I’m not on the twitter, so this is to say that I like the current color scheme of the blog. Also, I wouldn’t call the text “white” it’s more of a light gray than anything. White would be jarring, this works well.

Also, as of right now I agree on Grienke as the AL MVP. Also, according to BP Dan Haren of all people has the highest WARP in MLB and Chase Utley leads the league in WAR. I haven’t checked either of those today, but last I looked that was the case. Makes the whole “Pujols is a lock” talk seem a bit hasty.