Morneau,Morneau ,Morneau ,Justin Morneau

[metirish]

AL MVP

[Guest Edgy DC]

Alex Rodriguez's sucktastic play undermined Derek Jeter's candidacy. How can they not see it? Oh, how?!

[metirish]

Useless trivia....name the last Twins player to win MVP?

[Guest Edgy DC]

Carew and Zoilo Versailles?

Killebrew won one, but I can't remember if that was before or after Versailles. His name is so timeless, it's hard to pin him down.

[Guest Johnny Dickshot]

MFY fans ("Probably the worst choice in the history of the award" ... right, on, Kirk Gibson...) have already decided it's a conspiracy and forgotten their own guy got an MVP a year ago and they spent the year booing him.

[Willets Point]

[Guest Edgy DC]

For the record, I think they got this one wrong also.

[Guest Johnny Dickshot]

Oh,, bad voting, but not for slighting Jeets as much as overvaluing Morneau where Maurer was prolly the better choice of the 3.

Eh. MVP voting is almost always ridiculous.

[Willets Point]

It's ridiculous. It's not even funny.

[seawolf17]

Who gives a crap? F Jeter. What was so hot shit about his season? He hit .343? Who cares? BA sucks. He was second in the league in runs? I didn't see Grady Sizemore get any MVP support, and Sizemore's numbers kicked Jeter's numbers up and down the field. His primary qualification is that he'd never won an MVP before, which is bullshit.

Again... F Jeter. Congrats to Justin Morneau.

[metirish]

Edgy DC wrote: Carew and Zoilo Versailles? Killebrew won one, but I can't remember if that was before or after Versailles. His name is so timeless, it's hard to pin him down.

Rod Carew won in 1977

Zoilo Versalles won in 1965

Harmon Killebrew won in 1969

good call.

edit - full name.....Zoilo Casanova (Rodriguez) Versalles

[Guest Edgy DC]

It's funny, I didn't see consensus builiding around him.

Morneau was definitely the fourth or fifth Most Valuable Player. On the Twins.

[seawolf17]

Johnny Dickshot wrote: MFY fans ("Probably the worst choice in the history of the award" ... right, on, Kirk Gibson...) have already decided it's a conspiracy and forgotten their own guy got an MVP a year ago and they spent the year booing him.

First of all, F MFY fans (except you, Silver). Second, you're totally right, JD; except that A-Rod isn't "their own guy," remember? But Jeets is.

[metirish]

I think the writer that gave Jeets the sixth place vote got it right...

http://baseballwriters.org/awards/2006/2006_AL_mvp.html

[Guest OlerudOwned]

Pronk played 129 games and had better numbers than most of the AL. Kudos to whoever gave him a 2nd place vote.

[Guest Edgy DC]

It was gutsy and out-there. I'm not sure I could pull the trigger to give him kudos.

He slugged a ton, but a mere 129 games, almost excusively at DH, has to hurt a candidacy.

[Guest Rotblatt]

Awesome. I was so sure it would be Jeter.

Morneau in no way deserved the MVP this year, but whatever. Honestly, I'd have probably voted for Santana.

[Guest OlerudOwned]

Edgy DC wrote: It was gutsy and out-there. I'm not sure I could pull the trigger to give him kudos. He slugged a ton, but a mere 129 games, almost excusively at DH, has to hurt a candidacy.

Don't get me wrong, I don't think Hafner should've won, but it's nice to see him get some recognition. He may be the best hitter in the AL right now.

[metirish]

I was wondering who Pronk is......weird nickname.

[Frayed Knot]

2006 AL MVP Voting
Player	1st	2nd	3rd	Pts

[Guest Edgy DC]

On whose part? Mike's? Dog's? The voter's? Yours?

[nymr83]

Yankee fans will of course cry and whine about it (though if Arod had had exactly the year Jeter had and came in 2nd they'd be saying he's way too high up) i'm not really sure what to think other than being glad that a Yankee didn't win it.

i'm more than a bit shocked that Mauer was left out of the top 10 entirely by 3 writers.
7 writers left Santana off entirely, which annoys me even more because the award is for the best player not the best hitter, to leave him off entirely because that doesnt fit your conception of the award is bullshit, if you cant follow the rules give up your ballot (also, if you voted to give Palmiero that GG give up your ballot.)

i counted 19 guys under 10 pts in the AL with only 8 in the NL, do the AL writers pimp their hometown guys more? is this just coincidence and different in past years?

Edited November 21, 2006 by Guest

[metirish]

Brian Law is pissed...

] Morneau awful choice for AL MVPposted: Tuesday, November 21, 2006 | I think all carping about the NL MVP voters getting their choice wrong must immediately cease. The AL's voters couldn't even correctly identify 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. If you don't understand that, you don't understand the first thing about baseball. Mauer had a 54-point edge in OBP over Morneau, which overwhelms the advantage Morneau had in slugging percentage (a 52-point edge). But Mauer won the Gold Glove for his position this past year, 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 by the counting stats that the dinosaur 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 clutchy 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. It's hard to fathom why any voter would put Morneau at the top of his ballot with so many obviously better candidates -- Mauer, Jeter, Ortiz, Jermaine Dye, the 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 of the voters did just that. If you don't watch the games, fellas, don't fill out your ballots. Incidentally, the following voters should be removed from the voting process permanently: � The guy who put Jeter sixth. � The guy who put Mauer 10th ... and the five guys who left him off their ballots entirely. � The three guys who put Frank Thomas second. � The guy 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 don't understand 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 only had 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 their fantasy-baseball mentality -- one that assumes that RBI measure something important and that OBP is a hip-hop song from the early 1990s -- aside and to take the MVP vote seriously again.

[Frayed Knot]

The duo just pounced on the guy from the second he picked up the phone for not realizing how clutch the Jete-guy is, in part basing it on single game and/or single AB examples and the whole thing quickly fell apart into a series of disconnected statements, contradictions and accusations.
For all their faults, M&MD can actually be good interviewers but, at times, have their minds made up on a particular issue before discussion even starts at which point they're really not interested in what the subject has to say. This was one of those times; Jeter's GW-RBIs against Boston in August during that sweep sealed up both the division and the award and anyone who doesn't know that is a clueless dolt.

[nymr83]

good article. i agree that leaving mauer off should get you the permanent boot, but (what i'm sure was a CHW writer) putting his hometown guy 10th doesnt terribly bother me as long as he was fair at the top (of course he probably had Thomas 2nd too)

[G-Fafif]

Listening for a moment to Michael Kay yesterday, he criticized the $17 mil a year Soriano is getting because Jeter makes $18.9 mil a year and Soriano "isn't half the player Derek Jeter is."

I'm glad he cleared that up.

[metsmarathon]

i'm not anywhere near which is worse -

frank thomas finishing fourth, or michael young finishing thirty-third...

the votees, with some meaningless statisticals attributed to them:

player	Games	IP	BRAR	FRAR	PRAR	WARP3	BWS	FWS	PWS	WS
Morneau	157		63	44		8.6	25.5	2		27
Jeter	154		73	39		12.1	28	4.6		33
Ortiz	150		88	0		9.4	29.3	0.1		29
Thomas	137		53	0		5.8	21.9			22
Dye	145		69	27		10.4	23.7	2.8		26
Mauer	140		64	34		10.6	21.3	9.5		31
Santana	34	233.67	0	4	102	10.7	-0.1		25	25
Hafner	129		88	-1		9.2	25			25
Guerrero	156		69	2		7.8	23	2.2		25
Guillen	153		60	16		8.2	21.5	4.3		26
Sizemore	162		72	25		10.7	21.8	3.7		25
Thome	143		72	0		7.8	25.9			26
Rodriguez	154		66	2		7.4	22.4	2.4		25
Giambi	139		67	-4		6.7	23.1	0.2		23
Damon	148		48	13		6.7	18.1	3.7		22
Verlander	30	186	0	0	68	6.5	-0.1		15.5	15
Suzuki	161		53	29		9	20.1	4.1		24
Nathan	64	68.33	0	-1	73	8			17.1	17
Ramirez	130		76	-3		7.7	26.9	2.1		29
Tejada	162		61	37		10.7	18	5		23
Ibanez	159		56	14		7.7	24	3.1		27
Cano	122		44	38		9	13.3	4.5		18
Konerko	152		59	13		8	20.7	1.9		23
Ordonez	155		39	14		5.8	16.9	3		20
Wells	152		55	18		8	19	6.4		25
Crawford	150		49	8		6.3	21.4	2		23
Rivera	63	75	0	2	69	7.9			13.8	14
Rogers	34	204	-1	2	56	5.5	-0.2		14.9	15
Wang	34	218	-1	5	65	7	-0.1		17.7	17
Glaus	153		44	23		7.4	12.5	3.8		16
Matthews	147		48	16		7.1	17.5	4.2		22
Pierzynski	139		20	21		4.5	9	4.4		13
Young	162		40	55		10.6	18.5	7.7		26

young is certainly one of the ten best players in the AL, and he finishes with as many votes as AJ Pierzynski? crikey!

Edited November 21, 2006 by Guest

[metsmarathon]

.

[MFS62]

This vote was interesting. Maybe the voters just looked at the power numbers. Or they didn't get to see too much of Jeter, who arguably had a deserving year. Or, the out of towners were swayed by the numberous articles about Jeter's anti-MVP-like dealings with A-Rod.
Quien sabe?

Later

[stevejrogers]

metirish wrote: I was wondering who Pronk is......weird nickname.

Travis Hafner. Based on him being a labeled a "Project" type coming up, I'm not entirely sure where the "nk" came out from though