Tim Kurkjian and the greatest SS's

[sycks22]

Originally Posted by Al C.risafulli

I believe it is not. It is awarded to the player that the sportswriters in the BWAA think had the best season.

In 1991, those writers thought that Terry Pendleton's season was better than Barry Bonds', despite the fact that Bonds outperformed Pendleton in virtually every meaningful statistical category.

In 2006, the writers thought that Justin Morneau had a better season than Derek Jeter, despite the fact that he played a much easier position, had a lower WAR, fewer runs, fewer hits, a batting average .20 points lower, and on base percentage .42 points lower, and scored 21 fewer runs. But, you know, Morneau had more RBIs.

History is littered with examples where the rightful winner of the MVP was overlooked by writers who simply don't get it. They value RBI too highly, they value home runs too much, they usually discount defense and modern analytics, they place inordinate emphasis on whether the team was a winner, and they take character into consideration (which is why Albert Belle never won an MVP despite being one of the greatest players in the game in the 90s).

-Al

Let's look at how valuable a player is to their team: If you take out Morneau in 2006 you have:
Jason Bartlett
Nick Punto
Lew Ford
Rondell White
Luis Castillo

If you take Jeter out of the Yanks you still have:
Cano
A-rod
Damon
Giambi (When he was good)
Posada
Abreu
Matsui

Jeter was 6th on his own team in Hr's, 3rd in RBI's

[nolemmings]

Now now Pete, be fair. While I agree with you completely that Morneau fully deserved the 2006 MVP (and Jeter is my favorite player), you left out Mauer, who himself was 6th in MVP voting, Torii Hunter (31 HR) and a decent Michael Cuddyer (24 HR) from your list. Justin had some helpers in that lineup and some decent pitching with Johann and Liriano-- they won 96 games after all.

Still, shame on Al for taking a pot shot at Morneau's award