I thought of this because of a segment on PTI (Pardon The Interruption) today. Apparently a number of A’s players feel that A-Rod should win because his numbers are so far beyond everyone else’s.
I think it’s down to A-Rod and Miguel Tejada, at least in terms of who is most valuable to his team.
Sure, Alfonso Soriano is going to join the 40/40 club, but would the Yankees have been any worse without him?
Yeah, the Rangers are in last place, but without A-Rod, it’s possible that they would only win 40 games. Not likely, but possible.
Without Tejada, I don;t think the A’s would be in the race for the AL West.
That being said, I have to go with A-Rod, simply because his numbers are so big.
Gotta take A-Rod. He’s a better player than Tejada in every possible way.
Sure, Tejada’s team is better, but that’s not because Tejada is better than Rodriguez. It’s because Tejada’s team has better pitching. It seems silly to me to award the MVP Award to a guy because his teammates were better pitchers. IT’s an INDIVIDUAL award… the awards for your team winning are pennants and World Series rings.
A-Rod’s numbers are too good to ignore. But as good as the A’s starting pitching is, Tejada’s made a hella contribution to that team with his bat and glove. The pitching ain’t everthing about that team.
And, Tejada is what, about 10 RBI’s behind A-Rod?
A-Rod is not exactly running away with the RBI title.
Rodriguez (I refuse to give in to this A-Rod crap) and Tejada are about the same in BA, but Rodriguez’s OBP and SLG are a lot higher. A LOT higher. Which means he draws more walks and hits for more power. Rodriguez has about 15 more RBI, 17 more runs scored, and 25 more HR.
But then there’s the fielding to factor. Well, guess what… Rodriguez blows Tejada out of the water there, too. His FPCT is .012 higher (which is a lot more than it sounds), his Range Factor is higher by .14, and his Zone Rating is a full .091 higher.
To put it bluntly, Rodriguez is better than Tejada in every category. He should get the MVP. But he won’t. So whatever.
I’m sick and tired of hearing everyone talk about Tejada. Soriano is having a better season and his team is in first place. They would not be there without him!!! He has a higher batting average!! He’s the first 2nd baseman and 4th player ever to go 40/40. He’s the first ever to go 40/40/40 and no one has ever even gone 30/30/30!!! He now holds the record for most RBI’s by a leadoff hitter in one season!! Tejada only leads him in RBI’s but that’s only because Soriano leads off!!! Am I crazy?? Is there even a question???
This whole “They wouldn’t be in first/second/contention without player X” nonsense really grates on me. A very good player will provide his team with 6-8 wins per season more than a replacement player. A great player, having the greatest season in history, like Bonds last year, gives 13 wins above replacement. That’s a lot: enough to turn a 81-81 also ran into a 94-68 contender. But for most teams, 6-8 wins is not that much. The Yankees would still be in first, and the A’s still in the playoffs without either of their star players.
Besides, the whole argument seems to imply that only teams that barely squeak into the playoffs (or just miss) can have MVP’s, which limits you to 1-3 teams/players a year.
And Morrison: Soriano is still 3 RBI short of the all time record for lead off hitters.
One might look at the OBP of Rodriguez’ teammates compared to that of Soriano’s or Tejada’s and surmise from those numbers exactly what percent of runners either runner is driving in. If one’s teammates have an OBP of .350 and one drives in (other than one’s own scoring) 120 runs, that is probably not as good, comparatively speaking, as someone who, with teammates’ OBP of .300, drives in 110 runs.
I recall a story Ralph Kiner used to tell- after hitting 51 homers for the cellar-dwelling Pirates one year, he asked for a substantial raise, and the GM (I THINK it was Branch Rickey, at the time) turned him down flat (management could still do that in those days!), saying “Mr. Kiner, we could have finished last WITHOUT your 51 homers.”
Alex Rodriguez is almost certainly the best player in baseball, and quite possibly the best overall shortstop ever. That said, he chose to play for a lousy team for megabucks. He could have gone to a contender for, say, 150 million bucks, but CHOSE to play for a rotten team for 250 million.
That will NEVER command much respect from voters or from fans (even if, in our hearts, most of us know we’d be strongly tempted to do the same thing!). So, while A Rod is much better than Tejada in nearly every way, I think Tejada will win the MVP award if the A’s hang on and win their division.
A-Rod didn’t think he was going ot a lousy team when he signed with the Rangers. Their pitching was supposed to be a lot better then it turned out to be.
Morrison,
Chill out.
The Spanks most certainly would have won the division without Siriano. And the whole 40-40-40 thing is a bunch of crap. If Willie Mays had wanted to he could have done that at leats 10 times in his career. Same for The Mick.
But back then, there wasn’t the excessive bsing about numbers that there is now
For me, it comes down to the definition of MVP. The Most Valuable Player, IMO, is the guy who contributed most to his team’s success. While I will not dispute the fact that A-Rod is the best player in baseball right now (including Bonds), his contributions to the Rangers have yet to get them out of the basement in the last two years. Likewise, I would never give the award to a pitcher who’s only throwing every fifth day.
Were I voting, I couldn’t give him my first place vote (although he’d probably be third or fourth on my ballot). I’d pick Tejada, probably followed by Torii Hunter, then Rodriguez, Jason Giambi, and Soriano.
But Jimbo, Rodriguez contributes more to his losing team than any of those other guys do to their winning teams. The reason they’re losing is because of the other players on the team, not because of any deficiency in A-rod’s play.
Once again; the MVP Award is an INDIVIDUAL award. It’s meant to honor individual achievement. The Rangers are in last place because their pitching sucks; the A’s are in first because their pitching is excellent (their offense is just above average.) The difference between Oakland and texas in the standings has nothing to do with Tejada being better than Rodriguez. In fact, Rodriguez is the better player.
There’s nothing in the rules concerning MVP selection that the player must be from a first place team, and in fact there is a well-set precedent that you don’t have to be from a first place team, so why change the rules now? It just makes no sense, since the rules don’t call for it, to give Tejada the MVP Award because his teammates are better at pitching than Alex Rodriguez’s teammates. What are you rewarding if you do that? Tejada didn’t sign Barry Zito.
I believe in giving a player on a winning team a SLIGHT edge; it’s a good tiebreaker. But Tejada, good though he is, isn’t in Rodriguez’s zip code. The A’s would probably still have made the playoffs without Tejada. Rodriguez is the best player in the league, and he is the most valuable player in the league.