A-Rod is unquestionably the MVP

[BaseballGuru]

Re: A-Rod is unquestionably the MVP

Sigh... you're like talking to a brick wall. If this, if that, blah blah blah. Pendleton was the most valuable player on a team that went from worst to first, from 10 games back to win the division on the final day of the season. He may not have had the best numbers of all the players in the NL that season, but the fact that he had excellent numbers while helping the Braves overcome what many felt was an impossible lead all equated to him winning the MVP.

I'm not saying anything about games late in the season, but the simple fact is that some games mean more than others, regardless of what happened to create the situation. A player's performance in those games should be a part of the equation when figuring who is the most valuable player. You can say "well, if they had this guy instead then they'd never be in a close race" or whatever.... but you don't know that. You can't predict the performance of a player simply by picking him up and moving him to a different club. Like I said before, that's all speculative and really isn't a smart comparison. I'm sure you predicted Brett Boone's lack of performance when moving to Atlanta, and then his subsequent rebirth when moving to Seattle.... but for the sake of our discussion, we'll just leave your Miss Cleo all-knowing, all-seeing foresight out of it.

[bigj1601]

Re: A-Rod is unquestionably the MVP

this is what it comes down to me.

without arod the rangers are STILL in last

without tejada the a's ARENT in playoffs

to me thats value

[FatPitcher]

Re: A-Rod is unquestionably the MVP

People said the same thing about the A's and Giambi.

So MVP is really "MVP of the last half of the season," Mr. Guru?

[techbasketball]

Re: A-Rod is unquestionably the MVP

I have no problem giving it to Tejada. He had a good year, and was pretty much the only offense on the A's. But I do have a problem with Arod getting 2nd. He finishes behind a player who had a good year and led his team to the playoffs, but finishes ahead of everyone else who also had good years and led their teams to the playoffs, like Soriano, Anderson, Hunter, Zito (who in my opinion shoulve won it). So since it is supposed to go to the guy who was most valuable to his team, shouldnt Arod have finished around 7 or 8 and not 2? And technically according to the first definition of valuable in a dictionary, it should prolly go to Arod since he is worth over a quarter of a billion dollars.

[BaseballGuru]

Re: A-Rod is unquestionably the MVP

You can't fault Tejada because he performed well in games that came towards the end of the season, Fat. Had their 20 game win streak come before the break, and he played a key role in those victories which pushed the A's into 1st place to stay, then I'd still say give it to him. But again, we're dealing in speculation and imagination. His meaningful game performances came towards the end of the season, and A-Rod had far, far fewer opportunities to make an impact on his team's final outcome... not his fault, he played to the best of his abilities, but he still wasn't the difference between his team going to the playoffs or going home.

[Freelance]

Re: A-Rod is unquestionably the MVP

Well, answer me this.

If playoffs versus last place is the determining factor, how in the hell did A-Rod finish second?

Shouldn't A-Rod have finished like 10th or something?

[bigj1601]

Re: A-Rod is unquestionably the MVP

well that looks like the post two up. and no one is worth over 250 million.

[Freelance]

Re: A-Rod is unquestionably the MVP

That's why I posted it, big. It's the best point of the entire thread.

A-Rod shouldn't have gotten any consideration by those parameters.

[HatTrick]

Re: A-Rod is unquestionably the MVP

You're right. Soriano, Anderson, Hunter, and Giambi all should have been ahead of A-Rod too. They really just need to change the name of the award, or create another one so that this whole debate wouldn't even be necessary.

[BaseballGuru]

Re: A-Rod is unquestionably the MVP

You guys are trying to simplify things too much... the goal of playing the 162 game season is to win. The Most Valuable Player award should be given to the player who helps his team the most while reaching that goal. A-Rod came in second because he had an amazing year, but in the end, he didn't help the Rangers towards the ultimate goal of winning games. Maybe they only win 50 without him, I dunno, but with him they couldn't manage to finish over .500. You'll notice that the voting wasn't very close... Tejada got 21 of the 28 first place votes. A-Rod got 5, Soriano 2, but Soriano got more second place votes than A-Rod did.

The voters were obviously acknowledging him and the great season that he had, but they were also voting for the player that helped his team win the most by giving the nod to Tejada.

[bigj1601]

Re: A-Rod is unquestionably the MVP

now this guy knows what he is talking about. i see why you call yourself baseball guru because you make good points.

[brendanrfoley]

Re: A-Rod is unquestionably the MVP

I love how much backwards logic there is in the baseball world...

A strict "stats only" award like the Cy Young is robbed from Pedro Martinez, who dominated every statistical category over Zito accept wins (a team number - very important when you look at Zito's ERA vs winning teams).

Meanwhile, an "intagibles" award like the MVP is being argued that it should be strictly stat based.

I hope all of those who voted A-Rod voted for Pedro too, or else all arguments become moot.

[Freelance]

Re: A-Rod is unquestionably the MVP

This would be like giving the MVP to Brady last year over Warner.

Yet another thing the NFL has figured out that baseball simply can not.

[bigj1601]

Re: A-Rod is unquestionably the MVP

nfl screwed that one up it should have gone to favre(im a packers fan) but really shoud have gone to faulk