What flows from this:
I think a big part of the reason Yankee followers are so hepped up on Teixeira is due to a) the perceived value of his defense and b) the intangible “leadership” qualities that flow from being the new captain of the diamond on defense. I believe that most of (a) comes from the relative comparison to Giambi (-18 FRAA in 2008). In comparison to Giambi, Teixeira really does look like a defensive god. Add in the fact that many people, like Sterling, tend to dramatically overestimate the impact of defense at first base.

So combine the overweighting of Teixeira’s defensive prowess (puffed up by relative comparisons to Giambi), pretty offensive counting stats, an All-American image, and you get the the magic winning combo for MVP, deserving or not.

Stats give us a lot of details, but they don’t make up for what you see with your eyes. Mauer started his season on May 1st yes, and what he has accomplished is impressive however…

The fact is the Twins were 0.5 game out of 1st place on April 30th and are 4 games under .500 since Mauer returned. Is it a direct correlation, no it isnt, but it also means that Mauer is the difference between the Twins being 4 under .500 and 10 under .500.

Either way, the Twinkies are not making the playoffs.

My vote is for Derek Jeter. He shall not be denied by an undeserving Twinkie again ala Justin Morneau in 2006.

Whenever we deal with statistics, we lose something. We try our best to quantify everything as best as we can, but we’ll never understand certain dynamics within baseball.

I’m not saying the Baseball Writers of America have any better idea of these dynamics, but there’s no doubting that they have access to more information. They have access to all the statistics that you and I do, plus all of the first-hand information that beat writers have access to. Of course, a large percentage of ‘em don’t use the information but rather abide by the “I know a good baseball player when I see one” mantra.

Either way, when you say most valuable it’s so subjective that anyone could win it. Making the playoffs is incredibly valuable, but how much does that count?

There are just too many variables, half of which we cannot even attempt to measure.

I think it’d be interesting to do a calculation for who’s worth the most money based on home ticket sales, home jersey sales, season income, playoff income, road ticket sales, etc etc.

Campy 1953: .296 / .377 / .617 (+15 FRAA)
Mauer 2009: .381 / .454 / .669 (+5 FRAA)
Bench 1972: .298 / .410 / .664 (+27 FRAA)
Piazza 1997: .372 / .441 / .707 (-7 FRAA)
Dickey 1936: .321 / .382 / .617 (+3 FRAA)

Campy isn’t within 50 pts. on any of the slash-stats.
I think that Bench’s edge in D washes with Mauer’s edge in OBP.
Based on this, I’d rank the five seasons:

T1 – Bench 1972 and Mauer 2009
3 – Piazza 1997
4 – Campy 1953
5 – Dickey 1936

Just a thought.

EVEN WITHOUT TEIXEIRA, THE YANKEES ARE EASILY IN THE PLAYOFFS!!!!

So, with neither Mauer (cuz the rest of his team isn’t good enough) or Teixeira (cuz the rest of his team could get to the playoffs without him) having any real impact on a playoff race, how can ANYONE justify Teixeira as MVP???

IF the BBWAA chooses Teixeira, it will be the biggest joke since Jesse Haines got into the Hall of Fame!

and i’m a yankee fan