AL Cy Young?

have you read the deadspin thread Shockey? If not, i suggest you do,some interesting stuff on Jeter.

 

That is as astounding a stat I have ever seen.

Well done.

 

will do. i just want to reiterate one point: when i questioned mauer's credtials last month, it was only because the twins were under .500 and pretty far back in the playoff race. that had all changed.

but NEVER didf i argue that jeter should be the mvp. heck, i fully conceded i wasn't even sure that he's the mvp on his own team, given tex's impact offensively and defensively -- the latter of which has helped jeter turn around his alleged slippage in that area.

others are deserving as well -- cabrera, anaheim's first sacker, etc. -- but i don't believe i ever championed jeter for mvp, as much of a dj fan that i am. the shots i take here about my dj devotion come from me often defending him against what i perceive as unnecessary shots taken at a player i have found to be extraordinary in his approach to the game and how it should be played.

but i'll anxiously now read the deadspin thread of which you speak. is it on this page or one soon to come?

 

So... Just so I have this clearly:

Since Mauer is still doing what he has done all season, you're comfortable awarding the MVP based on Michael Cuddyer rediscovered his power stroke and the Twins got better starting pitching? Not only that, those two factors have leapfrogged Mauer from "not even in the top three" to the top of the list?

Because that seems odd, to me.

 

i've been called things worse than "strange" before. in my opinion, the mvp of any league isn't about the player who has the best season. that's the "player of the year." the mvp is tied to his team's success, imo. if a team is out of playoff contention, and/or playing for a sub .500 team through no fault of his own, sorry, that is not the mvp to me.

for example, during a-rod's mvp season with the ranger, he put up some off the charts numbers. i would not have voted for him because texas sucked, through no fault of his own. the voters disagreed. so be it.

last season in the nfl, peyton manning won another mvp. he got my vote. but by the standard of player who had the best season regardless of his team's success, drew brees arguably should have on it. he had a maueresque season but his team finished out of the playoffs at a mediocre 8-8.

seems to be nfl mvp voters pay more attention to how a candidate's season influenced his team's success than baseball voters do. hey, i might be wrong, but i just believe "mvp" and "player of the year" are different awards. or should be.

so, yeah, the twins improving to get over .500 and within two games of the division lead markedly improves mauer's candidacy in my eyes. even if his level of play has remained the same while the team around him finally started doing better.

 

So you continue to base your opinion on who should be the MVP on the accomplishments of players' teammates rather than on the players themselves.

 

Not only that, but Mauer WAS playing on a playoff contending team when shockey made his initial comments on the subject.

The Twins may have been under .500 at the time (but only by a few games) and they were probably 6-7 games out of first, which would still be contention with two months to go.

 

Isn't this a cy young thread?

 

my sincere apologies for the threadjack. i was just (graciously, i thought) throwing in the towel on the mauer mvp debate but was too lazy or inept or both to find that thread.

so sorry. also sorry that conceding on mauer, now that the landscape has changed, could not be graciously accepted by some. whatever.

now, back to whatever remains of the cy young debate.....

 

You didn't throw in the towel. You continued the same ridiculous argument, that Mauer is only worthy of consideration because the Twins have gained a few games in the standings. But yes, this all does belong on the AL MVP thread.

Back on topic, the gap between Greinke and Verlander in ERA grew even more today with the latter giving up five earned runs in 7 2/3 innings, raising his ERA to 3.44 and dropping his record to 16-9.

Sabathia is probably passing him today. He has not given up an earned run to the Mariners through seven innings and is probably going to get his 18th victory. That said, his ERA is still more than a full run higher than Greinke's at 3.31.

 

Pitching in the least stressful atmosphere possible because his team is not expected to do anything positive makes what he's doing less remarkable. Pitching with pennant-race pressure counts for something. What Greinke is doing is like running a time trial compared to a head-to-head race.

 

I'll take comparisons that don't hold up for 100, Alex.