100 Reasons Derek Jeter is the AL MVP…(And Why Joe Mauer is Not)

Hello one and all and thanks for letting me back into your baseball lives! I haven’t been writing nearly as much this season for a plethora of reasons. My wife is expecting our first child together in about 4 1/2 weeks…my father is suffering from terminal lung cancer, and I am still attempting to find full time employement, so my attention to the blog has suffered for it, and for that I am sorry.

It would’ve been easy to go on the warpath and make light of the fact that the Yankees have breezed for the most part, to their impending AL East title, with little resisitance from the boys in Boston, or the less than stellar Devil Rays in Tampa. I could’ve talked trash at the sweep in the Bronx, or the beating in Boston, but I didn’t. Instead, I have sat back this summer, and simply enjoyed the Yankees’ return to dominance at the hands of both Boston and Tampa. The Rays are done for 2009. Here’s an idea…hitting for an average higher than .220 usually does wonders for the team (See Carlos Pena). If that guy gets once single MVP vote, the writers need to be stripped of the honor to vote, and it should be the players who decide.

As far as the American League Most Valuable Player award goes, if anyone outside of Minneapolis truly doesn’t believe that Derek Jeter IS the best player in the American League in 2009, then YOU should stop watching baseball NOW! Here I present as close as I can get, 100 reasons why Jeter is the AL MVP in 2009 and why Joe Mauer is not! Enjoy!

1. Jeter is the best player on the best team in the league.
2. Mauer’s Twins are a joke…sitting 12 1/2 out of the AL Wild Card and 6 back of the Tigers, who are 17 back of the Yankees in the win column.
3. Jeter has Johnny Damon hitting behind him, and even though he is good, he is not Justin Morneau.
4. Jeter through this writing, has played in 135 games.
5. Mauer missed ALL of April…how can you win a season long award when you missed the ENTIRE FIRST MONTH?
6. Jeter is putting up magnificent numbers at age 35, not to mention he is still playing Gold Glove caliber Shortstop…again, all at age 35.
7. Simply put, the writers owe Jeter for robbing him of the MVP in 2006, when another Twin, (Morneau) was awarded the trophy.
8. Jeter’s numbers compare to that of another middle infieder/MVP…the league’s reigning MVP, Dustin Pedroia. Jeter is hitting at .331, 17 HRs, 63 RBI, 97 Runs scored, and 25 Stolen Bases. Pedroia for the entire season in 2008…hit .326, 17 bombs, 83 ribs, 118 runs scored, and had 20 steals. Jeter still has two weeks left to play to add on to those numbers, clearly making his 2009 better than Pedroia’s 2008 MVP season.
9. Even though Pedroia won the MVP in ’08, plenty of other players had bigger MVP-type numbers, including Youkilis, A-Rod and Morneau. Pedroia was the best ALL-AROUND player in 2008, just as Jeter is in 2009.
10. If the Yankees couldn’t do without one player in their lineup over the long haul, who would it be?
11. Jeter simply plays the game the right way, not showing up his opponents, and cares about two things only…winning and being a New York Yankee.
12. The Twins are awful, do Mauer’s gaudy numbers really affect the outcome for the Twins in 2009?
13. Would the Yankees be running away with baseball’s best record without the Captain and tablesetter at the top of the order for the big boys to drive in?
14. How much of Johnny Damon’s career resurrgence is directly related to the flip flop in the batting order of Jeter and Damon?
15. In October, will it be Jeter setting the pace, or will the Twins gain enough ground to make it to October?
16. This isn’t a career achievement award, but at times has been awarded as such (See Bonds post-1997).
17. If you had to choose between Jeter and Mauer…game on the line, season on the line, one at bat…who are you choosing to step into that box to face that pressure?
18. Pinstripes always make a player look leaner…
19. We are talking Derek Jeter, who refuses to toot his own horn, yet the writers still aren’t smart enough to toot it for him.
20. At the end of the day, Jeter plays in the highly intensified, pressure cooker that is New York, where every single at bat, game, and play is under the microscope, and has a fan base that is the best when you win, and the most unforgiving when you lose. Jeter has proven without a doubt in 2009, and throughout his career, that he thrives on the pressure to perform, and has arguably had the best overall season of his career in 2009. He is the American League MVP. Joe Mauer can’t even get his teammates to play at the next level. How much pressure it is to put up MVP-type numbers when your games don’t matter, and your home is barely half filled?

Okay, so maybe I jumped off the cliff when I said “100 Reason”! You as the readers get my point. He is an All-Star MVP, a World Series MVP, and now he is the best player in the AL in 2009, so cut the man some slack and give him his just due.

When the voting is done at the conclusion of the regular season, I’m sure Joe Mauer will be collecting his MVP trophy. Shame on the voters, and I don’t ever want to see a Dustin Pedroia, or a Curtis Granderson, or an Ichiro Suzuki ever get another MVP vote if Jeter does not get his this season. Why are New York players ignored (twice in Jeter’s case), when they don’t have the gaudy A-Rod type numbers, but others are viewed as “excellent all around players”? The whole process is a frickin joke unless Jeter wins the AL MVP award. He recently passed Gehrig to move into the top spot overall in career hits for the Yankees…what a shame it would be if Jeter could not take his rightful place as a league MVP alongside other great Bombers such as DiMaggio, Berra, Mantle, Maris, Howard, and Mattingly. A travesty it would certainly be…

Stay tuned as the season winds down for a post season matchup preview, as I examine both the AL and NL first round series…

As always, be good, take care of yourself, and take care of your buddy next to ya!