it is a shame.

NOTHING ever changes.

Now I know how Sox fans felt last year with Ortiz...

Yeah, it would have been cool for Jeets, but Yankee fans shouldn't be worrying about individual awards.

I can agree that 1999 the stars were in alignment as well. Jeter probably should have been MVP that year-----I'll still take Santana in '06 (with Jeter 2nd).

scarlett johannson, jessica alba, adriana lima, that miss universe there...

he'll be okay.

Paul Konerko - 152 games - 35 HR
.313/.381/.551 - .932 OPS
.313 EqA, 8.0 WARP 3
3rd best MVP candidate on his own team

The only difference, Morneau played slightly better defense.

Ladies and Gentlemen, your AL MVP: basically Paul Konerko.

Oh, and it ties Roy Smalley's 52 in 1979.

So, by my count, Morneau tied for 25th best offensive season in Twins history. Literally speaking its "one of the best", but in reality, its far from it.

Congrats, BBWAA, you proved once again that some of your members do not deserve the privileges granted to them.

Canseco won an MVP, Juan Gonzalez won an MVP. Terry Pendelton won an MVP, Andre Dawson won an MVP. George Bell, George Foster. Roger Maris won twice in a row. Bonds has seven. Enhance your place in history? No offense, but ask them if it helped.

Then again, this is coming from someone who will never get a chance to date anyone that Jeter has... ;-)

By the way, I was right on with my prediction that Guillen would come in 10th, appearing on 12 ballots.

Willie Hernandez is BEST KNOWN for his 1984 MVP.

Of the players you mention that are not so great, their MVP award is the shining light on their careers.

Of the players you mention who were great once and then not so much, it's serves as the starting point for their cautionary tale "former MVP Jose Canseco snorts coke off hooker's cleavage" etc

Barry Bonds, 7 MVP awards affirms he dominated the game like no other player in the history of the award.

The MVP will not get a player in the Hall of Fame or out of jail by itself, but it is the most prestigious individual award you can win - obviously it enhances one's place in history to win one.

8 I wonder how many RBIs Morneau would've gotten if he had either Abreu, A-Rod, or Giambi hitting behind him for protection instead of Torii Hunter / Rondell White. ;-)

19 by your own logic:

Derek Jeter - 154 games - 14 HR
.343/.417/.483 - .900 OPS
.309 EqA, 9.8 WARP 1

An inferior MVP candidate to Morneau except for the WARP value.

I honestly thought Morneau had a pretty strong case all along, precisely because he posted those numbers hitting 5th with absolutely no protection. I could have made a good case for Jeter too. I thought it was a close call all along. (All the non-playoff guys -- Ortiz, Dye, Manny, etc. -- being automatically disqualified in the eyes of the voters.)

I will gaze at the numbers for Morneau and Big Hurt for 10,000 years and I'll have no idea why they received so many MVP votes in 2006.

Big Hurt had 77 runs scored and a .270 batting average and he's a DH and he missed 25 games.

I could have taken a Mauer win (in fact I would have voted for him).

I guess KJC is right. Consecutive undeserved Gold Gloves are karmically costly.

I know I'm in the minority here, but I'm not even so clear that he was the clear choice in 1999. Don't get me wrong, he was much better than Pudge, and it wasn't even close. But so were Pedro Martinez and Manny Ramirez and Nomar Garciaparra and Bernie Williams - all substantially better than Pudge. Put Jeter up against Rodriguez and it's no contest; put him up against those other guys and it's a lot closer.

he carried this team on his back. two potent bats down for 4 months. jeter produces. when cano was down for 6 weeks on top of the other mounting injuries, jeter was the guy who was getting things done. while others were slumping or swooning ("that third baseman"), jeter kept producing.

he was consistent. he led the team when everyone expected a collapse. remember when cano, sheffield and matsui were all out and the sox won 13 straight? if memory serves, the yankees only lost 2 games on them. jeter was swinging a hot bat.

he was by far the most valuable man on his team this year, and as far as i can see that isn't the case with morneau.

http://tinyurl.com/yxdgwa

Eh, who cares?

Lots of Yankees represented in the voting: Jeter, Rodriguez, Giambi, Cano, Rivera, Damon, Wang.

But I used WARP 3. Jeter has a WARP 3 of 12.1 v. Morneau's 8.6. Want to eliminate those messy defensive considerations, and maybe keep our focus to this season? Fine. Jeter's 9.8 WARP 1 is still better than Morneau's 7.3.

And Morneau's season adjusted EqA was .300, his all-time adjusted EqA was the .315 cited in 19.

I like 34 HR and a .934 OPS from my first-baseman, but I'm not throwing a parade.

.900 from a shortstop is more valuable, even if he's nobody's idea of a power hitter, because it means he's gotten on base a ton. Jeter not only did this, but threw in great baserunning, too.

Finally, though I personally would have liked Jeter to win, I wouldn't have barked if the award went to Mauer or Santana. Morneau was clearly an inferior choice.

The MVP award is a major misnomer, it should be the MPP (Most Productive Player); seeing as that value defies definition (or consistancy).

33 That's the trick, my brotha. You aint's supposed to luvdem...

It was embarrassing. Heres his big reason. You ready?

A Rod was more clutch.

I sh*t u not.

What a travesty.

He even had Mad dog defending Jeter which is damn near impossible.

Thats a good argument. I'm sure being in a good lineup helps. But also remember this.

What if Morneua played in NY? No telling if he could handle everything that goes into it. Maybe that avg becomes 270 and he disappears for weeks at a time.

Little easier playing in Minny than in front of 55,000 every night.

Not that I think clutchiness should be a consideration, but I know it is, and I have never heard that before.

Mauer gets LESS THEN 1/2 the votes of Morneau.

35 Ask 25 players on Oakland if they had had a league average DH, would they have been in the PS? FT's numbers weren't that great, but he made the different for his team. That does make you valuable.

Santana was great, but they do have a CY award only for pitchers. Win 31 games (like McLain), or 27 or maybe 25? I'd consider it. But not 19 wins for MVP over someone who contributed everyday, and made the difference, like Jeter.

What gets me is that Morneu wasnt even the best player on his team. Mauer is way more valuable.

Mauer had a 54-point edge in OBP over Morneau and won a Gold Glove as a catcher.

Morneau at 1b was only 12th in homers and 2nd in rbi's.

A disgrace.

Veneu is irrelevant huh?

Ask Kenny Rogers if its different playing in NY. Also ask Eddie Whitson, Kevin Brown, Pavano, Knoblauch, etc.

Just like Im sure its not the same in Boston. Some markets are just much tougher and you have to mentally tougher to play there. Its not sure thing that stats or performance will translate.

And Mike Celizic agrees:

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/15825167/

>> People who watch him every day – including those who've made the game their lives for 30 or 40 years – know that Jeter simply gets things done. He moves runners over, gets on base, steals and runs the bases as well as anyone, can lay down a sacrifice, hit the other way and, when he puts his mind to it, drive it out of the park. Hitting second, he still drove in 97 runs while scoring 118. By one measure – adding runs and RBIs and subtracting home runs (You can't get two points if you drive yourself in) – he actually produced more runs than anyone in the American League. <<

"Clutch ability" may not be a real or repeatable thing (color me on the fence, but mostly in the "doesn't exist camp" on it) but the player should be rewarded/punished for what they actually do in those situations. Arod's year was shittier than it looked because he was bad in close and late situations. Jeter's was better than it looked because he was great.

It may be useless as a predictive stat, but it's certainly a valid stat when measuring actual value.

46 This Cowley guy knows how to get a rise out of Yankee fans, for sure. Too bad he wouldn't know a baseball game if he was paid to watch one.

When Yankee fans are decrying the MVP vote not because Jeter lost but because Morneau wasn't even the MVP of his own team (whatever Johan Santana says), you know something is horribly wrong with the results of the MVP voting.

http://tinyurl.com/y8p3md

http://tinyurl.com/y6asp2

I take my hat off to Hat Guy, Mike Celzic, who just created a horribly meaningless stat. Add the two most team-dependent counting stats together and then subtract home runs - that's a way to define value.

I can't wait 'til the boys at firejoemorgan.com get a hold of that one.

Hey Alex, did you see that Murray Chass had an article in today's NY Times supporting Marvin Miller's election to the Hall of Fame: http://tinyurl.com/ylj6eb. It probably won't happen, but it nice to see that Chass is speaking up on Miller's behalf.

Bill James's writing about the Hall of Fame is generally not about who should be in, but about who does get in. I look at this the same way; here's how I see it.

9 times out of 10, it goes to someone who is a HR/RBI guy, and he should be the clear leader on his team in those categories. Right there, we practically eliminate the Yankees and Tigers, who had no one Big Gun. Mauer loses points as well.

He should be on a winning team, preferably an overachieving one, certainly not one that underachieves. Goodby, Papi.

It's better if he's not a pitcher or DH. And the voters really like a guy who suddenly burst into HR/RBI prominence - he's gotten more buzz over the course of the season. Frank Thomas hits like hell, dog bites man. Justin Morneau suddenly hits the big time - that catches their eye.

"And while we're at it, how the heck did Thomas -- the third-best designated hitter in the American League -- end up fourth in the voting? It's just more evidence that the bulk of this year's voters don't understand what is actually valuable in baseball: Players who hit and play good defense up the middle are the most valuable position players in the game."

Some revelant comparisons:

Albert Pujols (2005)
.330/.430/.609, 41 HR, 1.039 OPS

Alex Rodriguez (2005)
.321/.421/.610, 48 HR, 1.031 OPS

Those were your 2005 MVP's.

Now Morneau:
.321/.375/.559, 34 HR, .934 OPS

There's a difference between being "able to play", and all the understatement that phrase implies, and being the MVP.

At 1B, Morneau has a high bar to meet in the power production department, and he didn't meet it. It's different for Jeter at SS. He played far above of his position in every statistical measure. Hell, if he were a 1B, his .900 OPS would be good for third in the AL at that position.

(True, Carlos Guillen had a .919 OPS at short, but Jeter was hands down better in WARP1 and WARP3, had a higher VORP and 48 more hits.)

Morneau doesn't deserve the AL MVP. As been pointed out, he wasn't even the MVP of his team. But, hey, it isn't the first time the BWAA screwed up, and unfortunately it won't be the last time

59 NEVER use HatGuy as support for your argument.