Justin Morneau wins the 2006 AL MVP Award; my pick, Joe Mauer, the first catcher to lead the majors in batting average since Deacon White in 1875, finishes sixth, Derek Jeter (who unlike Morneau was clearly one of the two best players on his own team) finishes second, David Ortiz (who unlike Morneau was one of the three best hitting 1B/DHs in the AL) third, Frank Thomas fourth. Jermaine Dye fifth. Once again, the MVP voters fall under the hypnotic sway of RBI.
AL batting leaders are here; Morneau finished seventh in batting, sixth in slugging, eighth in OPS, fifth in Total Bases, and seventh in Hits (he wasn’t among the OBP, Homers, 2B, or Runs leaders). AL Win Shares leaders are here (Morneau tied for fifth with Raul Ibanez).
11 thoughts on “MV-Morneau”
Comments are closed.
Bad job by the writers. If you were going to go off the reservation and tap a first baseman out of nowhere, I’d’ve taken Travis Hafner over Morneau.
My vote would have gone:
1. Mauer
2. Jeter
3. Ortiz
Then toss in the Thomas, Dye and others…
Have to agree that Mauer was the Twins’ proper MVP candidate, then Santana (assuming it acceptable that a pticher be up for MVP).
What’s amazing is that this result has destroyed the pro-Jeter bias theory in one fell swoop, in a year in which no good argument could be made for Jeter not to win the award.
So Jeter ludicrously wins another Gold Glove, and the Hank Aaron Award, and the one award where even I would admit he has a claim, he gets stiffed.
The bloom truly is off the rose, I guess.
I think Mauer was the AL MVP, but I could have accepted Jeter. Morneau had a wonderful second half, but that is not what the MVP is for. It should be awarded to the player that has a complete season.
While Morneau contributed quite a bit to the Twins bouncing back from an awful start to win the division, their comeback was as much about pitching as it was about offense. Joe Mauer helped in both areas. Beyond that, if we are going to credit Morneau for their resurgence then we also need to blame his poor start for the teams poor start. He batted .208 in April.
I think Mauer had a bigger claim, if only as a catcher, it’s so much harder to perform. I think the voters got caught up in the Twins beng a low salary team, forgetting that with Mauer, Morneau, Santana and Liriano, you have a very tough team. Jeter had a team that everyone sees as rich and loaded, but was really without Matsui, Sheffield and Giambi (who is a shell anyway). Plus Wang was the only top notch pitcher they had, Mussina being a no. 2 at best these days. So really, a shortstop that does it all should have counted. It was actually an anti-Yankee bias that did him in. Too bad. I hate the Yankees, but how could you no admire Jeter?
Both leagues blew it. Par for the course though.
I don’t even get angry about this crap anymore.
Although Jeter is sometimes overrated in other regards, this is the second time (1999 was the other) when he probably should have won. I’m not sure he was more valuable than Mauer, but I am pretty certain he ought to have finished ahead of Morneau.
I really wish they would announce these awards a couple more months after the season is over. This is so timely.
Daryl asked: “I hate the Yankees, but how could you no admire Jeter?”
It is easy. He was on the sideline rooting for TSUN last Saturday. Nothing admirable about that. 🙂
While I am a Yankees fan, I never saw Jeter as MVP. But I did not realize he had the most win shares. I think Jeter should be docked a few points for not sticking up for A-Rod. I mean, Jeter’s the captain!