Jumping up and down *on* the bandwagon.
Written by Joe Veno on August 15, 2009 – 2:04 PM -Tyler Kepner posted a “tweet” that stated that Mark Teixeira is the AL MVP, no question.
That is when Rob Neyer and Joe Posnanski went off.
Look, Teixeira is a great player. A Gold Glove caliber first baseman. And a switch hitting beast at the plate. But is he more valuable than Joe Mauer?
According to ‘WAR’–probably the best metric out there–no, he isn’t. Mauer has a 5.7 ‘WAR’ and that is tops in the American League. Tex fares significantly worse in that category, with four wins over a replacement player. So according to this, Mauer has been worth nearly two extra wins to the Twins, than Tex has to the Yankees.
Granted, the metric isn’t perfect. For Marco Scutaro to me, does not have the impact that Tex has had, and for some reason he is above Teixiera. But he IS a SS, and has had an above-average bat this season.
Do people understand the value of a great hitting catcher? One that is batting .375 nonetheless? It is quite ridiculous how much one can underrate this position for the guy with the most home runs. And of course, Tex gets all the love in the media because he is in the spotlight all the time. He plays in the largest market, he is on television all the time, is great of course, and surrounded by great players, giving him more of an opportunity than Mauer to succeed–from a team standpoint.
Statistics aren’t everything. But Joe Mauer is the best player in the AL. Period.
Tags: Joe Mauer, Mark Teixeira, Minnesota Twins, New York YankeesPosted in Minnesota Twins, New York Yankees, Rants | 2 Comments »
August 16th, 2009 at 12:42 PM
UZR shows Cantu is a better 1st baseman than Tex.
stats sure aren’t everything….
August 16th, 2009 at 1:09 PM
I know. But who do you think is the MVP? I just posted something else on the running subject.