watching jeopardy today i confirmed i am smarter than atleast three 12 year olds. i only missed 2 questions on the whole show.
on a side note, i find the media to be generally obnoxious.
peter gammons broke my heart today in his discussion on sportscenter regarding possible AL MVP's. he mentioned gary sheffield, and vladimir guerrero as favorites with ichiro and miguel tejada splitting votes for players on losing teams. hearing no red sox mentioned, i set out to investigate if i was just being a home town fan. i will analyze the following stats: batting average (BA), total bases, extra-base hits (XBH), doubles, homers, RBI's, and on base percentage (OBP). to those who ask "what about Jeter? sure he struggled a little but he made the allstar team as the starter and he is a real team leader", let me respond. jeter has been nothing short of terrible this year. just look at the numbers. everyone knows the allstar game is a sham (popularity contest at best) and being a team leader makes you a team MVP, not a league MVP. another question is, did i chose specific stats to make my case? of course i did, thats what stats are for. keep in mind that i dont have walks, strikeouts, slugging percentage, fielding percentage, and basestealing stats. it took me sort of awhile to do this, knowing full well that everyone reading it has a cumulative number of MVP votes equal to zero. regardless:
Ichiro Suzuki:
ranked first in batting average by a wide margin, first in hits, second in OBP and 7th in total bases. however, he shows up no where in any of the real power hitting categories. here is why he should be the MVP: he has a legit chance to break both .400 and the hit/season record, steals bases, and plays great defense. here is why he shouldnt: the mariners stink. they are terrible. and all his bazillion singles dont make any kind of real impact on that.
Vladimir Guerrero:
5th in average, tied 3rd (T3) in total bases, T4 in hits, T5 in XB hits, T8 in doubles, 7th in homers, T4 in RBI's, 17th in OBP. armed with a canon he plays good defensive outfield and his angels are doing amazing considering the injuries he sustained. heres why he shouldnt be the MVP: look at some of the stats in following players and youll know.
Manny Ramirez:
6th in average, 2nd in total bases, T13 in hits, 2nd in XB hits, T6 in doubles, 1st in homers, 3rd in RBIs, and 3rd in OBP. manny plays suspect defense (though generally solid), and steals few bases. few homerun hitters do.
Alex Rodriguez:
putting this mans rankings down is a waste of time. he doesnt compare. last out of this group in almost every category. he does play gold glove defense at a new position. however, nobody outside of new york cares. not one single vote should go to this guy.
Miguel Tejada:
7th in average, T3 in total bases, 3rd in hits, 3rd in XB hits, T4 in doubles, T10 in homers, 1st in RBI's, 23rd in OBP. he plays outstanding shortstop for a crummy orioles team. based on his RBI numbers id vote for him except he is getting hosed in a bunch of other categories and plays for a BAD team.
David Ortiz:
17 in avg., 1st in total bases, 16th in hits, 1st in XB hits, 3rd in doubles, T2 in homers, 2nd in RBI's and 18 in OBP. critics argue he is a DH and therefore half a player. they are wrong. he is destroying the ball and in the top 5 in several key power categories.
Gary Sheffield:
22nd in average, 6th in total bases, T23 in hits, T10 in XB hits, T2 in homers, 6th in RBIs and 6th in OBP. has a cannon arm and is playing hurt (who isnt you crybaby?) plain and simple, he shouldnt be the MVP. gets sympathy votes because as of late he has been real hot and the rest of the yankees havent.
i agree this must be a bit cumbersome to read if anyone did. and tabulated data would have been much better, but importing a table from excel requires ftp space that i dont have. so die.