Something that really ticks me off

Not sure if that's much better, but that's what he said.

In other news, Joe is still an a$$.

P

But seriously.  This is a flawed system.  It's as flawed as the BCS.  It does a good job, but is inheretently skewed.

A better system?  Simple.  Every game gets an MVP.  At the end of the season, tally up the times a player has been "game mvp."  The league winner is the player on one of the teams that makes the playoffs that has the most game MVP "Points".

Is this perfect? No.  Lots of error room still, but less than looking at BA/HR/RBI over 162 games and pulling a rabbit out of your hat.

Oh yeah, one more thing.  I would have the PLAYERS on the winning team vote for MVP after each game.  Sorry sportswriters, but for all your knowledge, I still think the players have a better idea about who is the MVP than you do.

Imagine this:

Hypothetical final record of A's: 92-70
So, 92 total Game MVPs for A's

and it looks like this:

Frank Thomas: 15
Nick Swisher: 9
Jason Kendall: 8
Eric Chavez: 8
Mark Kotsay: 7
Barry Zito: 7
Danny Haren: 7
Huston Street: 6
Justin Duchscherer: 6
Jay Payton: 6
Milton Bradley: 5
Bobby Kielty: 3
Estaban Loiza: 3
Marco Scutaro: 2
Dan Johnson: 2

Will the players pad things?  Of course they will.      And they will pad the person who should be MVP.

Do teams with more wins get more votes?  Yup. (another reason to play hard after you clinch)
Would it hurt the A's?  Maybe.  It would spread the wealth around on teams that are well balanced, and would load the stats on teams that are imbalanced. (Think Vlad. Ooops! Not making the playoffs..nevermind)

Potential Refinement:  Allow for Co-Game MVPs where each would get .5 points.  Think a game where  two players have 4 hit games, or a lights out pitcher, and a batter on fire.

Problem:  Players traded during the season.  Do their MVP Points follow them?  I dunno.  In some scenarios that could be fair, in others not so much.

Anyhow, its a thought.

A's getting Harden back and the Twins losing Liriano is huge.  Will certainly play a role in the post season. If and when the two teams play each other.

did i miss hear that??

Whether he is most "valuable" is indeed hard to say.  Without him, the Yanks move ARod to short and still win the division by 10 games.  But the Yankees really struggled in the middle of the season.  Injuries to Sheffield and Godzilla, a horrible pitching staff, etc., and Jeter kept that team together.  Hard to remember that before Boston Massacre II that division was very tight - and it was Jeter who got big two out hits night after night.  For the entire season, Jeter is hittin .386 with runners in scoring position.  WIth 2 outs and runners in scoring position, he is batting .367.  Impressive.

Without Frank, of course, the A's offense would just be horrible.  In my opinion it's pretty bad with him (would YOU have pitched to Frank with two on Sunday, or pitch to Chavvy with the bases loaded?) but clearly he is the A's MVP.  He's been best when the A's needed him, too, in the drive for the post season.  And he has been clutch, batting .285 with runners in scoring position, .284 with runners in scoring position and two outs.  

If you use the "where would they be without him" criteria, though, where would the Twins be without Santana?  Farther behind, I submit, than the A's without Thomas.  

But you can of course say "mvP" means player, not pitcher.

Frank is a good vote.  He deserves it.  But I think Jeter deserves it more.  He's every bit as potent with the bat, but he also plays great defense and runs the bases.  Frank beats you by hitting the ball over the fence.  But Jeter beats you so many ways.

I doubt it.  He wants that World Series trophy like any other player, probably more is my guess.
When it's all said and done, it's the World Series trophy that anyone cares about.

Personally, I think of the MVP as being primarily for the best palyer, but in the case of a tie or close race I think value of the team should be considered.  Yes, I am annoyed by the mainstream media's annointing of Jeter and Ortiz et al, but not because Frank is an obvious choice, far from it, but because there are 20 players here that should seriously be considered.  The mainstreamers will never do the argument justice, but blindly choosing Frank cuz we are A's fans is just as bad.  There are 3 better DHs and perhaps a dozen "more valuable" hitters.

NAME    TEAM    POS    LG    YEAR    VORP
Travis Hafner    CLE    dh    AL    2006      81.1
Derek Jeter    NYA    ss    AL    2006      73.7
David Ortiz    BOS    dh    AL    2006      67.1
Grady Sizemore    CLE    cf    AL    2006      65.6
Jermaine Dye    CHA    rf    AL    2006      65.2
Manny Ramirez    BOS    lf    AL    2006      61.4
Joe Mauer    MIN    c    AL    2006       60.1
Miguel Tejada    BAL    ss    AL    2006     60
Carlos Guillen    DET    ss    AL    2006      59
Vernon Wells    TOR    cf    AL    2006      57.6
Vladimir Guerrero    ANA    rf    AL    2006      57.3
Jim Thome    CHA    dh    AL    2006      56.7
Justin Morneau    MIN    1b    AL    2006      50.4
Gary Matthews Jr.    TEX    cf    AL    2006      48.6
Jason Giambi    NYA    1b    AL    2006      45.7
Paul Konerko    CHA    1b    AL    2006      45.1
Frank Thomas    OAK    dh    AL    2006      44.8
Johnny Damon    NYA    cf    AL    2006      44.6
Alex Rodriguez    NYA    3b    AL    2006      44

AND

Thomas is more valuable than Hafner because Thomas' team's pitchers are better.

Sorry, but you can't have it both ways.