Yes he's the AL MVP. In my mind there's no question about it. Same thing was true last year for me, but this year he's deserved it even more than anyone else, for the basic reason that no one else is remotely close to him this year, while Tejada was somewhat close last year. jmo
stark's reasons are crap. nowhere on the ballot AT ALL does it say you have to play for a contending team. i don't have the exact wording that is on the ballot, but it is mainly integrity, skill, and how he affects his team. that team would be the tigers without him. he is the most skilled player in the game right now. he deserves the MVP.
I used to be of the thought process that the winner had to be on a winning team and that a player can't really be valuable if they are on a last place team but I am changing my tune. Look at it this way.......If the Rangers were 42-120 last year and then went 72-90 this year, that is a 30 game increase. Are they still in last? Probably. Was that a major increase? If I could field a team full of anyone in the game, it would be a team full of A-Rods. This isn't basketball where 1 player can take over game after game and bring his team to win. This is about 1 person playing 1 of 9 positions (or more with pitching). And we all know that the Rangers have lousy pitching. I don't see how they can place whether a team wins on the shoulders of someone who is 1/25th of the whole team.
If they want to make whether the team wins a major criteria for whether someone wins the award, then I believe that they should use the playoffs as another criteria. If winning is the main thing, then really there is only 1 team per year that should have an MVP. Everyone else could be considered a loser. How different is it when someone scrapes into the playoffs and is 1 and done and you have another team that is 1 and done. Is 1 team really much better than the other? They both lost. Let's take Mr. Bonds, for example. Earlier in his career, he won some MVP awards and rightfully so (he should have had at least 1 other one, too). If we are going to fault A-Rod for his team not winning than why not include the playoffs and fault Barry for his playoff failures? See how crazy that sounds? Up until recently, he was a playoff bust. My main point is that IMHO, it doesn't matter whether you scrape into the playoffs and lose immediatly or don't make it at all. If winning is a major function of whether you get the award, then use the whole season, including playoffs.
Winning is a criterion. All things being equal, the player on the first-place team deserves the award. But, like I said in regards to the Cy Young, all things are not equal. No player on a contending team has really stood out and made a case for himself. The only person besides Arod that I'd even consider is Garciaparra (if the White Sox hadn't pulled a disappearing act, you could make a case for Lee, Thomas, or even Ordonez, MAYBE... but the fact is, the whole team blew it this year, and that doesn't reflect well on any of them), and Arod is flat out better than Nomar. You gotta give it to Arod.
Yes, Arod should win this year. No one has stepped up and taken it.
The odd thing is that I honestly was considering Loaiza for both the CY and the MVP about a month ago. And I really don't like giving the MVP to a pitcher, but who else was there to give it to? That all got thrown out the window due to Loaiza's implosion, and he might not even get the CY. I'm leaning Halladay now.
Anyway, I don't see anyone who deserves the AL MVP this season other than Arod.
Yes doctor, I am sick. Sick of those who are spineless. Sick of those who feel self-entitled. Sick of those who are hypocrites. Yes doctor, an army is forming. Yes doctor, there will be a war. Yes doctor, there will be blood.....
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by LCBOY » Mon Sep 22, 2003 2:22 pm 
And I really don't like giving the MVP to a pitcher, but who else was there to give it to? That all got thrown out the window due to Loaiza's implosion, and he might not even get the CY. I'm leaning Halladay now.
