Another Bad Voting Day

Back in August I wrote of the horrible miscarriage of voting which allowed Bruce Sutter to enter the Baseball Hall of Fame, well the "experts" weren't done making bad decisions.

On Tuesday this week the American League Chapter of the Baseball Writers of America proved, once again, that they are idiots by voting Justin Morneau as the American League Most Valuable Player. Now I know I should be happy that a Canadian boy from a small market team was given such a prestigious honour, but I'm not pleased - I'm pissed.

Folks, Justin Morneau wasn't even the most valuable player on his own team (flip a coin between Johan Santana and Joe Mauer) so how is he the MVP for the league ?

Morneau finished in the top 5 of the American League in only 1 major statistical category, RBIs, which is as much a factor of his team mates being on base as anything else. I was shocked at the result but even more shocked that Mauer, a catcher who led the league in hitting, finished 6th and that Jermaine Dye, whose numbers were easily better than Morneau's, finished 5th.

I don't even want to go into the Derek Jeter issue ......... but Jeter was clearly his team's leader and his offensive stats, while playing an extremely difficult defensive position, were outstanding. Jeter was the 2006 AL MVP, no doubt and strangely I think the fact that he is Derek Jeter and plays for the Yankees worked against him. It's too bad because Jeter is a class act and a Hall of Famer whose CV will be missing a much deserved MVP award.

The issue, to me, of an MVP is: Where would his team be without him? Without Morneasu the Twins wouldn't have been as good, without Jeter the Yankees wouldn't have won 80 games.

For the record my ballot would have read:

1) Derek Jeter
2) Jermaine Dye
3) Joe Mauer
4) David Ortiz
5) Johan Santana
6) Justin Morneau
7) Frank Thomas
8) Vladimir Guerrero
9) Grady Sizemore
10) Raul Ibanez