The Yankees begin hauling in the hardware.

More honors for Jeter and Tex, cool! Let us hope that one of them earns the AL MVP. Yes, Joe Mauer had a great year, but it is hard to justify an MVP on a team that had the 5th best record in the AL. Tex started doing well after A-Rod entered the lineup so I might push for Jeter this year. Then again, Morneau won the MVP in 06...Jeter should have won it back then.

I'd love for either of them to win the AL MVP, but Mauer had such a fantastic season and as a catcher no less, he's basically a lock. I don't think that's necessarily right since his team got swept out of the playoffs, but these things are decided before then.

However unlike 2006, at least he is the most valuable player on his own team. When Morneau won, he was #3 behind Santana and Mauer. That year's voting was an absolute joke and not just because I'm a Yankees fan. Justin Morneau had no business winning the MVP of the whole league when he wasn't even the best player on his own team. How valuable can you really be when there's better players in your everyday lineup who aren't even being considered for this?

Derek got straight-up robbed. That was one of the best seasons I've seen him have in a long time and he absolutely should have won. Such a shame. He's got an All-Star MVP, a WS MVP....all that's missing is the regular season award.

Mauer is the best player in the AL. Is it his fault that his team got swept? Look at that pitching staff, look at the hitters around him. He didn't even have Justin Morneau come playoff time!

Simply put, Jeter has never had a year that has separated him from the rest of the players. In 2006 Mauer was as good, and in every other year of his career there was someone better. But he is great, just never clearly worthy of an MVP. If Mauer doesn't win, then all of the voters are idiots.

http://www.statisticianmagician.com/

i truly hope jeter finally wins the MVP - he is the most overall consistently dependably valuable player who is always overlooked and underappreciated because he is always so solid, and now (after he was robbed in 06 after the best season of his career) he had an even better season. so now this season is the best of his career - and the best part was that it was after all the criticism about his defense being poor and that no team has and ever will win the WS with a shortstop as old as jeter and look what he has accomplished this season - his defense was the best it ever was and he won a WS championship! all the while he was batting .334 (and even though this is not included in the consideration, jeter is so solid and consistent that he batted .344 in the postseason and .407 in the WS - if that's not valuable, i don't know what is!)

Joe,
Mauer had the best stats in the AL, but that does not mean that should guarantee him the MVP. He is the MVP on his team but remember, stats are not the only reason to choose someone. Also, team MVP is not the same as league MVP. I'm not against Mauer or hate him, he is one of the best players in MLB.

As for the hitters around him, Mauer has Kubel hitting behind him, Kubel hit .300 had 28HR 103RBI, not exactly shabby stats. This means that Mauer will see better pitches because teams cannot pitch around him. Morneau was unavailable during playoff time, but in the regular season hit .274, 30, 100. The MVP award is not solely based on playoffs, but also the regular season. There is also Span who hit .311 with speed to boot, and Cuddyear who hit .276 with 32 jacks. So the fact is, Mauer does have excellent hitters around him. As a team the Twins were 3rd in the AL in BA and 4th in OBP. The pitching staff was indeed a weak point, their ERA was 4.50, but the Yanks were truly not much better at 4.26.
As for the playoffs, it is not Mauer's fault that the Twins were swept, but remember the team hit .257 compared to the Yankees .225. The 6 home runs were the difference. Mauer hit well .417, but he failed to produce runs. The team was held to 0 HR in the ALDS. Span, Cuddyear, Punto, and Mauer all hit .400 or better, but unfortunately did not get the job done.
In 1951, Yogi Berra won the MVP award. His stats were good, but not great: .294, 27, 88RBI, 92R, .350OBP in 141 games. Ted Williams had these numbers: .318, 30, 126RBI, 109R, .464OBP. This was not one of Ted's greatest years -in fact sub par for his career, but they were the best in the AL back in 1951; yet Berra won the ALMVP award. Why? Because his team had the best record in MLB and won the world series. I am not saying the only ones qualified to win the league MVP has to be from teams participating in the WS, but strong consideration should be given to them, especially if their numbers are solid.

//I am not saying the only ones qualified to win the league MVP has to be from teams participating in the WS, but strong consideration should be given to them, especially if their numbers are solid.//

I would agree with this, but the league MVP awards are decided before the playoffs start. So how far their team goes in the playoffs or whether they made the playoffs or not, has no bearing.

Remember Alex won in 2003 on a last-place Rangers team, so going to the playoffs/succeeding in the playoffs doesn't mean anything.