FIRE JOE MORGAN

I'm a Yankees fan, so I love how you immediately threw A-Rod's name into the mix, but what about Brian Roberts? Of course, he'd never win because both his team and his own production will probably fall off, and he's a 5'8" leadoff hitter. But he has an equal or better OBP and SLG than A-Rod, Ortiz, Vlad or Vlad. Toss in 18 steals and you have someone who should be near the top of everyone's list, but since nobody gives Baltimore any credit for winning, Roberts will be ignored. Hafner's in the midwest, so he has no shot.

By the way, I just asked Joe Morgan what his reasoning for picking Manny Ramirez was.

"Well, he leads the league in RBIs. Plus, he's on Boston, so he is therefore a great player."

I'm only 17, but I've known almost all my life as a baseball fan that RBIs are an extremely overrated stat.

There is absolutely no reason why Manny should be picked for MVP ahead of Ortiz, A-Rod, Hafner, Roberts, Teixiera, or Tejada. My pick would be A-Rod at this point because he hits more home runs, and although I just said RBIs and runs are basically meaningless stats, he has a pretty decisive advantage in both categories, which helps show his importance to his team. Yankees Stadium for a righthander is also much more difficult to hit out of than Camden Yards. I also value a guy in the middle of the lineup like A-Rod more than a table setter like Roberts. I have to admit that I could easily make a case for Roberts over A-Rod, and that my being a Yankee fan may have played into it a little bit, but I feel A-Rod is the best candidate at this point.
 

"He's on Boston, so he is therefore a great player."???

I guess that makes Alan Embree a great pitcher. Good call.

And Junior, Manny plays left field.
 

Yeah, I can't believe I typed that, I just fixed it.
 

Did you notice the quotation marks? I was making fun of what Morgan might say as a response.
 

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i think its way too early to try and figure out the AL MVP right now, but i would definitely agree that i'd choose ortiz over manny. not just because of the better overall numbers, but ortiz comes up big in clutch situations.

as far as a-rod, i think he could be mvp but i dont agree with your justification. 1) yankee stadium is not a pitchers park, its not like paying at yankee stadium hurts his offensive #s 2) a-rod does play a more defensively demanding position, but frankly he sucks at it. he's made 10 erros and his fielding % is .954, and he ranks near the bottom in both range factor and zone rating so its not like hes playing gold glove calibur defense
 

ARod's ZR and RF are probably hurt by Jeter's general incompetence at SS -- where ARod would be playing if anybody in NY knew what he was doing.
 

With Morgan it's hard to tell.

What, no mention of the real MVP, Vlad Guerrero?
 

According to ESPN's Park Factor stats, Yankee Stadium is playing as a pitcher's park for the first half of 2005. 2004 was even worse for hitters there.
 

Manny may play "suspect" defense but he has learned to play LF well in one of the hardest places to play LF (just ask Matsui). For his "poor" defense he somehow seems to LEAD the league in OF assists. All this talk of intangibles, how many of those runners did he throw out would have scrored with a different LF? Better than Guerrero and his great arm. Better than Ichiro. Better than Sheffield. Better than everyone. I'm not saying he deserves a Gold Glove but he needs to be recognized for Improving his defense over the course of his career.
 

It's possible that Manny's outfield assist numbers are inflated by the fact that his reputation is that of a poor defender, so opposing managers continually test his arm. It's true that he might have improved significantly over his past performances.