Yankee Captain, World Series MVP, ASG MVP, Rookie of the Year. Derek Jeter has had a much lauded career, and certainly has never been lacking recognition. However, for all of his illustrious accomplishments and accolades, there is one award that he has yet to nab: American league MVP. He was close in 1998 and 1999, and had the award stolen from him by Justin Mourneau in 2006. However, 2009 may finally be his year, assuming that he maintains his stellar performance. Let us take a closer look at the numbers that support his case.
BA: .321 (5th in AL)
OBP: .398 (6th)
Runs: 63 (11th)
Hits: 123 (T-2nd)
BB: 46 (20th)
Power numbers are bound to be lower as a SS, so I thought it would be more instructive to compare him to other shortstops for those statistics.
SLG: .457 (2nd among AL SS)
2B: 19 (5th)
HR: 11 (T-1st)
RBI: 43 (4th- leader at 47) (remember, Derek is leading off)
UZR: 4.4 (3rd)
Jeter is third in AL WAR (Wins Above Replacement) behind Ben Zobrist and Joe Mauer, with Evan Longoria just behind him. Mauer, Jeter, and Longoria look to be the serious candidates, with each exceeding 19 million dollars in value thus far. I think Derek is likely to finish second, with Mauer finally winning the award that has eluded him for the last few seasons. However, if the Yankees make the postseason while the Rays and Twins are left at home, Jeter’s case will get stronger, as writers often like to reward players who helped lead their team to the playoffs. This is probably Derek Jeter’s last great chance at an MVP award. Hopefully the writers finally recognize his value.
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14 Responses to Derek Jeter For MVP
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hard to say Morneau stole the award in 2006, he had a pretty great season, and the Twins won their division by just one game. Without him, they don’t come close. Without Jeter, the Yankees probably still win their division.
Jeter is having a great season no doubt, but I wouldn’t use WAR and UZR to predict MVP voting–a lot of writers don’t even bother looking at that stuff.
Bottom line in looking at an MVP is where would the team be without that one player. If the Twins make the playoffs, it would be hard to argue with Mauer, but right now, the AL MVP is Alex Rodriguez. The Yankees were barely a .500 team without him, and are the best team in baseball with him and that is the definition of the award.
A-Rod has been very valuable, but Jeter has been the more consistently excellent player on the team.
In 2006, Mourneau was the 3rd most valuable Twin. He had no business beating Jetes.
agreed, but “most consistently excellent player” and MVP aren’t the same
as for Morneau, Santana (who unanimously won the Cy Young) was more valuable, but it’s virtually impossible for a pitcher to win MVP unless there are no standout hitters, and Mauer was more valuable (according to Fangraphs). Bottom line, if either Mauer or Morneau suffered a season-ending injury in Spring Training, the Twins probably don’t make the playoffs in 2006. Therefore either one of them could have been the MVP. The same can not be said of Derek Jeter. The man had a great season, but that’s not what MVP is about.
And to think people laughed at me when I selected Jeter for my fantasy team!
Jeter should have won it twice. His 1999 season was truly amazing.
that was also the year Manny drove in 165, the highest total since Jimmy Foxx drove in 175 in 1938. Even Manny only finished third in the MVP voting that year.
I don’t see the Twins or Rays making the playoffs, so Jeter or Rodriguez will be legitimate candidates. Plus, Mauer’s star seems to have dimmed a bit now that he’s not that close to .400 and isn’t homering as much. Of the 4 probable AL Playoff teams you have the Angels, Red Sox, Tigers, and Yankees. Angels only have Torii Hunter as a true candidate, but it depends on how he returns from injury. Tigers have Cabrera and Inge, both are nice, but Inge has cooled off, and Cabrera, for lack of a better word, has been a bit boring – typical season. The Red Sox are like the Angels, with no true standout now the Youkilis and Pedroia have come back down to earth. So, I think, if Rodriguez doesn’t go on a late season power tear – which could very well happen, then Jeter will get the MVP.
It’s up to us—the blogging community—to really spark the Jeter for MVP discussion. He’s having an outstanding season, yet a quiet one (people are used to him being as good as he has been).
I really don’t care if Jeter bats .320 the rest of the season Arod deserves MVP and it’s not close! Jeter was hitting around .290-.300 before Arod came back and the team wasn’t great Tex was hitting .180 since Arods return Jeter’s average is up to .320 and Tex’s average is up to .280 .100 point increase over the that time the only real difference is Alex hitting behind him. Since coming back Alex leads in HRs RBIs and the Yankees have the best record in baseball and all of that is what MVP is about who is more VALUEABLE to the team winning by presence.
Jeter might be the only player in ML history to win every hardware that MLB gives to positional players, without winning the MVP: ROY, Gold Glove, Silver Slugger, ASG and WS MVP, 4 rings, the Hank Aaron Award.
[...] and AJ Burnett have made a tremendous difference to the Yankees this season (Moshe already discussed the impact of Derek Jeter), another important reason for the Yankees possessing the best record in [...]
Couldn’t agree more that Jeter should win this year. The writers aren’t going to give it to A-rod because of his steriod issues. The only way they would give it to him again is if he had another season like ’07, which I still think he can do but it’s too late for that to happen this season. JIt all depends who is hot the last couple weeks of the season and either gets their team into the playoffs or helped them sneak in. My prediction is Jeter finally gets it, as long as he doesn’t cool off. But more importantly I think this team has what it takes to go far in the post seasn.
*It, season
The notion that Derek Jeter deserves the MVP is laughable. Joe Mauer leads him by wide margins in BA, HR, RBI, OBP and SLG, and is a much better defensive player than Jeter at an equally difficult position. BTW, the Twins, a much weaker team than the Yankees at the positions around Mauer so he has less support, are actually still in the mix in the AL Central (4.5 games out as of today) so doing it on a team that’s in the mix largely due to him.