Well, we gave Derek Jeter enough guff early this season that we should acknowledge his fine performance since returning from the disabled list a month ago.
Since July 4, Jeter is hitting a Jeterian .333/.380/.495.
To help that bitter medicine go down, we'll point out that if the season ended today, Dustin Pedroia would have the best case for MVP in the American League.
13 replies on “Not Dead Yet”
Paul giving Jeter props???? What the hell is going on here????
What next, dems and repubs working together to better our country???? Dog and cat orgies???? Middle East Prom with everyone slow dancing to “Lady in Red”?????
;)
He’s trying to jinx it, krueg. That’s the only explanation.
I didn’t realize Pedroia was even having a good year. It’s been a while since our teams have met and I just lost track. He was struggling earlier, if I remember correctly. But he does have a strong case for MVP.
I just noticed that game 2 in the upcoming series will be CC vs Lackey. I was hoping for a CC vs Beckett rematch.
Hard to believe that Granderson isn’t on his list. Pedroia, Bautista, Ellsbury are his top 3 in the AL. If the Sox lost Pedroia, they’d still continue on. Same can be said for Ellsbury. Without Granderson in 2011 the Yankees are in bad shape. He has been the entire Yankees offense at times. Tex gets hot and cold, same for Cano, A-Rod is hurt, Jeter’s out, yada yada…With A-Gonz in your lineup, it’s hard for me to believe that either Pedroia or Ellsbury are the most valuable players to their team. I can live with Bautista he’s just a one man wrecking crew, but Pedroia over Granderson doesn’t make a ton of sense to me. Granderson even has the higher WAR. (Probably due to his position, etc…but still!)
He has Granderson on several of his alternate lists, depending on how you define “MVP.” At any rate, isn’t Gardner up there with Granderson on offense? Gardner actually has (barely) more WAR than Grandy, according to B-R.
Here’s where everyone stands on the B-R list:
1. Bautista, 6.8 (6.4 bat, 0.4 glove)
2. Pedroia, 6.2 (4.9, 1.3)
3. Ellsbury, 5.3 (4.4, 0.9)
4. Gonzalez, 5.2 (4.3, 0.9)
5. Zobrist, 4.7 (4.9, -0.)
6. Youkilis, 4.3 (4.0, 0.3)
12. Gardner, 3.6 (1.4, 2.2)
15. Granderson, 3.5 (4.2, -0.7)
17. Rodriguez, 3.2 (2.1, 1.1)
19. Swisher, 3.2 (1.8, 1.4)
24. Cano, 2.9 (3.2, -0.3)
33. Teixeira, 2.4 (2.4, 0.0)
42. Ortiz, 2.1 (2.2, -0.1)
And on Fangraphs:
1. Bautista, 6.9 (-0.1 glove)
2. Pedroia, 6.8 (+1.5)
3. Zobrist, 5.7 (+0.9)
4. Ellsbury, 5.7 (+0.8)
5. Gonzalez, 5.3 (+0.7)
6. Granderson, 4.9 (-0.8)
11. Rodriguez, 4.0 (+1.1)
12. Gardner, 4.0 (+1.6)
16. Youkilis, 3.9 (-0.4)
18. Teixeira, 3.6 (+0.5)
20. Cano, 3.3 (-0.5)
27. Swisher, 2.8 (+0.7)
35. Ortiz, 2.4 (-0.0)
Wow, looks like you’re right, John, about Granderson on offense. Gardner has more of his value than I would have thought come from defense. And Cano’s been great, but he’s still a win (or more) behind with the bat depending which you look at.
Pitchers in this conversation:
B-R (ERA-based):
1. Verlander, 6.2
2. Weaver, 6.0
3. Sabathia, 5.3
4. Beckett, 5.0
5. Romero, 4.2
14. Lester, 3.2
18. Garcia, 2.7
24. Rivera, 2.3
28. Colon, 2.0
33. Buchholz, 1.9
39. Bard, 1.7
Fangraphs (FIP-based):
1. Sabathia, 5.9
2. Verlander, 5.5
3. Weaver, 5.1
4. Haren, 4.8
5. Masterson, 4.1
8. Beckett, 3.4
24. Garcia, 2.3
25. Colon, 2.3
29. Lester, 2.0
33. Robertson, 1.8
35. Rivera, 1.7
36. Papelbon, 1.7
Went back and looked at the WAR, Paul is correct Pedroia is higher. Read it too quickly, my bad.
As for Gardner, he’s been absolutely great for us, no complaints. Granderson though has been our guy from day one of the season. It scares me to think of what we’d be without him this year. Without being too dramatic he is to the Yankees in 2011 what Pujols has been to the Cardinals in years past. Watching just about every game this year, I can tell you he’s our MVP for sure.
Sabathia tops Verlander in FIP, eh?
I wonder how Cano’s 2011 compares to 2010 defensively. He’s not been as sloppy as he was earlier in the season, but it still feels like he’s lost some range.
Any more news on A-Rod’s new (BS) dilemma? Seems like a case of the media demonizing a guy they don’t like. Poker!?!? GASP!
Ron Washington does coke and he’s a feel-good comeback story. A-Rod is in the same room as people who do coke and he’s the scourge of America’s youth.
Dusty, I thought the same thing BUT apparently A-Rod was told about attending illegal games like this back a few years ago. I guess Selig was concerned about who attends these parties which could lead to betting on baseball, etc…Seems dumb to me as well, but if he was warned he was warned.
“Sabathia tops Verlander in FIP, eh?”
That was curious to me as well. I’m guessing it’s the groundball rate difference and park factor.
John, if we’re talking MVP of the Yanks, it has to be CC. I don’t think you’d disagree with that at all, but I’d say the key to the Yanks’ success has been the surprisingly great pitching.
If we are talking our most important player, easily that’s CC. If we are going along with the awards CC would be our Cy Young, Grandy is our MVP…I am a believer in MVP awards should go to everyday players and leave the pitchers to fight for the Cy. But I agree 100% that CC is our most important player. Semantics and history of the award really.
Yeah, I figured that, John.
In the general race, I think by season’s end Bautista will have a pretty significant WAR advantage. It’s a cumulative stat, and he missed something like 3 weeks, so if he stays healthy his pace is much faster than everyone else’s. He’s been incredible.
Re Sabathia and Verlander, it must be the ground ball rate because Verlander actually has a higher K rate and lower BB rate. Verlander also has a higher HR rate, so his xFIP, which assumes neutral home run rates, has Verlander on top. Fangraphs’ WAR, however, is based on regular FIP, I believe, though I wonder how soon it will be until they change to SIERA, their new stat, which is basically xFIP but adjusted for the fact that pitchers can in fact control their BABIP to a small extent. (It adjusts xFIP for how pitchers with similar K/BB/FB/GB rates have fared over the course of history.)
Verlander has a 2.77 SIERA this season, while Sabathia is at 3.08. Haren at 3.20, King Felix at 3.21, Beckett at 3.33, Masterson at 3.40 and Weaver at 3.43. Though there’s a ton of other pitchers who move up under that metric: Brandon Morrow (3.01), David Price (3.04), James Shields (3.08) and Jon Lester (3.22).
Re Cano, his dWAR ratings at Baseball-Reference go like this:
2005: -0.6
2006: 0.9
2007: 1.4
2008: 0.4
2009: 0.8
2010: 0.3
2011: -0.3
That’s a total of 2.9 wins over seven years, or 0.25 wins per season, essentially average, a little better than that if you assume the last few years are more his true talent.
Fangraph’s ADR (Aggregate Defensive Rating), which is expressed in runs (B-R’s is in wins, so I’ve divided these numbers by 10 to keep them comparable), looks like this:
2005: -1.6
2006: -0.3
2007: 1.1
2008: -0.7
2009: 0.4
2010: 0.2
That’s -0.9 wins in six years, so also essentially average, just on the other side of zero. This year, UZR has him at -5 runs and DRS has him at -4.
Paul, a SF you may be, but you are on your game with the stats. Yeah…I said he looks like he’s lacked the range he’s had in recent years. But when you watch him, it looks like it’s more to do with his spurts of aloofness on the field than due to a lack of ability. I guess that carefree attitude of his has its downside as well.
So one of the poker players is now denying A-Rod was there, claiming that the games took place during the 2009 World Series.
http://www.nydailynews.com/sports/baseball/yankees/2011/08/03/2011-08-03_mlb_investigating_alex_rodriguezs_involvement_in_highstakes_illegal_poker_games.html?r=sports
So…that’s that, I guess?