The teams with the best two records in the American League play in the East, but the Most Valuable Player plays for neither the Yankees nor the Red Sox, he plays for the Tigers.
His name is Justin Verlander.
Yankees fanatics will argue until they are blue in the face that Curtis Granderson is the AL MVP and that CC Sabathia is deserving of the Cy Young Award, however both of those claims can be easily shot down.
Yes, Granderson currently leads baseball with 107 RBIs and 124 runs scored and is second in HRs (38). Granderson is a threat to join the 30-30 club, six stolen bases shy of that mark. What’s more is that Granderson has picked up the slack and provided power in a Yankees lineup that has not had Alex Rodriguez (or the Rodriguez everyone is used too) for a significant portion of the season. It also doesn’t hurt that the Yankees are 82-53 and have the third-best record in baseball.
(Ron Sachs – CNP)
For all intents and purposes, if you were to exclude pitchers from the MVP vote, Granderson is probably the favorite to win.
The case against Granderson is that you can argue he isn’t even the most valuable player on his own team. Considering the Yankees’ pitching woes, Sabathia and his 18-7 record and 2.99 ERA are the only aspect of the rotation that is not in doubt. Without Sabathia, rookie Ivan Nova would be considered the “ace” of the Yankees staff.
Ironically, Sabathia’s case for MVP is even weaker than his case for Cy Young. Sabathia does have the statistics to legitimize a claim to the Cy Young award, but that is only on the surface. Against playoff teams (and Tampa Bay), Sabathia has a record of 5-7 with two no decisions. Sabathia also has benfitted from having a superior offensive and defensive team behind him as the Yankees have the best run differential in baseball +196.
The same issue concerning Granderson and Sabathia can be said about the Red Sox’s Gonzalez, Ellsbury and Pedroia. They will all inevitably affect each other’s case because they play for the same team.
Verlander’s case for MVP, in addition to the Cy Young Award, is better than Granderson’s and Sabathia’s and all three of the Red Sox players’.
Verlander, who leads the majors with 20 wins, 218 strikeouts, 215 2/3 IP, 0.90 WHIP and .190 BAA, has been the most consistent player in baseball and has been the driving force behind the Tigers’ surge into first place in the AL Central.
Entering June, the Tigers were 28-26, five games behind the Indians (32-20) and Verlander was 5-3. Since June 1st, Verlander has gone 15-2 and the Tigers have gone 47-36, overtaking the Indians and building a 5 ½ game lead in the AL Central. In addition, Verlander has pitched at least seven innings in 15 of his 17 starts during that span and has pitched six or more innings in every start he has made this season.
To help further the case for Verlander, he has factored into 27 percent of the Tigers’ wins and has 33 percent of the Tigers’ 75 quality starts this season. Add to that his brilliant no-hitter on May 7 against the Blue Jays and you not only have the most dominant pitcher in the AL, but arguably baseball.
The biggest problem for Verlander’s case for MVP is that he is a pitcher, and there is a widespread belief that because pitchers have their own award, the Cy Young, they should not be named MVP as well.
In the 79 years MLB writers have named an MVP for the American and National leagues, 20 pitchers have won the award, the last time being Dennis Eckersley in 1992 with the Oakland A’s. Four of the seven times a Detroit Tiger has been named MVP it was a pitcher (Hal Newhouser ’44, ’45, Denny McClain ’68, Willie Hernandez ’84).
There is some merit to this argument because a starting pitcher factors into 30-35 games a season, when a position player has a major role in 150+ games the majority of the time.
Regardless, September will be telling in one of the hottest MVP races in recent memory, and each player can either make or break their case in the season’s final month, but for now Verlander is my pick for MVP.
My AL MVP Ballot:
1. Justin Verlander, Detroit Tigers
2. Curtis Granderson, New York Yankees
3. Adrian Gonzalez, Boston Red Sox
4. Jose Bautista, Toronto Blue Jays
5. Jacoby Ellsbury, Boston Red Sox
