David Wright OR Curtis Granderson

The first thing that may come to mind for the reader
may be, why ask the question to begin with? They're
both very good players that play in New york, play
different positions, and realistically speaking have
zero to do with each other. Well, I will tell you
why I bring this up at all. Does David Wright get
too much credit for being this star that maybe he
really isn't, while Curtis Granderson doesn't get
enough? I'm not sure I'll have a definitive answer
for you here and now, but it may change your view.
Then again it may not, but here goes.

This thing came to mind just recently for me when
I saw that both these players had just hit their
200th home run, and it literally happened just days
apart. Now I am a Mets fan, so many times I can
admit to the fact that I can fall into the trap of
"don't know what you got til it's gone", but since
I listen to more Mets games than Yankees games, I
did notice that the broadcasters made a point to
let the listener know about it, and in more than
just the casual way. Now John Sterling may have
thrown a party for Granderson for all I know, but
somehow I wonder. All of this led me to bring up
their stats, I wanted to see their age, ab's etc.
What I found wasn't I suspected, Granderson has
great numbers, but the clear cut star isn't here.

By the numbers is just this: Granderson has 201 Hr's
while Wright is still at 200, and yes that is no big
deal, however Granderson has done this in 138 less
games, or just under a season. He hit them in 520
less at bats, and that is a full season. In the
time span Granderson also has 240 less Rbi's than
Wright, but that doesn't surprise me since he has
been more of a 1 or 2 hitter throughout his career
than he is now in NY. Here is where my argument
took a turn against me though. David Wright has
Curtis Granderson easily beat in the batting avg.
dept by 41 points with a .301 to .263 edge, stolen
bases which surprised the pants off of me with an
edge of 163 to 112, and in hits by a huge margin,
1401 to 1086.

So there's my story. I was looking to tell you that
Granderson might be better than Wright and very few
know about it, but I can't even definitively tell
you that Wright is clearly better than Granderson
either. Two real good players, both in New York,
and both good citizens. Sounds like a win win to me.

Tweet Don't Believe In Plays, Believe In Players - Al Davis

What's With This MVP ?

Mathew Bush chosen first overall, and Phillip
Umber chosen third, and then you have to go all
the way down to number twelve before you see a
name that makes any impact to the typical
baseball fan, Jered Weaver. The thirteenth
pick incidentally was made by a team that no
longer exists, the Expos, but who knows, they
might be had they chosen first or second and
were wise enough to draft the name missing from
this article thus far, Justin Verlander. Jered
Weaver just signed a multi year deal this year
that will make him an Anaheim Angel for a long
time to come, and based on his record this year
of 18-7 with a stellar 2.41 era along with a
career record of 82-46, he deserves it, and the
Angels are the benefactors. But let's get back
to Justin Verlander, who this year is really
making waves. The kind of waves that real only
happen once in a while, when people begin arguing
as to whether or not a pitcher, a non everyday
player, is deserving of MVP consideration.

I am of the school that pitchers should not be
considered for MVP, BUT, I do believe that there
are exceptions, and every once in a while, a
special case happens. This is one of those cases.
When Steve Carlton won 27 games in 1972, the
Phillies were miserable, and his wins amounted
to nearly 46% of the Phillies wins, and though
it's tough to be the MVP of the league when
your team stinks, it has been done, ask Andre
Dawson. Though his Cubs didn't stink up the
joint like Carlton's Phillies, they did finish
last, and he still won MVP. Back to my argument.
Verlander has nearly 27% of the Tigers victories
this season and his era of 2.29 is a real gem
in a hitters league like the AL that sports the
DH, and what is an MVP anyway? Is it not a
player that has the most value to a team?,
preferably a winning team? Yankee fans will
scream and shout high from the mountain tops all
the while juggling their 27 trophies and tell you
that Curtis Granderson wuz robbed, when in fact,
though he is more than worthy of consideration,
his supporting cast of, A-Rod, CC, Texeira, Jeter,
Rivera, and company are much more of a compliment
to his numbers than Verlander's team is to him.
With that I won't go over every other player that
is worthy of consideration in the AL this season,
nor will I anoint Verlander MVP. What I will say
however is that in this writers opinion, he is
worthy of consideration, if I voted he would most
probably receive my vote, and what the heck were
the Padres thinking?

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