2011 New York Yankees:Team MVP- It’s Not Curtis Granderson nor CC Sabathia
August 25, 2011 · darcy fournier · Jump to comments
Article Source: Bleacher Report - New York Yankees
Curtis Granderson, who has overcome his demons against left-handed pitchers, has put together the best season of his career thus far and has become a serious and legitimate contender to claim MVP honors in the American League this season.
Despite his excellent MVP-caliber season, the likable Yankee center fielder will not, in my opinion, be named the American League MVP. Granderson trails Jose Bautista, Miguel Cabrera and Adrian Gonzales when looking at the top-ten leaders in nearly every offensive category this season.
The fact that he plays for the Yankees is enough, unfortunately, for many voters to look towards another as they cast their votes.
Don’t even try to argue that there is no bias against the Yankees in postseason platitudes. The BWAA hates the Yankees and will go out of their way to nominate anyone other than a Yankee for any award whenever they can.
That, however, is another column for another time.
Granderson, in my opinion, is not even the MVP on his own team just as Adrian Gonzalez is not the league MVP, nor is he the MVP on the Red Sox.
The Red Sox MVP, in my view, is Jacoby Ellsbury.
The league MVP? In my opinion that comes down to Miguel Cabrera, who appears in more top-ten offensive categories than any other contender, or Jose Bautista, who appears the second-most.
However, that too is a column, and I am sure, argument for another day.
This column is about whom I would cast my vote as MVP of the Yankees.
So if Granderson is not the team MVP, who is?
The Yankees have many players this year having great seasons. Teixeira is an RBI machine. Cano is having yet another great season. Bret Gardner’s speed and defense have been the catalyst for the Yankees all year. Nick Swisher has rebounded after a slow start and is producing nicely for the Yankees heading towards the stretch.
All of the aforementioned players have an argument for being named the teams most valuable player but none of them will get my vote, not this year.
What about Derek Jeter?
Jeter, coming off a much-publicized, no make that overly criticized, 2010 season started this year off slow. His bat was pronounced dead last year by every Yankee-hater out there including the entire staff of the Boston Red Sox Network, known to the world as ESPN.
They were just waiting for him to fall down so they could start shoveling the dirt.
In the first half of the season, it appeared that Jeter was ready to comply.
The shovels were at hand as he was playing worse than last season. Injury set in and Jeter’s season looked doomed.
The big story was supposedly Jeter’s quest for his 3,000th hit. In reality, everyone knew the real story.
Was he done?
It was the 3,000 pound elephant in the room. The 3,000 hit chase was merely diverted attention from the real story.
He finally got his 3,000 hit just before the break, doing so in grand fashion offering a fading glimpse of what we used to see. Jeter went five-for-five, including a home run which fittingly was hit number 3,000 and he drove in the game-wining run, too, as the Yankees topped the Rays.
However, his overall numbers combined with the previous season left a bittersweet after taste that somewhat soured it all.
The shovels started to collect the dirt.
Suddenly however, as if the weight of the world was lifted once that 3,000 hit entered the history books, Jeter found his stroke and began what is now one of the best second halves in his career, or anyone else’s, as Jeter hit over .400 in August and nearly .350 in the second half, raising his average to .300 as of August 25th.
His second half power numbers have dwarfed his first half. His OBP and run production have greatly increased and his defense has been solid.
So Derek Jeter is the MVP of the Yankees in 2011?
Nope
While the Captain has certainly righted his own ship and looks like the Jeter of old, he’s not the MVP of the team this year. He merely is doing now what we expect. Nothing more, nothing less. He is Derek Jeter.
The bench has delivered for the team. Eric Chavez has done well, as has Eduardo Nunez. Cervelli is a good backup catcher and Andrew Jones, a shadow of his former self, had served as a decent pinch hitter this season.
None of them however are candidates, in my opinion, for the team MVP.
Alex Rodriguez? Nope, injury took away his season.
C.C Sabathia?
The big man has been stellar as usual as he approaches yet another 18-20 win season, and while he will not win the Cy Young award this year, he will most certainly garner votes and earn serious consideration.
C.C is the ace of the staff but he too is not the team MVP.
Mariano Rivera has been his usual dominating self, including his usual yearly bump in the road that prompts foolish people to laughingly question if the Great One is finally done. Rivera, despite another great season, is also not the MVP of the Yankees in 2011.
Bartolo Colon and Freddy Garcia have defied all odds and performed better than expected for the Yankees this season, but neither man is deserving of the honor.
David Robertson has been lights out this season and is a very close second when it comes to my vote but my choice for the most valuable Yankee this season comes from a very unlikely source.
My vote for the MVP of the Yankees in 2011?
It sure as hell is not A.J Burnett.
No, no my friends, my choice for the team MVP this season is Russell Martin.
Russel Martin, a man I never really heard of before this season and a man I expected little from coming into it.
Father time, while keeping an eye on Rivera and Jeter, finally caught up to the Yankees long-time catcher Jorge Posada in 2010. Posada, 40, had become a liability to the team and if everyone is being honest, Jorge included, the Yankees should have addressed the issue behind the plate as far back as three years ago.
If they were going to contend, they needed to address the situation behind the plate in 2011.
Francisco Cervelli, the backup catcher for the Yanks, is loaded with fire and passion. He is fun to watch and is great for the team’s morale. He has a penchant for elevating his game with runners in scoring position, but in reality Cervelli is, at best, a backup catcher on a championship-caliber team
Down on the farm the Yankees have a host of young catching talent on the horizon. Gary Sanchez, Austin Romine and Jesus Montero give the Yankees hope for the future at the backstop but none would be ready for the show in 2011.
They would have to find someone and find someone fast and the pickings were slim.
The Yankees made a surprise move. They signed Russell Martin.
Most of us said Russell who?
Martin, a five-year veteran with the Los Angeles Dodgers, was coming off an injury that cost him half of the 2010 season. Not exactly something to get excited over.
He was a low average hitting catcher and one with average “pop”.
I was not exactly doing cartwheels over this signing.
The Yankees failed to land Lee.
The starting rotation looked like Swiss cheese.
They went bargain basement shopping and picked up Bartolo Colon and Freddy Garcia?
I supposed it really did not matter if they landed Lee or if we settled for Garcia and Colon, because the Yankees catching corps was comprised of a past his prime, under-performing Posada, a light-hitting Cervelli and an unknown, coming off injury Martin.
The three of them combined barely made one full catcher, on paper.
I wasn’t thinking pennant in January and I certainly was not even thinking Wild Card back in February.
It was a risky move for the Yankees and one that made many scratch their head, prompting serious cause for concern among fans.
The best case scenario it seemed was to hope Martin would stay healthy and offer something close to his best season, which was 2007, in which he batted .293, hitting 19 home runs and driving in 87 RBI.
The Yankees would be happy if he simply delivered his career season averages of .267, 15 home runs and 75 RBI.
Seemed like a lot to ask given the history and circumstance.
The worst case scenario seemed more likely. The Yankees platoon between Posada, Cervelli and Martin in hopes that all three would put up numbers similar to what one decent, average backstop would produce.
As of this writing,Cervelli is Cervelli, Posada is sad to watch and Martin is not exactly a threat to win a batting title, hitting .243.
However, no one expected Martin to hit .300 and that is not what he was acquired to do.
He is, however, delivering beyond all reasonable expectations.
As I write this article, the Yankees are embarrassing the Oakland A’s during a day game in the Bronx.
The Yankees have scored 22 runs and set a major league baseball record for being the first team to hit three grand slams in one game.
Of those slams, Martin hit one. On this day, in addition to his grand slam, Martin hit another home run, reaching base six times with one walk and five hits while driving in a career high six runs. Martin appears to be heating up at just the right time too.
Over the last seven games, Martin is batting .385 on a championship team that is battling for first place and a spot in the postseason.
Martin is defying odds. Catchers generally decline offensively and defensively as the year progresses, due in large part to the physical demands of their position.
The fact that Martin is actually on the rise in August, coming off a major hip injury is rare.
The position of catcher is the anchor of a team and Martin, stepping into some very big, fan favorite shoes, had held his own and then some.
In doing so, and solving the catching problem that has plagued the Yankees for the last few seasons, Martin has my vote, over many deserving Yankees this year, as the most valuable player in Yankee Pinstripes this season.
Sometimes it’s not about who has the best numbers or the most. Sometimes it comes down to who plugged the biggest hole. Who stepped up. Sometimes it just comes down to contributions of the unexpected surprise.
Granderson improved on his own numbers. Martin plugged a three year old hole when the Yankees had no other options.
Who had the bigger impact? In my opinion, it was Martin, as far as the team goes.
That is what Martin has been for the Yankees this season, an unexpected surprise.
He is also, in my book, the MVP of the team this year.
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