Is Joe Mauer really the MVP, and are saberists really arrogant turds?

It’s true: near everyone who pays close attention to the numbers believes Joe Mauer should be the AL MVP. He not only leads the AL in OPS, but he’s doing it as a catcher, the most difficult defensive position. He’s outperforming first basemen and outfielders, players expected to put up big numbers. Where other teams have catchers with OPSs in the mid-.700s, Mauer is at 1.051. It’s an enormous advantage at a position where defense reigns.

This is, simplified, why those who pay attention to the numbers think Mauer is the MVP. It’s not just that he leads the league in OPS, but that he’s doing it from a position where no one else even comes close — of catchers with over 350 at bats, Jorge Posada is closes with a .881 OPS. Yes, Kevin Youkilis and Miguel Cabrera have pretty numbers, but they come from first base (and a little third for Youk), positions where big production is more expected. Derek Jeter plays a tough defensive position, and is playing it sell this year, and has a case. But his numbers all fall well short of Mauer’s.

Ken Rosenthal recognizes all this, and he does agree that Mauer should be MVP. He’s just sick of sabermetricians shouting down dissenters. This is baseball after all, and what is baseball without a good debate? It’s a good point, but Rosenthal goes astray at many points. Most notably:

Here’s the problem: Sabermetricians were ignored for so long, they had to shout to be heard. Now they are getting heard — properly heard in the highest levels of baseball media and front offices. But some continue to shout, dismissing those who disagree as ignorant dolts.

I’m sorry, but the last part of that sentence will not stand. Since the inception of blogs through even today, mainstream media writers have dismissed bloggers as idiots who live in their mothers’ basements. This isn’t just a narrative: see for yourself. Bloggers have been and still are dismissed by elitist writers who think that because some editor gave them a job that their word is more definitive. Clearly, this does not apply to all mainstream writers. It doesn’t even apply to the majority of them. But if Rosenthal is going to charge that bloggers dismiss those who agree as ignorant dolts, he should acknowledge the other side of the coin.

(Need I even go further than Rosenthal’s colleague Dayn Perry shouting down the Teixeira acolytes?)

To take care of the shouting part, we turn to Tom Tango, who is a sabermetrician.

I don’t dismiss those who disagree. I dismiss those who don’t provide evidence for their claims, or refuse to be educated. Refusing to be educated does make you, by definition, ignorant. It’s one thing to have a conversation with someone who is ignorant, it’s another to have a conversation with someone who continues to remain ignorant. One gives me hope, the other is hopeless.

If I shout, it’s to be heard over the gasbaggery of ignoramuses, so that those who want to learn, or want to have a reasonable conversation, can do so. The problem is not those who shout; the problem is those who are on the dance floor who refuse to dance with any rhythm, and don’t even try to. Worse still, they think they have rhythm.

What’s even better, Tango went ahead and made a decent case against Mauer for MVP. “Mauer is not a million miles ahead. Depending what kind of glasses you wear, he’s somewhere between two laps ahead of all the nonpitchers in this marathon to barely ahead, and either tied with Greinke or at least a lap behind Greinke.” There is a sabermetrician, not shouting, not dismissing. In fact, he’s making a case against the very issue about which Rosenthal complains.

I get Kenny’s point. He wants to keep debate alive and robust. Good. So do we. Otherwise, we wouldn’t write this site. He could have made his case a bit better, though. The way he puts it, saberists like Tom Tango are just a bunch of immutable gasbags. Clearly, that is not the case, as the man himself demonstrated. So let’s put aside the name calling and pettiness and talk about what happens on the field. That’s the only thing that matters, anyway.