I’m just hoping the Tampa BBWAA are the funniest bastards in the land. Otherwise they might be the dumbest.

or just name the whole bullpen Co – MVP’s

oh well his defense has saved a lot of runs and lately his bat has been great and clutch.

Bartlett is just about the worst choice to make.

Perhaps you should look at his numbers yourself. RZR has him as one of the worst starters and his OOZ plays are middle of the road. I love the guy and agree that without him we are not as good of a team, but stop arguing that his defense makes up for his stick enough that he is more deserving than Longo, Carlos, Beej, or Shields

LINK

Ramirez
Reyes
Hardy
Guzman
Aviles
Peralta
Jeter
Escobar
Drew
Rollins
Theriot
Punto
Tejada
Harris
Aybar
Renteria
Izturis
Eckstein
Bartlett
Young
Scutaro
Cabrera
Crosby
Lugo
Wilson
Betancourt
Izturis
Tulowitzki
Greene
Keppinger

dills (Chicago): Some of those AL MVP voters just voted Jason Bartlett as the Rays MVP… “The Rays improved dramatically on defense this season, and the biggest single reason was shortstop Jason Bartlett. Consequently, Bartlett has been voted the team’s most valuable player by the Tampa Bay chapter of the Baseball Writers Association of America.”

Joe Sheehan: If this isn’t a joke…wow. Bartlett isn’t the MVP of the left side of the infield.

In the past he’s scored very well on it.

45 Shields James A TB
42 Garza Matt TB
41 Longoria Evan TB
41 Pena Carlos TB
37 Upton B.J. TB
29 Sonnanstine Andy TB
29 Kazmir Scott E TB
26 Navarro Dioner F TB
25 Iwamura Akinori TB
23 Balfour Grant TB
20 Howell J.P. TB
19 Jackson Edwin TB
18 Gross Gabe J TB
17 Crawford Carl TB
17 Aybar Willy TB
15 Wheeler Dan TB
13 Bartlett Jason A TB
12 Hinske Eric TB
10 Floyd Cliff TB
4 Birkins Kurt D TB
4 Zobrist Ben T TB
4 Perez Fernando TB
3 Miller Trever TB
3 Baldelli Rocco TB
2 Percival Troy TB
2 Reyes Al TB
2 DiFelice Mike TB
1 Johnson Dan R TB
1 Ryu Jae Kuk TB
0 Cannizaro Andy L TB
0 Jaso John TB
-1 Hernandez Michel TB
-1 Niemann Jeffrey W TB
-1 Riggans Shawn W TB
-1 Ruggiano Justin M TB
-2 Haynes Nathan R TB
-2 Dohmann Scott TB
-2 Brignac Reid TB
-2 Hammel Jason A TB
-3 Johnson Elliot T TB
-3 Gomes Jonny TB
-5 Glover Gary TB

1. It’s our opinions.
2. The facts are in our favor.
3. The writers almost always get stuff wrong, hence why Jimmy Rollins won the MVP and not someone far more deserving last season, and also why Carlos Delgado and not Carlos Beltran is talked up as the Mets MVP.

You cannot say “Well if Pena would’ve hit better early on…” because he didn’t hit for a month, since then he’s been amazing. Bartlett’s second half doesn’t even touch Pena (since May 1st: .912 OPS) .

We may as well just close comments if we can’t discuss anything the team or writers do, that or you could perhaps understand what the point of this site is.

I’m not upset because my man-crush didn’t win the vote. I really don’t care anymore who the dumbass writers pick as their MVP — partially because there’s no consistency between voters and seasons and partially because they, in general, really don’t have much of a clue what wins baseball games. And if “it is what it is”, I’ll drop it when the supporters of the vote drop it.

I like Bartlett, he’s a good player and much better than Brendan Harris and other organizational options (although Brignac might be surprisingly tolerable.) I’m really happy he’s on the team and I will continue to root for him and hope he lives up to his potential next year. But he’s missed 1/3 of the season, has been a poor hitter and his defense is good, but overrated.

I believe he’s getting too much team MVP talk because he’s new and replaced an awful player. Going from Dukes/Young in CF to Upton full time in CF was a bigger improvement. Going from Aki to Longo at 3B was a bigger improvement. Going from Navi v.2007 to Navi v.2008 was as big of an improvement. But it’s not about improvement, it’s about production above who you could find on the scrap heap. And Bartlett’s not been nearly as productive as at least a dozen other players on this team.

You can value a player’s contribution without calling him the MVP. I’m trying to do both. It’s just that the second half of that sentence is the point of disagreement right now, so it’s getting more attention.

I enjoyed Zobrist’s triple, didn’t you?

his stint on the disabled list was 16 games, or almost exactly 10% of the season. pro-rating the other 90% down to 16 games is a rate of about 4 games over .500 per 16 games. are we really saying Bartlett’s worth 6 games per 16 games, or 60 games over a full season? um, i hope not.

in other words, it IS mostly coincidence. he’s a good defender, but to give him credit for others’ performances (isn’t this what being the “glue” implies) is silly. to give Bartlett more than his fair share of the credit for the improved defense is silly. he’s NOT the only reason, far from it.