Thinking too hard.

The AL MVP is presently a three-man race. Let's say one through three is Vlad, Magglio, and ARod. Fourth place may be Posada. I haven't given it too much thought.

After Posada's HUGE first-inning RBI single vs. Pittsburgh this afternoon, Suzyn Waldman proclaimed the following (and I paraphrase):

"I don't know who on the Yankees has had more big hits than Jorge Posada."

Easy. Alex Rodriguez. Three walkoff* homeruns, actually.


"If Jorge is not the MVP of the Yankees, then I don't know who is."

Easy. Alex Rodriguez.


I think there are two general reasons ARod gets so much disrespect.

The first camp is people who simply don't like him. Looking for reason to minimize his value, they come up with "clutch" and "close and late" and then look for new reasons when he hits .500 with 6 HRs in the ninth inning.

But Waldman (and John Sterling, in complete agreement, by the way) thinks that her contrarian thinking is somehow insightful. It's not insightful at all. It's dopey.

Or maybe it's just the expectations are so high that ARod's accomplishments are boring.

Expect more of it as the summer progresses. In '05, I was supposed to believe the ARod's 48 HRs and 130 RBIs were less valuable than Shawn Chacon's 79 innings. Now it's Posada "handling the pitching staff" to one of the worst ERAs in the league.

But don't trust Waldman, Sterling, or Lupica, despite their authoritative tones. If you think you know more about baseball than they do, it's because you do.


* I count the one off Papelbon, even though it was on the road.