Elvis Andrus 0.77% (3 votes)


Adrian Beltre 7.95% (31 votes)


Josh Hamilton 4.62% (18 votes)


Ian Kinsler 6.41% (25 votes)


Alexi Ogando 12.82% (50 votes)


C.J. Wilson 30% (117 votes)


Michael Young 36.92% (144 votes)


Other 0.51% (2 votes)



Total Votes: 390

Wow

It seems like some people just chose CJ because they didn't want to vote for Michael, but I am surprised by the honesty of so many. Not long ago this site was rife with MY hatred, and now everyone loves him again.

I don't think there is really any dispute though, Michael is the Ranger MVP to this point in the season.

So much for Chucky cheese trying to run him out of the room with all that gas. The jet stream has really cleared it out nicely. Fresh air is blowing in Arlington and "its him or me" Nolan has prevailed.

Now lets see if we can go the distance and I'm not talking about Field of Dreams.

Young may be having his Best Year in 2011... oops, another spike in the stat-sheet.
Baseball... expect the unexpected.

There is no doubt in my mind that Michael Young is not the MVP on the team. These polls don't mean anything, especially considering users can easily cast multiple votes if someone:
a. figures out what algorithm is being used to track a vote (likely some combination of cookies and temporary IP caching)
b. is seriously lacking meaning in their life

In a team that has the 3rd highest WAR in MLB at 20.4 MY's WAR is only 1.9. That's behind Ian @ 4.0, Beltre @ 3.2, and Elvis @ 2.7. Arguably if MY was content with just playing DH his value would be higher as he has the third worst fielding comp at -3.7, only Cruz and Moreland are worse and its arguable that Moreland's -4.3 is due to playing out of position in the outfield due to MY's temper tantrum about being moved from 3rd.
There is no way MY is MVP and if you go by WAR it's Ian by a fairly significant margin. Bad body language and all.
Interesting side-note the Phillies have a team WAR of 13.7, some explain that to me. I assume it is due to their lack of offense?

"Interesting side-note the Phillies have a team WAR of 13.7, some explain that to me. I assume it is due to their lack of offense?"

WAR is just a stat. A stat with a religion built around it, but a stat none the less.

The Phillies have a 13.7 "batters" WAR, which is due to their poor offense. On Fangraphs, go to the top of the page and select the "pitchers" tab, to see how the league's pitchers are generating WAR. The Phillies lead the league in pitching WAR at 16.5, which explains their league-leading status.

In no way is MY anything other than a degenerative disease on this team. Thanks to a BABIP (measurement that indirectly allows you to identify how lucky a hitter is) that is higher than that of the rest of the Rangers regulars, Michael Young has managed to produce some offense. However, his insistence on playing the field and not being a DH have cost the team greatly, not only through his own well-documented defensive failures, but by forcing other players out of their positions (See Moreland, Mitch).

Kinsler is the superior player, Michael Young is the popular one. Beltre is having a better year than MY also.

OK Chicksdigthelongball thanks for explaining that to me and means I was somewhat correct in my guess if not completely correct.
On MY I completely agree with everything you said.

@Chicksdigthelaongball, I agree with your take that MY in the field so much is hurting the team on the whole, but I wouldn't necessarily call him a disease. He is still hitting the ball and allowing the regulars to get some rest. While I don't think that the rest for the regulars benefits the team as much as it hurts the defense and continuity, it is still of SOME value.

I would really like to see him DH 5 out of 6 games.

By the way the Rangers pitch WAR is a not so sexy 7.5 bottom 3rd of MLB which explains much about their record.
Stats are not a religion only a way verify or disprove "hunch's" and I have learned much about stats vs the eyeball test this year @dwtightk. Mostly that they eyeball test is sometimes proven wrong.

Beltre is the team MVP thus far. Followed by CJ, Kinsler, Ogando, and Elvis.

Also, Joe, you still have no idea what happened with Greenberg/Ryan/Young/Daniels. None of us do. Your assumptions and the "Chucky" moniker are juvenile.

I think I would vote CJ just ahead of Beltre, just because he has been the one constant variable in an otherwise inconsistent staff. He's been so good, that I fear he may be getting close to $20MM/year good.

I would say right now it is pretty much a toss-up between Beltre, CJ and Kinsler.

As noted above, the Rangers 2011 pitching WAR so far is 7.5 - CJ's is 3.2, or nearly half of what the rest of the entire pitching staff has accumulated to this point - he is on pace to have an outstanding season, and his contributions are immensely valuable.

Some of the people who post here are real pieces of work. Maybe Josey Wales figured out some sort of algorithm so he could cast 144 votes for MY! (or alternatively, the 144 people who voted for him know absolutely NOTHING about the game of baseball because, don't you know, they don't spend their time crunching data found on Fangaphs!). Lmao.

The MY hate is alive and well here. This is a stupid, trolling poll. The responses here are hilarious. There is no single MVP on this team, but if INSIST on choosing only one player, MY is right up there near the top. Anyone who says "no way MY is the MVP of this team" is borderline delusional .

after seeing this post, I voted for Michael Young. (Tateyama was not a choice)

Dallas, Tateyama is included in 'other' on the poll....lol

Also, Joe, you still have no idea what happened with Greenberg/Ryan/Young/Daniels. None of us do.

That's right but if you say MY is the bad guy then there is no problem, 95% on this site will agree, but if you say he isn't well you are just an idiot. BTW if you look at the time line for the whole story MY didn't go to the press it was the front office....but hey MY SUX so who cares.

WAR has it's flaws and some are glaring.

WAR 2010

Brewers 32.9 3rd in MLB actual record 77-85 21st in MLB
Diamondbacks 28.1 8th in MLB actual record 65-97 28th in MLB

Just as FIP or xFIP do. I don't know how a stat the can be a future predictor of ERA can be negative (although rarely) it defies logic.

WAR has it's flaws and some are glaring.

WAR 2010

Brewers 32.9 3rd in MLB actual record 77-85 21st in MLB
Diamondbacks 28.1 8th in MLB actual record 65-97 28th in MLB

You do realize you just completely ignored the pitching component, right?

So, the question is, does WAR work? If it’s designed well, there should be a pretty strong correlation between a team’s total WAR and their actual record. Fans of WAR rejoice – there is.

For 2009, the correlation between a team’s projected record based on their WAR total and their actual record was .83. This is a robust number, especially considering that WAR is almost completely context independent and currently includes some notable omissions – base running (besides SB/CS, which are included in wOBA) and catcher defense are both ignored in the calculations. We also don’t have an adjustment for differences in leagues, so we’re not accounting for the fact that the AL is better than the NL.

http://www.fangraphs.com/blogs/index.php/war-it-works

I wouldn't take anyone seriously that said wins above replacement is a perfect stat. It's not. There are imperfections and other things that I wish could be improved upon. But I also believe that it gets us closer to answer of what a player is truly worth than anything else we have out there, and I think that the majority of the most vocal critics of the stat don't actually understand what goes into it, how it's calculated, and/or what the results mean.

Congrats to MY on the prestigious award.

Scooby,

I know it hurts to lose Scoobs and your Michael Young hate is no doubt off the charts seeing as how he has been our best hitter this year so far.

As far as Chucky Cheese goes if you want to stick your head in the sand and pretend like he wasn't fired largely because of the MY Debacle have at it.

"These polls don't mean anything, especially considering users can easily cast multiple votes if someone:
a. figures out what algorithm is being used to track a vote (likely some combination of cookies and temporary IP caching)
b. is seriously lacking meaning in their life"

Joey,

Based on your technical knowledge of the site and the polls thereof do you have any reason to believe that the results of this poll have been tampered with in any way?

I for one before I realized that you could click on "see results" voted again to see the results and it told me "thank you we have already counted your vote" and then the results show up. So the poll is definitely not allowing people to vote twice. I suppose a person could use multiple computers but as Dark Reins said if they did that to the tune of a hundred or so votes it would mean there was exactly zero meaning in their life.

@joe
Anytime you vistit a site of any kind you should assume they are collecting data about you everything from IP address to location and even company that you work at if you access from work. You should assume that you are cookied thats why your info auto post for Author, Autlhor Email etc. However there are very easy ways to get around this including spoofing your ip address that would not show up in the mechanisms used to keep you from voting more than once.
I am not saying anyone did.
As far as the MY offseason thing, MY not Chuck or Nolan or Obama asked to be traded. For the money he makes with the lack of range he has defensively he should shut up play. I am impressed that it seems like MY does keep his off season sorryness away from his conduct during the season though.
Just for your info I turned on Young last year on about the third weakly hit ball to his right side last year that he did the o'lay (sp) move and didn't catch nor make the play. The guy is bad in field and a liability every time he steps on the field. That's whether you worship at the alter of SABER, The GUT, or the EYBALL test. They all say one thing
PADMY

@Joey

Sorry thought it was total, you are right I left out the pitching, but even so WAR would tell you that last year the Brewers and Rangers were close to equal and Dbacks only 9 games worse. No stat will tell everything and all stats combined won't give you the whole story. Not saying WAR isn't useful but to some it's the whole story.