Runner up of the Year pt. 1

Who deserves to win MVP and Cy Young in both leagues is pretty clear-cut. There is absolutely no way Albert Pujols, Joe Mauer, Adam Wainwright and Zach Grienke won't win their respective awards. There shouldn't even be a debate. Well, Carpenter or Wainwright will win NL Cy Young but Carpenter probably won't because there has never been a non-closer who won while pitching fewer than 200 innings. So if he does he win color me surprised.

The real race will be who will come in second. Most interesting is AL MVP. A lot has been written about Jeter vs. Teixera and one of those two will finish second so I'm going to not try and make any arguments about their numbers, which are pretty easy to find, and Teixera posts pretty much the exact same line every year.

Teixera has been good this year. Mark Teixera good. He's posted Gold Glove caliber defense and has impressive range. But defense doesn't matter that much when you play first base. It's the easiest position to play and any position player can be converted to it. You don't even need a good arm. But what's Teixera's true value? Not very high. Something valuable is rare, but every team that was in the AL playoff race had a first baseman who posted similar numbers to Tex. He's competing with four other first basemen who posted lines of around .300/30HRs/100RBIs. Three other 1B had OPS over .900. They also all play for lesser offensive teams so their contributions were more unique. There really isn't anything to separate Teixera from Kendry Morales, Kevin Youklis, Miguel Cabrera, and Justin Morneau, aside from slightly better defense. But fielding at first base isn't that valuable. So first base MVP is a push, with a slight edge to any of them depending on how much you value defense, OBP, and slugging on a weak hitting team. Note to fantasy players: First base will always be really deep so don't waste a first-round pick on a player whose name doesn't rhyme with "Ballhurt Truholes"

How many AL shortstops who played for contending teams posted quality defense to go along with great offensive numbers? Exactly one - Jeter, and that's what makes him the second most valuable player in the American League in 2009.