I’ve been a Yankee fan for 10 years and I’m about to do something I’ve never done. Defend Derek Jeter. In Keith’s article, he mentions that Jermaine Dye would be his MVP, but that’s another debate for another time. The main point of his rant was the fact the Carlos Guillen was getting no love. I didn’t mention him in my little article, but I do so now in my follow up. What I wrote was pretty much a reaction to the fact that Morneau won the MVP

Keith mentions Guillen’s OPS in September, which was 1.082, and then mentions Jeter’s which was .919. However, there is a problem with this. In September, the Yankees’ games meant nothing. So Guillen having an OPS above 1.000 in September is fine and dandy, but mentioning the fact that it was X amount higher than Jeter’s is pointless.

Jeter might have had a below average month in August, while he had an OPS under .900. However, go back to the 5 game series against Boston. He had two of the biggest hits of season for the Yankees. In the second game of the double header, he tied the game with a two out, bases loaded double off Mike Timlin in the top of the 8th.  That Sunday night, with a man on third and two out, he tied the game with a single in the top of the ninth. In the series that ended Boston’s season, and assured the Yankees the division, Jeter had two of the biggest hits of the series.

Another thing that bothered me was Keith reminding us about '02 award. I really don’t care about that. This is the 2006 award; anything that happened in previous seasons shouldn’t really matter.

Before I go, I want to mention one more stat that comes in handy. I’m talking about WPA (Win Probability Added) On average, a team usually has a certain chance of winning a certain game. For example, if you’re losing by 5 runs in the bottom of the 9th, your chances of winning the game is very low. With each change in the score, inning, number of outs, etc, there is a change in the average team's probability of winning the game. If Jeter gets a big hit in the 9th, the team’s WPA goes up, as does Jeter's. It also works vice versa. Jeter had a WPA of 5.98 while Guillen’s was 4.44.