The New York Yankees won a whopping 114 games this year, then cruised to the World Series, in one of the most remarkable years ever by a team. Strangely enough, the Yanks didn't have a single good MVP candidate. But they were strong at every position, had great depth, had a great balance of offense, defence and pitching, and also youth and experience. They were awesome. But the MVP vote was up for grabs, and Juan Gonzalez won for the second time.

        Juan Gonzalez has won two MVP Awards in his career. In this survey, I have taken them both away... which is not meant to be taken as criticism. Gonzalez was an awesome power hitter in his prime, though at this writing his career appears to be almost over. He has 434 lifetime homers, and a .295 career batting average. He has had five seasons with 40+ home runs, and has twice led the league. He joined the Rangers as a teenager in 1989, two years before another teenage, Pudge Rodriguez, made his debut. Together, they led the franchise to its first two postseason appearances.
        I've already criticized Gonzalez's MVP selection in 1996, but this year wasn't as bad a vote. Some of the same weaknesses - getting on base and playing defence - were still there. But Gonzalez did things he didn't do before, like hitting doubles and scoring runs. Still, he was not the player Albert Belle was — Belle's numbers were clearly superior. And I have a hard time believing that Gonzalez was any better than Ken Griffey Jr., who had awesome power and was a much better defensive player.
        Now we have to consider those shortstops. Nomar Garciaparra and Alex Rodriguez both had monster years; Derek Jeter played very well for the Yankees, too. In 1996, I thought that Alex Rodriguez should have been the MVP. This year, all he did was lead the American League in hits, and recorded a 40-40 season in homers and steals. A pretty good case can be made that Alex was the AL's best player.
        Garciaparra was pretty good, too. His numbers actually weren't too different from Gonzalez'; the latter had more power and more RBI, but if Gonzalez could play shortstop, we wouldn't be having this discussion. The three shortstops were all superlative at the plate, and were vastly superior defensive players than either Gonzalez or Belle. Garciaparra led the Red Sox to the playoffs... but also missed a couple of weeks with an injury. It's a tough call, but I'll stick with Nomar.
        In addition to Jeter, the Yankees had another great player in their lineup, in Bernie Williams. Bernie could have been the MVP, except that he missed a lot of games with injury. Bernie has been a great player for the Yankees, and ranks behind Mantle and DiMaggio as the best centre fielder in team history. Early in his career, Bernie was a solid player, not a star, but made dramatic improvements in his late 20's. He had his best season in 1999, leading the Yankees to yet another championship.