In the San Jose Mercury-News today, Daniel Brown discusses Derek Jeter's worthiness of the 2006 A.L. MVP Award. And all you probably need to know about what side he comes down on is that he makes a reference to "slide rules," a reference to "pocket calculators," and he includes a quote from Joe Torre about the importance of defense and baserunning.
And Joe Posnanski has a column in the Kansas City Star about how Derek Jeter is something of a lightning rod for disagreements between the statheads and the old school/intangibles crowd...
I'd probably pick Travis Hafner as the A.L. MVP, at this point...
But Derek Jeter is having a terrific year, his best season of the 21st century...
Unlike past years, when his MVP candidacy was based on moxie and the good face and doing the little things, Jeter this year is a legit MVP candidate based on the numbers.