A couple weeks ago the Wall Street Journal published a column making the case for selecting Derek Jeter as the 2009 American League MVP. The story discussed how Jeter’s performance has improved from a subpar 2008 and also took a historical look at how the writer felt Jeter had been hosed during previous MVP-level seasons.

In reality, while Jeter has had a fantastic season, he’s nowhere near the best MVP candidate for 2009. Look at the work Joe Mauer, Miguel Cabrera and others have done compared with Jeter and that’s obvious. Then take a look at Jeter’s teammate, Mark Teixeira, and hopefully it’s clear to most impartial observers that Jeter, while a valuable player and by almost all accounts a decent guy, isn’t even the most credible candidate on his own team.

Really what it most proved was that the Wall Street Journal should stick to business reporting. In past years it would have been a perfect target for a Fire Joe Morgan deconstruction, but unfortunately that Web site has shut down. A friend and former colleague at the Star Tribune took a credible FJM shot at the WSJ’s performance on his Randball blog.

While his work was solid the masters were at the helm as guest editors of Deadspin for a day. And they came through, brilliantly exposing the holes in the Journal’s argument. Read and enjoy …

Then let’s have some debate. Who is the AL MVP for 2009? In the NL it would appear to me as though Albert Pujols is the clear-cut winner. But there are a handful of legit candidates in the AL. Who would y’all vote for?

My vote? As a local, it’d be nice to see Joe Mauer win. He’s had a fantastic season. But facts are facts and I believe winning plays a role in how “valuable” you are to your team. And the Twins were roughly .500 without him the first month of the season and they’ve been roughly a .500 team with him. Taking homerism out, I’d probably choose Cabrera. The Tigers will likely win the AL Central. And while they aren’t without flaws, without Cabrera that team probably finishes in third place.