twins/mlb

Willingham is hands down the Twins' MVP; the team this year would have been absolutely abysmal without him.

New v. Old is really meaningless. Willingham is easily the MVP of this team. And if you want we can bring in salary. How is that going to work out for you Mauer drones?

Good comparison, but defensive position needs to be a factor. Catcher is a prime defensive position while left field is not.

Another attempt to make Mauer seem better than he actually is.

Williamham's offense has truly made up for his lack of defense at times... this team needs him big time in 2013....Not even a question here....

Both were valuable and both were needed. Rather than MVP what needs to be determined is LVP and the anser to that is in the dugout.

People, we all know Mauer is not worth 23 million. However, he nearly won another batting title, hit 10 bombs with 85 RBI's and played in nearly every game, most of those at the toughest position in baseball. What more do you want? Why blame one guy? You think he has handcuffed the team financially...have you every heard management say, "We can't get anyone else because we spent it all on Joe." NO! They have not...they can buy players if they want. Joe is worthy of team MVP just as Josh is. I don't care how much they spend on players, it isn't my money. Joe as a Twin is better than Joe as someone else.

How can a team that has lost 90+ games in consecutive seasons justify naming a mvp?

"How can a team that has lost 90+ games in consecutive seasons justify naming a mvp?" So what should be the cutoff for a team naming a team MVP? I see nothing wrong in recognizing players on bad teams having good seasons. Diamond could be in this discussion as well. Willingham deserves it because his best production was in trying to keep the Twins in the race. Mauer heated up after they were down 10 games. Willingham had more Really clutch hits. Mauer had a good season but I hope he does better next year. Willingham had a great year and I hope he can just duplicate it next year.

Folks, Joe Mauer caught only 74 games this year - not even 50% of the teams games. Please don't act like he's some sort of Cal Ripken for catching 46% of a team's games. For $23 million he should hit more than 10 bombs and 85 RBI's.