By Ferd Lewis
Advertiser Columnist

Alex Rodriguez is coming about as close to giving the Texas Rangers their armored car's worth as any ballplayer who is being paid $252 million probably could.

His remarkable numbers — .304 average, 57 home runs and 140 runs batted in entering last night — say he is the best player in the American League this year. But, when it comes time to present the MVP in the coming weeks, the name on the trophy should read: Miguel Tejada, Oakland.

For there is a difference between being the league's most outstanding player and its most valuable player. Rodriguez is more outstanding. Tejada has been the more valuable.

Not that there is unanimity on it in their division or anywhere in the game. It is The Debate in baseball, philosophically dividing teammates and clubhouses. And, not for the first time, either.

In 1998, when St. Louis' Mark McGwire swatted a then-record 70 home runs, his was baseball's most outstanding feat of the season in a year that made history. But when it came to the MVP, the hardware went to Sammy Sosa of Chicago, as it should have. Sosa having been the most valuable for lifting the Cubs into the playoffs while the Cardinals were on the outside looking in.

Which brings us back to

A-Rod vs. Tejada, two of the premier shortstops in the game. The Rangers could have finished a distant last in the AL West with or without Rodriguez's presence in their lineup. Whether you're 18 games out or 38 behind, it hardly matters when you are buried in the cellar.

But without Tejada and all that he has brought to Oakland this season, the A's don't clinch a playoff berth much less lead the race for the division title in one of the game's most competitive divisions. Similarly, Alfonso Soriano (.305, 39 homers and 101 RBIs) has done much the same for the Yankees.

Take away Tejada's .302 average, 31 homers and 125 RBIs, brilliant glove and clutch hitting, all accomplished in the pressure of a pennant race, and the A's are looking up at Anaheim and Seattle, probably from a distance, instead of leading them.

Oakland's 20-game win streak, in which Tejada was an integral piece, from walk-off home runs to big plays in the field, put his contributions in perspective.

But Tejada's importance has been season-long and steady. When most people wrote off the A's this season after Jason Giambi's departure, it was Tejada who wrote them right back into it by stepping into the vacant No. 3 spot in the batting order and producing. Where David Justice and Eric Chavez, among others had failed, Tejada succeeded with a .365 clip with men in scoring position most of the season.

Maybe some year baseball will offer both most outstanding and most valuable player awards. But until then, Tejada should be this year's MVP.