Only a stray first-place vote for Miguel Cabrera kept Joe Mauer from being a unanimous pick for AL MVP by the Baseball Writers Association of America.
Mark Teixeira finished runner-up, with Yankees teammate Derek Jeter placing third, and Cabrera finished fourth while somehow convincing one professional baseball writer that he was the league's best player.
For a full breakdown of the voting, click here.
Mauer certainly deserved a unanimous selection for putting together one of the greatest seasons by a catcher in the history of baseball. After spending all of April on the disabled list, he hit .365 for the highest mark ever by a catcher and captured his third batting title in four seasons.
He also smacked 28 homers and drew 76 walks to lead the AL in on-base percentage and slugging percentage, becoming the first catcher to ever win the sabermetric triple crown (AVG, OBP, SLG) and the first AL player from any position to do so since George Brett in 1980.
For someone to hit .365/.444/.587 in 606 plate appearances while playing Gold Glove defense over nearly 1,000 innings at the game's most demanding position is a truly historic season.
Mauer previously finished sixth in 2006 and fourth in 2008 despite deserving more MVP support each time, so adding significant power to his repertoire this season clearly made a huge difference for the voters (everyone but Keizo Konishi of the Kyodo News, that is). He's the first catcher to win AL MVP since Ivan Rodriguez in 1999 and follows Justin Morneau, Zoilo Versalles, Harmon Killebrew, and Rod Carew as the Twins' fifth MVP.
Congrats, Mauer! You deserve it!
The pitchforks and torches are out in MN and they're looking for Keizo Konishi of Kyodo News. Who the fuck is that? Well, he'll get the attention he wanted now.
Time for my favorite Minnesota joke: "The Twins should have drafted Mark Prior."
Mauer Pauer!
Cabrera gets $200K for gettig 4th place or should I say - Cabrera will be splitting $200k with Keizo Konishi of Kyodo News.
Drinking with the opposing team down the stretch run, strip clubs and domestic battery? Big ups to Keizo Konishi for picking such a class act. Jeter and Teixeira must love that one.
Likes similar to 2008s Dustin Pedroia win or 2001s Ichiro Suziki.Congrats Joe.
He shouldn't be eligible after missing an entire month of baseball.
Why? He was still the best player in the league even after missing a month.
The fact that he missed a month makes his numbers this season even more amazing.
Why should a player be penalized for an injury if he still puts up the best numbers in the league?
As a Yankee fan I say bravo to Joe Mauer. He's a great player who had a great year, and he deserves the award. Individual awards are nice, but I personlly would rather see my team win it all. So I'm perfectly happy with this outcome.
less at bats = higher BA and his numbers weren't the best, just his BA, Tex had the most HR's and RBI's.
Are you kidding me jim, less at bats? Yeah, if he only had ten or twelve at bats the numbers could be skewed. But that's the beauty of baseball, what can you do over the long haul. Mauer had 606 at bats. Surely, that doesn't pad his numbers in your mind? Please explain yourself? If anything, the missed month would have given Mauer MORE HR's and MORE RBI's.
I know this is really boring and you are skipping to the next comment, but I just wanted to throw you a big thanks - you cleared up some things for me!
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