SBN Awards: MVPs go to Joe Mauer and Albert Pujols

by Stacey on Nov 12, 2009 10:00 AM EST in News & Rumors

Regardless of what happens with the actual MVP award, SBN baseball writers got it right as Joe Mauer won the MVP in a landslide. Mauer's OPS+ of 170 is the second highest by a catcher in history (Mike Piazza posted an OPS+ of 177 in 1997). Mauer led baseball in Batting Average, On-Base Percentage, and Slugging Percentage. Mauer's WAR was 8.2, best among catchers. Second best? Victor Martinez at 4.9. If you're one who likes to hear about those "clutch" stats, Mauer hit better with 2 outs and RISP than any other time. But let's face it, when your OPS is 1.031 you hit well in every situation.

Mauer's ridiculous batting average of .365 topped Nick Markakis by 72 points. His OBP of .444 was 79 points higher than Nolan Reimold. His .587 SLG was 99 points higher than Luke Scott. Those three were the Orioles leaders in those categories.

Mauer is a free agent after next season and the Twins have said time and again that they want to keep him. I hope that they do, because I'd hate to have to start disliking Mauer because he's a Yankee.

I think that it's a possibility that Derek Jeter is awarded the real MVP despite not even coming first on his team in this contest. There was a very real belief among many that Derek Jeter was robbed of the MVP when Justin Morneau won in 2006. It's possible that he won't be denied again. If that happens this year when Mauer had the year that he had I'll....well it won't shock me at all actually. But I'll be annoyed. It'd be nice for Mauer to enjoy his season as the best catcher in the league since beginning in 2010, Matt Wieters will go on a 25 year run of being the best catcher in ~~the league~~ history of baseball.

Albert Pujols, who I'm pretty sure might be an alien from some other galaxy where everyone has giant thighs and finds baseball to be as easy as a game of Soduku, won for the National League. Because the lists are so much longer this time I put them both below the jump. Click through to see the complete rankings.

Rk	Player	Team	1st	2nd	3rd	4th	5th	6th	7th	8th	9th	10th	Pts
1	Joe Mauer	Minnesota Twins	24	3	1	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	371
2	Ben Zobrist	Tampa Bay Rays	-	10	6	2	2	1	-	1	-	-	172
3	Mark Teixeira	New York Yankees	2	3	2	4	3	2	7	1	-	-	158
4	Derek Jeter	New York Yankees	1	5	3	4	4	2	1	1	2	1	157
5	Evan Longoria	Tampa Bay Rays	-	2	4	1	2	3	2	3	2	1	106
6	Zack Greinke	Kansas City Royals	2	3	2	1	1	-	2	-	-	-	92
7	Miguel Cabrera	Detroit Tigers	-	-	3	1	2	4	-	2	-	5	74
8	Kevin Youkilis	Boston Red Sox	-	2	-	-	1	3	1	8	1	-	69
9	Chone Figgins	Los Angeles Angels	-	-	-	3	4	1	-	1	3	1	60
10	Jason Bay	Boston Red Sox	-	1	-	4	2	-	-	1	-	2	54
11	Kendry Morales	Los Angeles Angels	-	-	4	-	-	1	-	-	1	-	39
12	Ichiro Suzuki	Seattle Mariners	-	-	1	-	2	-	1	2	2	3	37
13	Franklin Gutierrez	Seattle Mariners	-	-	-	1	1	1	3	-	1	2	34
14	Justin Verlander	Detroit Tigers	-	-	-	2	1	1	1	-	1	1	32
15	Felix Hernandez	Seattle Mariners	-	-	-	2	-	-	1	3	2	-	31
16	Jason Bartlett	Tampa Bay Rays	-	-	1	1	1	-	-	-	-	1	22
17	Alex Rodriguez	New York Yankees	-	-	1	-	1	-	1	-	-	-	18
18	Roy Halladay	Toronto Blue Jays	-	-	-	1	-	1	1	-	-	-	16
19	Adam Lind	Toronto Blue Jays	-	-	-	-	-	2	-	-	1	4	16
20	Dustin Pedroia	Boston Red Sox	-	-	-	-	-	-	1	-	4	1	13
21	Bobby Abreu	Los Angeles Angels	-	-	-	1	-	-	-	1	1	-	12
22	Aaron Hill	Toronto Blue Jays	-	-	-	-	-	1	1	1	-	-	12
23	Mariano Rivera	New York Yankees	-	-	-	-	1	-	-	-	1	1	9
24	Torii Hunter	Los Angeles Angels	-	-	1	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	8
25	Brian Roberts	Baltimore Orioles	-	-	-	-	-	-	1	1	-	-	7
26	CC Sabathia	New York Yankees	-	-	-	-	-	-	1	-	1	-	6
27	Carl Crawford	Tampa Bay Rays	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	1	1	1	6
28	J.D. Drew	Boston Red Sox	-	-	-	-	-	1	-	-	-	-	5
29	Jon Lester	Boston Red Sox	-	-	-	-	-	1	-	-	-	-	5
30	Jonathan Papelbon	Boston Red Sox	-	-	-	-	-	1	-	-	-	-	5
31	Robinson Cano	New York Yankees	-	-	-	-	-	1	-	-	-	-	5
32	Victor Martinez	Boston Red Sox	-	-	-	-	-	1	-	-	-	-	5
33	Michael Cuddyer	Minnesota Twins	-	-	-	-	-	-	1	-	-	-	4
34	Shin-Soo Choo	Cleveland Indians	-	-	-	-	-	-	1	-	-	-	4
35	Michael Young	Texas Rangers	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	1	1	3
36	Jacoby Ellsbury	Boston Red Sox	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	1	-	2
37	Jason Kubel	Minnesota Twins	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	1	-	2
38	Alex Gonzalez	Boston Red Sox	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	1	1
39	Nick Markakis	Baltimore Orioles	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	1	1

My votes went like this: 1), Joe Mauer, 2) Zack Greinke, 3) Derek Jeter, 4) Ben Zobrist, 5) Mark Teixeira, 6) Evan Longoria, 7) Franklin Guttierez, 8) Kevin Youkilis, 9) Justin Verlander, 10) Ichiro Suzuki

And duck: 1) Joe Mauer, 2) Mark Teixeira, 3) Ichiro Suzuki, 4) Roy Halladay, 5) Zack Greinke, 6) Derek Jeter, 7) Brian Roberts, 8) Jason Bay, 9) CC Sabathia, 10) Justin Verlander

I thought for sure duck was the one who voted for Nicky, but I was wrong. And Brian Roberts got two votes, one from a non-Orioles blog. Makes me wonder who likes our guys.

Rk	Player	Team	1st	2nd	3rd	4th	5th	6th	7th	8th	9th	10th	Pts
1	Albert Pujols	St. Louis Cardinals	31	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	434
2	Hanley Ramirez	Florida Marlins	-	6	8	11	2	1	2	-	-	-	220
3	Chase Utley	Philadelphia Phillies	-	7	11	2	3	1	-	1	-	1	192
4	Prince Fielder	Milwaukee Brewers	-	5	4	4	7	7	1	-	-	-	186
5	Troy Tulowitzki	Colorado Rockies	-	4	1	5	2	3	3	4	1	2	134
6	Tim Lincecum	San Francisco Giants	-	4	1	-	1	2	2	3	1	-	79
7	Ryan Howard	Philadelphia Phillies	-	4	-	1	4	1	-	-	3	1	79
8	Ryan Zimmerman	Washington Nationals	-	-	1	3	3	3	3	1	-	2	79
9	Adrian Gonzalez	San Diego Padres	-	-	1	-	3	3	2	4	3	4	71
10	Pablo Sandoval	San Francisco Giants	-	-	-	1	2	2	2	3	4	3	57
11	Matt Kemp	Los Angeles Dodgers	-	-	1	1	1	1	5	3	-	1	56
12	Ryan Braun	Milwaukee Brewers	-	-	2	-	-	2	2	1	1	-	39
13	Chris Carpenter	St. Louis Cardinals	-	-	-	-	2	1	1	-	1	2	25
14	Derrek Lee	Chicago Cubs	-	-	-	-	-	2	1	1	3	2	25
15	Andre Ethier	Los Angeles Dodgers	-	-	-	-	1	2	2	-	-	-	24
16	Adam Wainwright	St. Louis Cardinals	-	-	-	1	-	-	1	1	4	1	23
17	Javier Vazquez	Atlanta Braves	-	-	-	-	-	-	2	1	2	1	16
18	Matt Holliday	St. Louis Cardinals	-	-	1	-	-	-	1	-	-	-	12
19	Joey Votto	Cincinnati Reds	-	1	-	-	-	-	-	-	1	-	11
20	Mark Reynolds	Arizona Diamondbacks	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	2	1	2	10
21	Todd Helton	Colorado Rockies	-	-	-	1	-	-	-	-	-	-	7
22	Jayson Werth	Philadelphia Phillies	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	1	1	1	6
23	Adam Dunn	Washington Nationals	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	1	3	5
24	Juan Pierre	Los Angeles Dodgers	-	-	-	-	-	-	1	-	-	-	4
25	Justin Upton	Arizona Diamondbacks	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	1	-	1	4
26	Raul Ibanez	Philadelphia Phillies	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	1	-	1	4
27	Ubaldo Jimenez	Colorado Rockies	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	1	-	1	4
28	Brian McCann	Atlanta Braves	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	2	-	4
29	Dan Haren	Arizona Diamondbacks	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	2	-	4
30	Michael Bourn	Houston Astros	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	1	-	-	3
31	Yadier Molina	St. Louis Cardinals	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	1	-	-	3
32	Nyjer Morgan	Washington Nationals	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	1	1
33	Yunel Escobar	Atlanta Braves	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	1	1

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Comments

Oh, come on

I was all ready to complain about someone giving Jeter a 1st place vote, then I noticed that some ass clown put Jason Bay second on their ballot. Really?

Also, this is really nit-picky, but whoever gave a 10th place vote to Nyjer Morgan is HIGH, to paraphrase SC.

"The United States is the New York Yankees of countries...powerful and respected until the year 2000." - Homer J. Simpson

by Brotz13 on Nov 12, 2009 12:16 PM EST reply actions

ha ha yeah

there was a lot of back and forth between the various bloggers about ridiculous votes. The Red Sox guy was like, “I want to go on record that I did NOT give a vote to Alex Gonzalez.” I mean, Jason Kubel? Jacoby Ellsbury? Of course those are really low votes and once you get down that far it doesn’t really matter, but yeah that Bay vote is really offensive. And how about a third place vote for Torii Hunter?

Some Day, Matt Wieters Will Make The Cooperstown Crowd Laugh By Talking About The Time He Batted Behind Melvin Mora And Luke Scott. -Keith Law via Matt Wieters Facts

by Stacey on Nov 12, 2009 12:28 PM EST up reply actions

Hmm

I didn’t even notice the Alex Gonzalez vote. My eyes must have glazed over after seeing Bay.

Maybe some of these votes are Woody Paige-esque. I remember him saying that he would’ve voted for Goose Gossage for the HOF even if he hadn’t thought he was worthy, and all because he was really nice to him once and they were both from Colorado.

"The United States is the New York Yankees of countries...powerful and respected until the year 2000." - Homer J. Simpson

by Brotz13 on Nov 12, 2009 12:52 PM EST up reply actions

Even worse

Mauer has 24 first place votes and 4 non-first place votes…and there are five first place votes for players other than Mauer…which means someone voted for Jeter, Douchera, or Greinke and then LEFT MAUER OFF THE BALLOT ENTIRELY.

Rationalize that!

"I like baseball, movies, good clothes, whiskey, fast cars ... and you. What else you need to know?"

by Andrew_G on Nov 12, 2009 4:26 PM EST up reply actions

Absurd

Some Day, Matt Wieters Will Make The Cooperstown Crowd Laugh By Talking About The Time He Batted Behind Melvin Mora And Luke Scott. -Keith Law via Matt Wieters Facts

by Stacey on Nov 12, 2009 4:31 PM EST up reply actions

Kubel had a pretty badass year. But still...

by O'sFan21 on Nov 12, 2009 5:44 PM EST up reply actions

Who votes for these?

I gather it’s all across SBN, but I’ve noticed there’s 29 votes for the AL and 31 for the NL. Two per team blog, more or less, and you only vote for your league?

Cry havoc and unleash the Esskay hot dogs of war! - The Wayward Oriole, Opening Day 2008

by Eat More Esskay on Nov 12, 2009 1:21 PM EST reply actions

It's supposed to be

two votes per blog and each blog only votes for their league. Additionally, the general baseball blogs (Beyond the Boxscore, Driveline Mechanics, MLB Daily Dish, and I guess Minor League Ball) got one ballot for each league.

So if everyone voted there would be 32 votes for the AL and 36 for the NL, but there must have been a few who didn’t send in ballots. There’s been some talk of releasing the ballots, which I hope they do because some of those votes are so silly. Juan Pierre got two votes!

Some Day, Matt Wieters Will Make The Cooperstown Crowd Laugh By Talking About The Time He Batted Behind Melvin Mora And Luke Scott. -Keith Law via Matt Wieters Facts

by Stacey on Nov 12, 2009 1:26 PM EST up reply actions