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Mauer Wins AL MVP in Landslide 16
Posted: November 24, 2009, 12:09 PM ; Updated: November 24, 2009, 12:26 PM
NEW YORK (AP) -- Joe Mauer became only the second catcher in 33 years to win the American League Most Valuable Player Award, finishing first in a near-unanimous vote Monday.
The Minnesota Twins star received 27 of 28 first-place votes and 387 points in balloting by the Baseball Writers' Association of America.
Yankees teammates Mark Teixeira (225 points) and Derek Jeter (193) followed, while Detroit's Miguel Cabrera drew the other first-place vote and was fourth with 171 points, one point ahead of the Angels' Kendry Morales.
Mauer became the second Twins player to win in four years, following Justin Morneau in 2006.
After missing April with a back injury, Mauer homered in his first at-bat of the season and went on to lead the AL in batting average (.365), on-base percentage (.444) and slugging percentage (.587), the first AL player to top all three categories in the same season since George Brett in 1980.
Mauer set a major league record for highest batting average by a catcher and won his third batting title, becoming the first repeat batting champion since Nomar Garciaparra in 1999-00.
Mauer set career bests with 28 homers and 96 RBIs, had more walks (76) than strikeouts (63) and batted .378 after Morneau's season-ending back injury Sept. 12, helping the Twins overtake Detroit for the AL Central title. He was voted to his third All-Star team and won his second straight AL Gold Glove.
Born in St. Paul, the 26-year-old can leave the Twins and become a free agent after the 2010 season, when he is due to make $12.5 million. Minnesota is expected to try to sign him to a new deal.
Ivan Rodriguez in 1999 had been the only catcher since Thurman Munson in 1976 to win the AL MVP. The other catchers to win in the AL were Mickey Cochrane (1934), Yogi Berra (1951 and 1954-55) and Elston Howard (1963). NL catchers to win were Gabby Hartnett (1935), Ernie Lombardi (1938), Roy Campanella (1951, 1953 and 1955) and Johnny Bench (1970 and 1972).
In addition to Mauer and Morneau, other Twins to win were Zoilo Versalles (1965), Harmon Killebrew (1969) and Rod Carew (1977).
Mauer receives a $100,000 bonus for winning the award, and Cabrera gets $200,000 for finishing fourth. Cabrera's first-place vote came from Keizo Konishi of Kyodo News, a member of the Seattle chapter.
Teixeira led the AL with 122 RBIs and tied for first with 39 homers. Jeter was second to Morneau in the 2006 voting and finished third behind Juan Gonzalez and Garciaparra in 1998.
Copyright 2009 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
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16 Comments
Baseball slugger
U are half right, Mauer is beast, but a rod stinks, Sure he can hit homers but have u ever seen him in the field... i swear i am a lot better than he is in the field, He cant even Catch pop fly's... He is too scared he'll miss is so he lets JETER get it at shortstop. Also, he is a steroid maniac, he is on the top 100 list for players with access to steroids.I don't get y peeps do it, its stupid, costs money, could kill u, Ruins your bones, and u will get suspended from the league like Manny. Plus, Who needs millions of dollars to play a game of baseball, which should be the sport u love. the time they should pay u is when a player gets hurt, or the first time they sign u, but not for a million bucks. i am not saying that's just A ROID, it's most of the top draft picks, which, personally, i think is ridiculous. Mauer won gold glove for catcher along with yadier Molina, and do u see A ROID with a gold glove at third base... I don't think so, but i could be wrong, which if he does he doesn't deserve it. U can send me a letter if u want to chat or ask me anything because i no anything about baseball.
now is anybody here if not come on
Mauer is awesome and if anybody wants to talk about granderson to the yanks i will be talking about that 24 7
is anybody there
A-rod is way better than joe!I didn't vote because i do not have a cell phone but if i did i would hav voted tons of times!
Soccer dude
Let me remind u that A rod took Steroids
And is a rod a gold glove third baseman, like how how mauer is a gold glove winner for catchers with Yadier Molina
I am a yanks fan and if u want to talk about how good granderson is a how better he is gonna make the yanks then ill talk about that
Not how a rod is better than mauer because he IS NOT!!!!!:)
Are you kidding? Mauer dominated. I'm not saying A-Rod isn't good, just that Mauer was better this year.
I am so happy. I voted a million times. GO TWINS!
u got that bout 85% right. Mauer rocks, but yanks are the best of the best especially now with granderson, Twins are one of the better teams though. they have a good chance of be at least in the playoffs, They got Mauer, Justin, Kevin slowey and Micheal young!!!
I don't agree I think that Miguel Cabrea should have it.
The cubbie need him.
I'm not a baseball fan but i've heard that they have not won a world championship (or what ever you call it) for a long long time!!!!
KEEP dreaming!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
twins WORLD SERIES titles;2. 1987 and 1991
NATIONAL championship...nice try,though!
I'm glad he isn't on the Yankee's
The Yankees could BUY him any time though. They are rich. They, like, purchase players.
wow i connot beleve how they do this!