Peers vote Mauer AL Player of the Year
Posted on October 29th, 2009 – 11:30 AMBy Joe Christensen
Joe Mauer’s offseason hardware collection continued Thursday, as he was voted American League Player of the Year by his peers in the Major League Baseball Players Association.
Mauer, 26, is strong candidate for AL MVP honors. That award will be announced Nov. 23 by the Baseball Writers Association of America. This is Mauer’s first Player of the Year selection by the MLBPA.
Albert Pujols took home NL Player of the Year honors for the seventh time.
45 Responses to "Peers vote Mauer AL Player of the Year"
Should have drafted Prior.
/barreiro
I’ve asked a couple people I know and they’ve never heard of this award. Must be made up.
@brianS you probably startled them with your question and their answer was just a stress reaction.
This was a no brainer. MVP to follow shortly.
Was Joe Nathan afraid to vote on this one?
“he was voted American League Player of the Year by his peers”
Pretty small group. What, maybe 5 or 6 guys?
@brianS This vote was so nerve-wracking that Torii Hunter was losing his hair over it.
Who cares about player of the year. I am on the edge of my seat waiting for the “Best Sideburns” catagory results.
@SBG: so, you are thinking that eye-eye didn’t, ah, punch Joe’s ticket?
Can we trade Punto for Utley?
Any word on who won the “getting after it” award this year?
@brianS He tried to, but he accidentally voted for Nick Punto.
Would still love to see him try his hand at 2 sports ala Bo Jackson and Deion Sanders. Start taking hikes now to back up Favre. I am only a casual football and Vikings fan and would still love to see it.
Mauer is a flash in the pan. He’ll never last in the big leagues. You just have to look at the stats. Sure his batting titles look great, but he’s only hit .295 in games the Twins lose — no wonder we lose. He hardly ever gets an infield hit. His BA in balls hit to the infield is just .067. That’s worse than Casilla (.120)! And this whole homerun hitting thing is just a fluke. If you don’t believe me, ask Jim Souhan.
And in former-Twin news… Blue Jays claim Sean Henn off waivers from the Orioles.
@ES16
you’re kidding right? how many infield hits do you think pujols gets every year? you must just be trying to be antagonistic just for the hell of it.
mnjoe,
I was just doing my best T98 imitation.
You couldn’t trade Punto for sacsweat.
I am amazed…You [expletive deleted] bloggers take a complimentary article about Mauer and find a way to turn it into Puntz bashing. Sad lives you people lead.
Nice award or Joe and very deserving considering the year he had and the position he plays. On the Punto thing, I couldn’t help but comment last night that wouldn’t it be nice if we had a second baseman that hit 31 homers during the regular season - ala Utley. That’s all I’m going to say about Punto.
Agreed, DrDon. So I’ll say, “Congratulations,” to Joe Mauer. And then I’m going to offer a new topic. No-o-o, it’s not Nick Punto. Is anybody else troubled by Bud Selig welcoming McGwire back to the game with such fawning?
“Is anybody else troubled by Bud Selig welcoming McGwire back to the game with such fawning?”
Not as troubled as I would be if it was Pete Rose. Baseball can’t just cast aside the likes of McGwire, Bonds and Clemens like they never existed because like it or not they are a part of baseball history.
BC of ND,
And Pete Rose isn’t a part of baseball history?
drzen talk a deep breath and crack open a cold buckhorn and find that inner peace. no need to fret over nicky posts this time of year, unless he gets an extension of course.
think happy thoughts like a-roid and kate walking arm in arm thru central park, and getting mugged by a steriod crazed thug looking for a fix.
I am disturbed that A-Roid is allowed to keep reord numbers for the seasons he admitted to using steriods. He should have to forfiet those numbers from his record. As for McGwire, he hasn’t admitted to anything or been caught, so I don’t know what they can do.
ES16
He is but bringing him back into baseball would bother me more because his crime in my opinion is unforgivable.
Ggg, a “steroid crazed thug looking for a fix?” Like McGwire?
Seriously, though, I’m not suggesting, BC, that baseball try and act like the roiders never existed. I think Selig is trying to act like there were no steroids; no man behind the curtain, if you will. I am suggesting Selig could’ve/should’ve said something to the effect that McGwire is welcome back, but first, “You got some ’splainin’ to do! Oh, and Markie, you are baseball’s new anti-doping ambassador responsible for speaking to kids about staying off the juice and for promoting telling the truth to the U.S. Congress!” Something along those lines.
I think every team would like to have a 2nd baseman that hits 31 homers. Every team would also like to have a catcher that hits 30 along with batting titles. Count your blessings.
We happen to have a 2nd baseman that I am ok with as long as he doesn’t even have home run in the back of his mind. Once he leveled his swing and guarded the plate he was just fine. If we had lost the division by a game I would be mad he didnt figure it out quicker. As it was, he did figure it out and we won the division and then played ok in the playoffs except for one play. What more do you want? We had 8 other guys that didn’t hit home runs against the Yankees.
I hope the Phillies win it all. I beleive if they were in the AL EAst they would have finished 3rd or 4th so they are the reason I say get to the playoffs and anything can happen.
Cheating at the game is less forgivable than betting on the game, in my opinion, unless he was betting against his own team. Obviously, baseball shares your opinion BC, not mine.
“”gobbledygookguy says:
October 29th, 2009 at 2:48 pm
drzen talk a deep breath and crack open a cold buckhorn and find that inner peace. no need to fret over nicky posts this time of year,”"
I don’t fret of posts about the Puntz…I just think it is nonsense that it even gets referred to in a complimentary article about Mauer. So, I will have a cold beer and a smoke and take a nap…screw it. 
Why should BigMac have to do anything above and beyond the others who’ve been exposed. Except that the Mac hasn’t really been “exposed” other than what we all know; but his name hasn’t come up for official “outification” yet.
When his turn for outification comes around, he should only have to call a single press conference and read the standard MLB press release that says, “I am very sorry for nothing. I was young and stupid. I used bad judgement concerning something. But I haven’t done whatever it is since I signed my huge fat contract after posting inflated stats. Again, I am sorry for whatever it is. Now give me my huge million dollar paycheck please, and leave me alone and don’t ask me about this any more. Thank you all for coming today.”
BC,
I’m not saying Rose should be forgiven for what he did, but I find it far less disgusting than what all the juice boys did. What Rose did had nothing to do with his stats and records. Conversely, the juice had everything to do with stats and records.
The moderator is out of control!!!!!!!
All my comments are in moderation………
If you dont think he bet against his team then your being naive. Fixing the outcome of a game ruins the game.
It’s true nobody else had to do anything special, heetcpa, including one Manny Ramirez who was the latest to be outed. When you get right down to it, I guess I just wish baseball had a stronger leader who was willing to confront these guys for what they did rather than glossing the whole thing over. To me, it emphasizes baseball’s (the commish, owners, union) complicity with the whole thing. Wink, wink, glad to have ‘ya back, Mac, you big galoot, you. Ugh.
I believe he bet on his team. If you think he bet against his team then you are being cynical.
Of course fixing the outcome ruins the game just as cheating does. I did not get caught up in the hype of the McGwire/Sosa homerun battle. It didn’t pass the sniff test with me.
Rose betting against his own team seemed to me to be against his nature. Of course I may be wrong without being naive.
All this speculation on which team Rose might have been on sort of illustrates the point as to why betting on the game isn’t allowed. It’s the appearance of impropriety that ultimately does the damage. Which is exactly why I htink Selig shouldn’t be so wishy-washy with McGwire et al. Where’s Crikket when you need him? He’s always good for some Selig bashing!
My understanding is Rose bet on his team while he was the manager. This could lead him to doing things that aren’t in the best interest of the team. Short term solutions rather than long term. Such as maybe using his closer longer to maximize the chance for a win today at the expense of his closer being unavailable for the next game or games.
Mauer may be a good choice for player of the year, but not for MVP after hit t i ng into double plays in all those critical situations
Twins have to keep Joe at all costs. Better resign him to a long term contract soon. Twins haven’t had a good second baseman since Chuck Knoblach went to the Yankees. I am hoping Casilla just had a sophmore off year and will rebound next season. If Punto gets off to a good start, and can hit above .260 the job is his.
Another big question Is Crede. If he doesn’t return we need to see if Valencia is ready to come up. Tolbert, Harris and Buscher all seem to be perennial back ups.
Not a terrific showing by the Yanks at home. They win a closely contested one tonight, and kind of got dominated last night.
Philly does its job with a 1-1 split.
The tenth player for the Yanks coming into the picture in game 3, Romer. A-Rod’s homer was called a home run although it would not have gone out if the camera was not there. Further proof that instant replay is not 100% accurate and should not even be in Major League Baseball.
“instant replay is not 100% accurate and should not even be in Major League Baseball.”
Unlike the umpires, who are so often inaccurate, that all their questionable calls should be subjected to review.
If 100% accuracy is the goal, umpires should NEVER be given final authority, because NO UMPIRE REMOTELY APPROACHES 100% ACCURACY.
sane
as a coach, you would know that first hand, am I right?
with Blanton going, it’ll be tough for the Phils to keep up at this point. Lee can’t pitch every game.
matt,
“as a coach, you would know that first hand, am I right?”
Yes, but I also umpired many years ago.
I did a pretty good job (I thought) when the game held my interest.
When I was umpiring a game that became long and boring, my concentration and focus went to hell and my sharp judgement followed close behind.
“The eye in the sky (video cameras)don’t lie”, but human observation of events can be deceptive.
Spend some time on jury duty, and listen to contradictory eye-witness testimony.
IMO, the “human factor” as furnished by umpires should be minimized as much as possible from all rule (and law) enforcement.
