Baseball Brunch: Joe, Albert and the Rest Of the Award Winners

Every Sunday, MLB FanHouse empties out its notebook in Baseball Brunch.

Ron Gardenhire was asked how teams try to pitch Joe Mauer.

"I can't give you all that information," Gardenhire, the Twins manager, said of his No. 3 hitter. "You'll write it and then other people might figure it out."

So you know, Ron, how to get him out?

"Hell, no, I don't! That's why I don't want to say anything.

"You just better have your defense standing in the right place, and that's where he's going to hit the ball hard -- that normally works. Catch the rocket that he's going to hit somewhere."

It's awards time here at Baseball Brunch, and we're casting our lot in the AL MVP race with Mr. Mauer.

Derek Jeter, Mark Teixeira, Kevin Youkilis, Miguel Cabrera, Kendry Morales -- nice years, guys. Very nice.

But come on.

Mauer leads the American League in batting, on-base percentage and slugging percentage. And he's a catcher. Maybe as not as good a catcher as Teixeira is a first baseman, but at least as good a catcher as Jeter is a shortstop.

And better offensively, this year, than both of them.

If Mauer was playing in New York, teammate Michael Cuddyer said, "It would be ridiculous. He'd be everywhere. He would be on every billboard, every magazine cover.

"He's having arguably the best year in the history of the position. Not even arguably, really. It's pretty much the best year in the history of the position."

And that's a pretty good MVP argument.

With one caveat. We had some hesitation on Mauer because he missed the first month because of an inflamed joint in his lower back. So he has fewer total bases than Teixeira and fewer hits than Jeter. And playing time is an explicit criterion for picking the MVP.

But Mauer will end up playing in 137 or 138 games, only eight or nine fewer than last year, and with about 600 plate appearances. That's about 100 fewer than Jeter or Teixeira, but more than Youkilis. He will have been the DH more, with nearly 300 fewer innings caught than in 2008 -- but still sixth- or seventh-most innings caught in the league.

Our conclusion: his overwhelming production, and his near constant playing since returning, make up for the missed month.

Just for icing, Mauer leads the AL in batting average at home, on the road, against right-handers and in night games. He is second in average with runners in scoring position, third in average in day games and fourth in average vs. lefties.

• NL MVP: Even an easier pick than in the AL. St. Louis' Albert Pujols also leads his league in on-base percentage and slugging percentage -- plus homers, runs scored, total bases, grand slams and extra-base hits. Like Mauer, he's second in batting average with men in scoring position.

Also worthy of being on the ballot: Hanley Ramirez, Chase Utley, Prince Fielder, Derrek Lee, Troy Tulowitzki, Adrian Gonzalez, Andre Ethier and Ryan Howard.

• AL Cy Young Award: There should not be a debate. The MVP award should -- in our opinion, because that is what it has come to represent -- contain an element of contributing to a contender. But not the Cy Young.

And Kansas City's Zack Greinke is the best pitcher in the AL. Period. Felix Hernandez, Justin Verlander and CC Sabathia are great. And if Greinke wasn't around, it would be a tasty three-way debate.

But this year, that debate is about second place.

• NL Cy Young Award: A similar three-way choice between San Francisco's Tim Lincecum and St. Louis teammates Chris Carpenter and Adam Wainwright. They're 1-2-3 in ERA and 1-2-4 in wins.

Carpenter has been the most brilliant and dominant, but he's not in the top 10 in the NL in innings pitched because of early-season health issues. Lincecum has the lowest OPS allowed, but he plays in a great pitcher's park. And while we don't want to give wins too much weight, they are significant, and Wainwright leads the league.

So Wainwright, by a hair.

• AL Rookie of the Year: What a great season for rookie talent, in both leagues. The White Sox are pushing third baseman Gordon Beckham, who has hit well (he has a ways to go defensively) but wasn't called up until June. And if Beckham is a candidate, Baltimore outfielder Nolan Reimold should be as well. Reimold leads Beckham in on-base percentage, slugging percentage and homers.

Texas' Elvis Andrus, meanwhile, has played all season -- excelling at shortstop with acceptable production at the plate for a 20-year-old.

And here we have to compare apples and oranges. How do we judge these position players against a closer (Oakland's Andrew Bailey with his .168 opponents' average) and starters (Detroit's Rick Porcello, Toronto's Ricky Romero, Tampa Bay's Jeff Niemann and Oakland's Brett Anderson)?

Tough call, but we go with Porcello. He's 20, he made 30 starts while pitching in a pennant race to the finish and he went 14-9 with a 4.04 ERA.

• NL Rookie of the Year: Just as loaded, with Philadelphia's J.A. Happ, Atlanta's Tommy Hanson, Randy Wells of the Cubs, Milwaukee's Casey McGehee, Florida's Chris Coghlan, Colorado's Dexter Fowler and Pittsburgh's Garrett Jones and Andrew McCutchen.

If we whittle it down to one position player and one pitcher, we get Coghlan (229 total bases, 82 runs scored and .319 average) over McCutchen and Jones and a very close call between Happ (12-4, 2.85 ERA) vs. Hanson (11-4, 2.89 ERA).

The cop-out would be to go with Coghlan to avoid the choice between the pitchers. But while Hanson is a terrific prospect, Happ threw 164 innings and the Phillies would have been in big trouble without him.

• AL Manager of the Year: Great job by Ron Washington to help make the Rangers relevant. Jim Leyland may take the Tigers from worst to first -- their first division title since 1987!

But Mike Scioscia didn't just guide the Angels to another division title. He kept the team from falling apart through a rough first few months, not only because of a rash of pitching injuries but also because of the death of Nick Adenhart. Managing a team is about managing people, and Scioscia did a great job this year.

(Amazingly, Joe Girardi will manage his team to 102 or 103 wins and not get a sniff of this award.)

• NL Manager of the Year: We have a vote on this award this year, so due to BBWAA rules, we can't reveal our vote before the award is announced in November.

But there are good candidates. Fredi Gonzalez kept the Marlins in contention for 25 weeks. Tony La Russa had little in his lineup other than Pujols for the first three months. Charlie Manuel got the Phillies back on top, as did Joe Torre with the Dodgers. And Colorado has gone 74-41 since Jim Tracy took over for Clint Hurdle -- the equivalent of a 104-win season.

Overheard and Understood

• The Angels could look a bit different in 2010. Unless owner Arte Moreno puts his foot down, they seem likely to not pick up the option on Vladimir Guerrero. Then, if Bobby Abreu comes back -- no slam dunk -- he could be the DH. Otherwise, it could rotate among a few players. Ace John Lackey is bound to go elsewhere, as mentioned last week in this space, meaning the Angels will probably try to add a mid-rotation pitcher.

Chart of the Week
No team has ever been more efficient at stealing bases than the recent vintage Phillies -- who have three of the seven best seasons ever in stolen-base percentage:
Team	SB%
2007 Phillies	87.9
2008 Phillies	84.5
1994 Orioles	84.1
1995 Blue Jays	82.4
1975 Reds	82.4
2004 Mets	82.3
2009 Phillies	82.3
2007 Diamondbacks	82.0
STATS LLC

The potential free agent the Angels feel the best about keeping, although it isn't a sure thing, is leadoff man Chone Figgins. And if he comes back, he'd likely move to left field, with Juan Rivera going from left to right and Brandon Wood taking over at third.

• The Reds, whose attendance will drop about 15 percent from 2008, have to cut payroll for 2010. Which could make some pitching available on the trade market.

• By going 57-24 at home, the Yankees tied the record for most wins in the first year at a new park. The Red Sox went 57-20 at Fenway Park in 1912.

• We have gone six years without a World Series going to a deciding game, the longest such stretch since 1913-23. In fact, there hasn't been more than one winner-takes-all postseason game in any year since 2004 (the two LCS).

• Through June 14, Washington had 16 losses in its opponent's final at-bat and just three wins in its final at-bat. But since then, the Nats have 12 last-at-bat wins and eight last-at-bat losses.

• Jason Bartlett is likely to be the second Tampa Bay player ever to finish in the top 10 in the AL in batting average. The other? Aubrey Huff, when he hit .311 in 2003 to finish ninth in the league.

• The Rockies are the second team since the 1989 Blue Jays to reach the playoffs after being 12 games under .500 at some point. The other was the 2005 Astros.

• Pujols has an NL-record 184 assists from first base. He also the big-league record of 184, set by Bill Buckner in 1985. In other words, don't leave Pujols in for the ninth inning of Game 6 of the 2010 World Series.