American League MVP Award Goes Out to Mauer

The AL MVP Award was given by the Baseball Writers Association of America to 26-year-old Joe Mauer, the Minnesota Twins’ catcher. The award was given just recently when Mauer received 27 of the 28 first-place votes, beating the Yankees duo Mark Teixera and Derek Jeter who finished second and third, respectively. The remaining first-place vote went to Detroit first baseman Miguel Cabrera who only came in fourth with 171 points. Mauer is only the second catcher in 33 years to win the American League MVP Award. Joe is the second Twins player to win the award, following Justin Morneau in 2006. Now the Twins have a pair of MVP’s in their arsenal. Joe Mauer was the first pick in the first round of the 2001 draft by the Minnesota Twins. Joe Mauer near unanimous in winning the award Mauer has all the sides to the story by getting the 27 first-place votes out of 28. He finished the MVP race with 327 points and with a big lead ahead of Mark Texeira who had 225 points. That’s a big enough difference to capture the priceless award. Texeira’s team mate in the Yankees, Derek Jeter, finished with 193 points. The fourth on the list was the only other person who received the last first-place vote, Miguel Cabrera. Mauer also has three batting titles in his closet. Mauer had his best season yet in 2009. He batted .365 enough to get his second batting title and score his third in only four seasons. He is also one of the ten players in AL history with three or more batting titles. Not only did Joe lead the league in batting average, he also led the on-base percentage with .444. He was also the leader in slugging percentage with .587.  He’s only 26 years old, and he accomplished all these. He also set career highs this season with 28 home runs and 96 RBIs. He did this even though he had a back injury in April. He was frustrated watching the team play and he couldn’t do anything about it. He considered the injury a blessing in disguise though. He said the minor rehabilitation assignment forced him to do more core work on his abdominal muscles. This injury to Mauer also made a big impact to the Minnesota Twins’ overall gameplay. The Twins were reminded of how it is to “lose the Gold Glove Award-winning catcher behind the plate.” The Twins went without Mauer on an 11-11 record, but when he came back to the club they bounced back to 76-65. The award does not only give Mauer fame and honor but also a dashing $100,000 bonus. Year 2010 will be a tough season for the Twins as Mauer is set to enter his final year in his four-year $33 million contract, and the Twins are not shy to say that they have a big desire to capture Mauer and sign him for a long-term extension.