Major League Baseball

Mauer gets nod in AL MVP voting ... for now

Published Aug. 20, 2009 5:16 p.m. ET

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A sampling of recent baseball headlines:

"For Teixeira and Mauer, MVP Chase Is On" ... "Has Tex Locked Up MVP Already?" ... "Yankees Know Teixeira Might Be Most Valuable" ... "Yankees Win, Teixeira for MVP?" ... "Mark It Down Now: Mark Teixeira for 2009 AL MVP" ... "The New Murderers Row and the MVP That Is Responsible" ...




It's not hard these days to find someone — someone notionally divorced from blind partisanship and the lunacies therein — who believes the Yankees' Mark Teixeira should win the AL MVP award. There's a word for this all-too-common sentiment: stupid.

To be sure, Teixeira is having an excellent season. He's hitting .288 AVG/.385 OBP/.562 SLG, and he's got 30 home runs and 32 doubles. And that's to say nothing of his customarily strong defense at first base. But he's not the MVP, and this much is beyond dispute.

Unless things change drastically between now and the end of the regular season, Twins catcher Joe Mauer is the only sensible choice for AL MVP. Mauer is hitting .378 (to lead the majors), and he's besting Teixeira by 61 points in OBP and 68 points in SLG. As well, Mauer plays a far more demanding position, and he plays his home games in a park that's far less accommodating toward hitters.

Throughout recent history, the Metrodome has played as a notable pitcher's environment, while the new Yankee Stadium has thus far inflated run-scoring levels by roughly 3 percent.

To put a finer point on it, Teixeira has hit just 11 home runs away from hitter-friendly Yankee Stadium, and his slugging percentage is almost 150 points worse on the road. In fact, Tex has a road batting line of .267/.374/.489, while the average AL first baseman this season has hit .270/.353/.486. Stated another way, get Teixeira out of his home yard — a yard that's deliriously kind to left-handed power hitters — and he's little better than the positional mean. That's not an MVP.

Care to make an argument from the standpoint of "clutchness?" Knock yourself out ...

Unwisely sucked in by Teixeira's RBI total (he presently leads Mauer 86 to 73)? Don't be. Teixeira has more RBI than Mauer only because he's had many more RBI opportunities (he's had 362 runners on base ahead of him this season, while Mauer has had just 228). More to the point, Teixeira has driven in 15.5 percent of runners in 2009, and Mauer has driven in 22.4 percent. Once again, advantage Mauer. Simply put, Mauer has been the better player, and it's impossible to argue otherwise.

Of course, most fans and writers who advocate a vote for Teixeira are doing so because they believe an MVP must come from a playoff-bound team. (Never mind that, since the Baseball Writers Association of America took over the balloting, 47 MVPs have played for teams that didn't make the postseason.) So in order to disabuse people of this notion —and to give them remedial lessons in what the word "value" means — let's have a look at the ballot instructions mailed out to each voter each year:

"Dear Voter:

There is no clear-cut definition of what Most Valuable means. It is up to the individual voter to decide who was the Most Valuable Player in each league to his team. The MVP need not come from a division winner or other playoff qualifier.

The rules of the voting remain the same as they were written on the first ballot in 1931:

1. Actual value of a player to his team, that is, strength of offense and defense.
2. Number of games played.
3. General character, disposition, loyalty and effort.
4. Former winners are eligible.
5. Members of the committee may vote for more than one member of a team.

You are also urged to give serious consideration to all your selections, from one to 10. A 10th-place vote can influence the outcome of an election. You must fill in all 10 places on your ballot.

Keep in mind that all players are eligible for MVP, and that includes pitchers and designated hitters.

Only regular-season performances are to be taken into consideration."

The ballot instructions sent to each voter specifically say, "The MVP need not come from a division winner or other playoff qualifier." As pointed out in this discussion at Baseball Think Factory, those same ballot instructions define, quite clearly, what the word "value" means insofar as the MVP is concerned: "strength of offense and defense." Once more for those in willful denial: value, as defined in rule No. 1 above, means the strength of a player's offense and defense. It manifestly does not mean the player with the most RBI or most home runs or dirtiest uniform on a team bound for the playoffs. And, again, that's straight from the BBWAA ballot instructions.

The "MVP must come from a playoff team" line of thinking is an imported standard — one plainly at odds with the rules — and it's time for voters to realize this fact. We saw this nonsense in the NL last season when any number of observers tried to pretend that Ryan Howard was anywhere close to as valuable as Albert Pujols.

So enough already. Voters, your instructions are unambiguous — the standings don't matter when it comes to selecting an MVP. Even if that criterion were allowable, it would make no sense. This is baseball. You can't let Peyton Manning throw the ball 50 times or give LeBron James 50 looks at the basket. A batter can come to plate only once every nine times, and a starting pitcher most often can take the ball only once every five days. To penalize Mauer because his teammates are worse than Teixeira's is the depth and breadth of sloppy thinking. Oh, and it's also against the rules.

If you must, argue that Teixeira has been more valuable than Mauer this season, but do so knowing that you're dead wrong.

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