AMERICAN LEAGUE ROUND UP - THE AL CY YOUNG AND MVP

by Matt Minucci

The American League! What a party.

Way back 'round the All-Star break I took you through a blow by blow analysis of who I thought were the most deserving candidates for the American League and National League's top hardware - the Cy Young and MVP. Now, with the baseball season winding down, we'll see how those mid-season studs wound up. Over the next two days, we'll see how my picks panned out and who, in fact, are the leading candidates for these hallowed seasonal awards.

First up, the American League MVP. At the middle of the season, my pick was Joe Mauer, catcher for the Minnesota Twins and very little has happened to change my mind on this matter. I picked Mauer and I think the stats will show that in all likelihood, Mauer will walk away with the MVP award. But first, let's run through the also-rans:

Big time flops...high five!

Three big time candidates - in my analysis - fell off the map over the 2nd half of the season. First, talented Ray third baseman, Evan Longoria, was hitting .283 with 18 HR and 69 RBIs at the break. Sadly, an August swoon left him floundering. While he did bounce back in September to finish with a respectable .281-31-108 line (with 10 games left), his late season slump combined with the Rays collapse leaves Longoria on the outside looking in.  

Slugging first baseman, Justin Morneau of the Twins, had some fantastic mid-season stats, with a .317-21-71 line. I thought he'd contend for both the HR and RBI title easily. However, an injury ended his season early and he managed just 9 HR and 29 RBI in the 2nd half, to finish with a still solid 30-100 line, but his batting average plummeted from .317 to .271 and with it went his MVP hopes.  

Finally, Angels OF Torii Hunter was streaking to the break with a .305-17-65 line, and had 13 stolen bases to go with it. However, while he stayed consistent in average, his power and RBI numbers vanished as other hitters - namely Kendry Morales and a healthy Vladdy Guerrero picked up the slack. Hunter managed just 5 homers and 21 RBIs in the 2nd half and his .304-22-86 line is good, but not MVP worthy. Not even close.  

Way to go fellas! Epic fail.

One more player deserves mention here: that Seattle hit machine, Ichiro Suzuki. Ichiro went into the break with in typical fashion, hitting .359, but he had just 6 homers and 25 RBIs. He did have 19 steals and 45 runs scored. Suzuki had an equally solid 2nd half, batting .354 with 11 homers and 45 RBIs overall. He has 211 hits, 31 2Bs, 25 steals and 84 runs. A great season for Ichiro and worthy of mention in the MVP also-rans, but not even close to the MVP, especially with Seattle eliminated from post-season contention.

Now, let's look at the finalists:  

6. Kendry Morales, 1B, Anaheim Angels

Kendry's sweet swing has carried the Halos in the 2nd half.

It was widely thought that the Angels lineup would be devastated with the loss of slugging first baseman Mark Teixiera. And it was. For about half the season. Then this kid emerged. Over the first 80 games, Kendry was a solid but not spectacular player, hitting .284 with 15 homers and 49 RBIs. Good numbers, but nothing that would catch your eye. However, over the last 60 games, Morales has hit 16 homers, knocked in 50 runs and hit .318. His overall stats force him into the MVP conversation as he's been instrumental in the Angels capturing yet another AL West crown. I think there's been five better players, but Morales still has to warrant a strong nod here to finish in the top 6. His overall numbers so far:

Player               BA  HR  RBI  2B  Runs Hits Slg OBP

Kendry Morales .304 31 99 42 77 163 .563 .350

5. Jason Bay, OF, Boston Red Sox

Uhm, would you buy, Jason Baywatch? No? Didn't think so.

Bay is never spectacular, but he is solid. A bit of a streaky hitter, he always seems to have just enough streaks to carry a team for large stretches and finish up with great numbers to boot. At the break, Bay was hitting just .258 but had ripped 20 homers and drove in 72 runs. He added 20 doubles, 10 steals and 57 runs while slugging at a .522 clip. In the second half, Bay saw his steals, RBIs and doubles plummet, but he still kept knocking homers and added enough singles to jack his batting average up to a respectable .267. Nevertheless, with David Ortiz floundering and J D Drew and Kevin Youkalis battling nagging injuries, Jason Bay carried the Red Sox offense this year. His overall numbers put him 5th in my MVP ranking, which is not a bad place to be at all. 

Player               BA   HR   RBI   2B   Runs Hits Slg OBP  SB

Jason Bay .267 36 113 27 98 133 .550 .386  13

Miguel Cabrera, 1B, Detroit Tigers  

Cabrera is just a natural. 

Miggy Cabs is a pure hitter. A veritable hit machine, he's going to give you .300-30-100 every single season. It really is just a question of whether anyone else will put up better numbers. Cabrera is so remarkably consistent that, while he won't have a .260-20-80 stinker season, neither does he ever have a .330-40-120 season. This leaves him vulnerable to someone over-taking him in the MVP race. This season, I feel three other players have done this - and all three in three different ways. However, Cabrera still led the Tigers to a probably AL Central crown (tho' the Twins are still right there, threatening 'til the very last weekend it seems.) and deserves mentioning here as the 4th best of the MVPs. Cabs ripped through the first half with a .322-18-51 line, slugging .538 and scoring 52 runs and did pretty much the same thing in the 2nd half. His tally at present:  

Player               BA   HR   RBI   2B   Runs Hits Slg OBP

Miguel Cabrera .331 30 93 33 88 185 .551 .400

The final three come down to pretty much the same guys I looked at, at mid-season. Derek Jeter, Mark Teixiera and Joe Mauer. These three are the best the AL has to offer this season and they've gotten here in three very different ways. Mauer is a catcher - a grinding, difficult position to play and still maintain top hitting numbers over the course of a long season - yet Mauer has done that, winning a batting title as well as hitting with power to lead the Twins in an improbably comeback attempt against the slumping Tigers. Meanwhile, Jeter, the veteran shortstop and captain of the Yankees, is responding to off-season criticism that his skill were eroding, with perhaps one of his finest seasons at the plate, hitting for average and power, netting over 200 hits while scoring over 100 runs and stealing nearly 30 bases. Finally, Mark Teixiera is the gold-glove prototypical slugging first baseman the Yanks have been missing since at least the days of Tino Martinez and possibly since as far back as the glory days of the mid 80's when Don Mattingly ruled the roost. Big Tex has led the Yanks in homers and RBIs while saving an astounding number of runs and errors with his gold glove caliber fielding at first base.

So. Who is the MVP? Well, coming in third is:  

3. Derek Jeter, short stop, New York Yankees

Derek doesn't care that I ranked him 3rd because this is his fiance. Damn.

The captain of the Yankees is having a season to remember at short, and he's doing it as one of the oldest at his position to have this type of season. At the halfway point, Jeter was hitting .325 with 10 homers, 37 ribbies, 18 doubles, 57 runs and 17 steals. He was - and is - the catalyst at the top of a very potent Yankee lineup. The fear was that Jeter would cool down over the second half. He didn't. Jeter raised his average to over .330, he went over the 100 runs and 200 hits mark, and continues to hit, hit with power and be the ignition for the Yankee machine. However, as good as Jeter's been and as good as his numbers are, he simply falls short of the years that teammate Teixeira and Twin Joe Mauer are having. So, he comes in third. Here's Jeter's season with 10 games to go:

Player               BA   HR   RBI   2B   Runs Hits Slg OBP  SB

Derek Jeter .330 17 64 27 104 200 .461 .399  26

2. Mark Teixeira, firstbase, New York Yankees  

Uh. I'm really not sure what's going on in this pic, but I know it's wrong.

Big Tex has provided the Yankees what they have sorely missed since Tino Martinez left. A gold glove first baseman. Add to that the fact that he's one of the best sluggers in all of baseball and you can see why the Yanks made it a priority to sign Tex this off-season. He's been all the Yankees could have hoped for and more. In the first half of the season, Tex hit .280 with a whopping 23 homers and 67 rbi's at the break. He has 24 2Bs, 58 runs and was slugging at a .550 clip. But he hit even better after the break and finds himself poised to lead the American League in both homeruns and RBIs. Teixeira's monster season has made it a real tough call, but my mid-season pick was Mauer, and at the end of the year, Joe's done nothing to change my mind. He is the MVP. We'll see why in a moment. For now, here are Teixeira's gaudy numbers:

Player               BA   HR   RBI   2B   Runs Hits Slg OBP

Mark Teixeira .292 37 118 42 98 169 .567 .383

1. Joe Mauer, Catcher, Minnesota Twins  

Take a bow Joe. You're the MVP.

Joe Mauer has carried the Twins for the entire season. For much of the season he carried it with the help of his partner in crime, slugging first baseman Justin Morneau. But Morneau was lost to injury and Mauer had to soldier on with sporadic help from role players like Michael Cuddyer and Jason Kubel. But the one constant on the Twins this season has been Joe Mauer, ripping the ball all over the field, with power and authority. Add to the fact that Mauer has to manage a beleaguered pitching staff and catch over 140 games, and his numbers become even more astounding. At mid-season, Mauer was hitting an unlikely .367 with 15 homers and 49 RBIs. Conventional wisdom said that the daily grind of catching day-in and day-out would wear him down by years end. It didn't happen. Mauer is finishing up an amazing season by actually raising his average to .372 and he's added another 13 bomb and 40 RBIs. When all is said and done, the American League MVP for 2009 is Twins catcher, Joe Mauer. Here are his numbers:  

Player               BA   HR   RBI   2B   Runs Hits Slg OBP

Joe Mauer .372 28 89 27 88 178 .609 .442  

AMERICAN LEAGUE CY YOUNG 

We'd be 10 games short.

Moving on to the Cy Young award. At mid-season we had an absolute quagmire for this award. You had no less than seven AL starters that had double-digit wins. Plus, you had three others lingering with 8 and 9 wins. Luckily, things have filtered out a bit and it looks like we are down to a nice, neat big three. But first, let's dispatch of the pretenders:  

Mark Buehrle gets the poo-poo platter award for having the worst collapse of all the contenders. At mid-season, Buehrle was 10-3 with a 3.52 ERA and had a perfect game under his belt. But then he crashed harder than Lindsey Lohan on crystal meth. Buehrle went 2-6 in the second half and is floundering now at 12-9 with a 3.84 ERA. Next.  

Mark Buehrle's 2009 2nd half.

Jered Weaver is next. Weaver was a top contender halfway through, rolling to a 10-3 mark and a 3.48 ERA. He had 3 complete games and 124 innings. The second half wasn't as kind as Weaver sputtered with a mediocre 5-4 mark to wind up 15-7 with a 3.87 ERA. Back o' the line Jered.  

Weaver had  trouble in the 2nd half. Because he's blind.

Next up are a couple of Red Sox going in opposite directions - though both are still dominating. In the first half, Josh Beckett rolled with an 11-3 mark and a 3.35 ERA. Meanwhile, Jon Lester struggled with an 8-7 mark and a 3.87 ERA. Beckett, however, went just 4-3 in the 2nd half and saw his ERA balloon to 3.80. Overall he's 15-6, with 187 K's in 201 IP, with 4 complete games and 2 shutouts. Lester, meanwhile, has been perfect in the 2nd half, going 6-0, to wind up 14-7 with a 3.33 ERA and a whopping 215 K's in 194 innings. Both, overall, are having great seasons.  But there's better ones out there.  

Two losers.

Meanwhile, we come to my prohibitive favorite at mid-season, Roy Halladay. So, as good as I was with the MVPs, I was way off with the Cy Young. Doc was ruling the roost at the break, going 11-3 with a crisp 2.73 ERA. However, he completely collapsed along with the rest of the Blue Jays in the second half, going an unsightly 4-7. Overall, he's 15-10 with a 3.01 ERA and 193 Ks in 221 IP. He's got 7 complete games and 2 shutouts, which, while impressive, is just not enough to be the Cy Young.  

Halladay broke down in the 2nd half. And some fantasy owner shot him.

Finally, we get to young Ranger ace, Scott Feldman, who went from a mid-season after thought, to...well...an end season after thought, but at least one who gets his own write up this time. All Feldman does is win. He doesn't strike out a ton of guys. He doesn't complete games. He doesn't shut people out or down. But he never gets hit hard either. At the break, he was 8-3 with a 3.87 ERA and everyone, including me, assumed he'd probably finish around 14-10, 15-9. Wrong. Just kept winning, going 9-2 in the second half, to get to a nice and tidy 17-5 record and a 3.62 ERA. His 104 K's in 176 IP is otherwise ordinary, but he's got the best winning percentage of any starter in the AL. Still, he still falls just short of the top five.  

When not throwing baseballs, Feldman throws smaller players.

5. Mariano Rivera, RP, Yankees  

Putting snow spray on Rivera always makes him seem more festive.

Mo has no shot at winning the Cy Young. But he will get a lot of second and third place votes in recognition of the fantastic season he had as close for the first place Yankees. Rivera does it year in and year out with such regularity that it seems normal. But his numbers are just outstanding. He had 26 saves and a 2.25 ERA at mid-season and only improved on those numbers in the 2nd half. I rank Mariano as 5th in my top 5 as pretty much a shout out to recognize him as the greatest closer of all time, having yet another amazing season. 

Player W L ERA   IP   K   BB  Saves

Mariano Rivera 3 3 1.88   62    69      12       42

4. Justin Verlander, SP Detroit Tigers  

Justin Verlander. He also dances.

If strikeouts are your thing, look no further than fire-baller Justin Verlander of the Detroit Tigers. Verlander hurls the ball 100 mph regularly and has amassed a league leading 245 K's in just 217 innings. At mid-season, Verlander was in top five consideration for the Cy Young, jumping out to a 10-5 mark, holding a 3.34 ERA, striking out 155 guys in 129 innings. My one concern with Verlander was that he is often inconsistent, striking out 10 guys over seven innings, and allowing no runs one day, then, striking out 7 guys over five innings while giving up 6 runs just 5 days later. He needed to be consistent in the second half and he just wasn't, going 6-4 and seeing his ERA rise 0.10 points. His K's have always been there, and he's unquestionably the dominant ace the Tigers need, but he falls just short of the top three. 

Player W L ERA   IP   K   CG Sho

Justin Verlander 16  9 3.44  217    245    3   1