Short Hops: American League MVP debate should begin, end with Mauer
By Scott Miller | CBSSports.com Senior Writer Follow ScottMINNEAPOLIS -- Short hops, quick pops and backhand stops:
• Understand, it's early yet. There's still a full month to play. Things can change. OK, there. Now. Understanding all of that, there are many, many reasons why Minnesota's Joe Mauer should enter September as easily the leading candidate for the American League Most Valuable Player award.
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| Joe Mauer's defense makes him one of the best all-around players in the game. (Getty Images) |
Plus, at the All-Star Game last month in St. Louis, Seattle's Ichiro Suzuki kept teasing him, calling him "Ted Williams." Now if that isn't the highest compliment, considering the source. ...
"That's pretty neat," the ever-modest Mauer says of his name even being included in the MVP discussion. "But I'm kind of worried about getting to the playoffs and staying on the field."
Which immediately brings up another point: To some voters -- members of the Baseball Writers' Association of America -- the league MVP must play for a contender. Two things here: First, the correct answer is no, not always. Sure, most of the time the MVP should play for a contender because that's part of how you factor in a guy's overall value. But there are -- and should be -- exceptions, years when a player is so extraordinary, even if his team falls out of the race, where that trumps everything else. Think Andre Dawson, who was rightly named MVP in 1987 despite his Chicago Cubs finishing sixth -- dead last -- in the NL East.
Besides, Minnesota is working on removing this last negative. Led by Mauer and Justin Morneau, the usual suspects, the Twins are on the move in a weak division, winning five of their past six games and having moved into a tie with the White Sox for second in the AL Central at midweek, 4½ games behind Detroit.
Not bad for a guy who didn't swing a bat all winter, missed spring training and all of April following offseason kidney surgery.
"Coming into the year, to have gone through what I did, I wasn't sure what to expect," Mauer says. "One thing, when I came back in May and finally started feeling good physically, I knew to maintain that through the whole year would be tough, not having any offseason workouts."
But so far, Mauer says, he's feeling surprisingly fresh and strong even after playing 102 games.
• Mauer, Minnesota's matinee idol, causes more than the local girls to swoon. "I feel lucky to play with him," says shortstop Orlando Cabrera, obtained by the Twins on July 31 from Oakland. "The guy's amazing. Every day, he's so much fun to watch. When I was on the other side, I used to say, 'Man, how can this guy hit so much?' Now, everywhere I go, people ask me, 'Man, how can that guy hit so much?' He has strokes of genius, like the way famous artists paint. His mechanics are solid and his hands are ridiculous. And now this year he's generating so much power [with 25 homers, he's nearly doubled his career high of 13 in 2006]. For me, he's the best player in the game. You can talk about Albert Pujols, but Pujols plays first base. You're comparing that to a catcher. No way."
• Cabrera, who now has played for six teams in 13 seasons, was teammates with Vladimir Guerrero in Montreal and with the Angels, Manny Ramirez and David Ortiz in Boston, Jim Thome with the White Sox and Matt Holliday in Oakland, among others. He says Ramirez and Mauer are the two best hitters he's ever seen. "When those two guys come up to hit, I can be doing anything in the dugout, and I stop everything to watch them," Cabrera says. And Mauer isn't exactly cut like Manny -- or most other sluggers today, for that matter. "He has no muscle," Cabrera says. "I'm telling you, he has no muscle. Nothing. He's just a tall guy that walks into the office."
• It isn't just Mauer's offense, either. No small part of his thick MVP resume is his work behind the plate. Again, interesting observation from Cabrera: "I was always afraid of him, even this year when I was with Oakland. We stole [several] bases, and the next day, Adam Kennedy would ask me, 'What are we going to do today?' And I'd say, 'Keep running.' And he'd say, 'Yeah, but we're playing Minnesota and Mauer is catching. I'm scared of him.' And I'd say, 'Me, too.' So we shut it down. You usually don't get intimidated by another player, but he's in another league."
• Certainly, Teixeira (second in the AL in both homers, 31, and RBI, 93) is a serious MVP candidate, and Derek Jeter is in the conversation. "How many times did Teixeira put up the same numbers in Texas and nobody even talked about it?" Cabrera asks. "I always say, nobody from the Yankees should be MVP. All the players they have, they protect each other [in the lineup]. Why wouldn't you give it to somebody else on another team who is doing exactly the same thing, or better, with a lineup that's not that good?"
• Just asking: With Pittsburgh close to locking up a major league-record 17th consecutive losing season, while playing in a mostly mediocre division with six teams since 1994, wouldn't you think the odds should be far better that the Pirates would win one division title, even simply by dumb luck and good fortune, than they'd go 17 years in a row without even cracking .500?
• It wasn't simply that John Smoltz was against pitching for Triple-A Pawtucket when Boston wanted to send him out on a minor league assignment while trying to figure out what to do with him. No, what Smoltz had a problem with was that the Red Sox wanted to re-work his $5.5 million, incentive-laden contract. That's where things became complicated before Smoltz landed in St. Louis. "Even if I may have wanted to [re-work the contract], I don't know if the union would have let it happen," Smoltz says.
• Smokin' hot Colorado Rockies note of the week: After Ryan Spillborghs' grand slam lifted the Rockies to a bottom-of-the-14th-inning win over San Francisco on Monday night, Colorado television ratings for Tuesday's series-opening showdown with the Dodgers were the highest in the FSN-Rocky Mountain network's history.
• Smokin' hot Colorado Rockies note No. 2: The Rockies are 15-17 in one-run games -- after starting the season 0-8.
• What do Hall of Famers Tris Speaker, Paul Waner and Stan Musial have in common with Baltimore second baseman Brian Roberts? Well, as soon as Roberts punches out two more doubles, he'll join them as the only players in major league history with three-or-more seasons of 50-or-more doubles. "He can use the whole field, he can pull the ball and he can hit the other way as good as anybody in the league, so there's no way to defend him," Orioles hitting coach Terry Crowley says.
• Yes, and a hearty welcome to Brian Matusz, Chris Tillman, David Hernandez and Jason Berken. Rookie pitchers have started 73 of Baltimore's 127 games. "Might as well get them here and start playing them," says manager Dave Trembley, who is fully on board with the youth movement.
• First impressions I, St. Louis Cardinals slugger Matt Holliday on still-new teammate Albert Pujols: "Playing against him ... I understand he's probably the greatest hitter in history. His first nine years were staggering in what I'd call a pitcher's ballpark. The one thing I think I've been most impressed with is, watching him play defense has been a real treat for me. He makes some plays on defense that are unbelievable. He's a great hitter, a great teammate and he's very helpful and very knowledgeable. He's everything you could imagine."
• First impressions II, Holliday on still-new manager Tony La Russa: "He's into every pitch. Very intense. His preparation and the way he handles the bullpen are what I've really noticed. It's been really cool watching him manage. His experience speaks for itself. He's not real loud, but when he talks, he's got something to say. It's pretty cool."
• Totally Minnesota moment: After missing the better part of seven games because of an inner ear infection, Morneau was feeling better and taking early batting practice mid-afternoon Monday at the Metrodome before the opener of the Baltimore series. That, though, isn't the moment. This is: When he was finished, there he was, pulling a ball cart behind him, trudging around center field and picking up the dozens of baseballs he had hit. The guy won the 2006 AL MVP award, and I can't think of many other MVPs or superstars in the big markets who would be out picking up balls after a test-run batting practice while recovering like that. "I figured I hit 'em," Morneau said, shrugging his shoulders.
• In case you're having difficulty understanding that the games are meaning more and more, here are two pretty good indicators: San Francisco closer Brian Wilson threw 41 pitches in Monday night's heartbreaking, 14th-inning loss to Colorado, and Minnesota closer Joe Nathan threw 53 pitches in the Twins' 5-4, 10-inning win Friday in Kansas City. After surrendering a one-run lead in the ninth, Nathan comically waved Gardenhire off at one point in the 10th when the manager went out to replace him. Well, maybe it wasn't so comical at the time. But Gardenhire was laughing about it later, saying that Nathan's outing "passed ridiculous at 42 pitches."
• Not only is Kevin Millwood trying to pitch Texas into the postseason for the first time since 1999, he's also attempting to pitch himself into a guaranteed spot with the Rangers in the future. At 161 innings pitched this year, he's 19 away from hitting a contract incentive guaranteeing him $12 million in 2010.
• Smoltz's smashing debut for St. Louis on Sunday brings to mind three other fairly recent, key midseason pitching acquisitions for the Cardinals: Jeff Weaver in 2006 (5-4, 5.18, before winning three postseason games to help the team win the World Series), Chuck Finley (7-4, 3.80 in 2002) and Woody Williams (7-1, 2.28 in 2001).
• Hey, I believe in love and romance as much as the next guy, but memo to major league marketing departments: Haven't we seen enough marriage proposals on the Jumbotrons by now? Can we please put a moratorium on showing some couple's private moment to thousands of others who apparently need a diversion from their half-eaten pretzels?
