Posted by Brian Joseph on Sunday, October 25, 2009 at 2:54 am

What is an Awards voting season without a little controversy? And BDD isn’t without some controversy surrounding the ‘09 voting results. The MVP votes were tabulated over a week ago and at the time of the results Minnesota’s Joe Mauer was BDD’s unanimous selection for American League MVP. Since those votes were counted, BDD writer Bill Baer also cast his votes for the Baseball Bloggers Alliance Awards and posted his ballot for that award at BDD. One quick look at his write-up and Mauer’s name is noticably absent from the top spot on his ballot. But, for now, Mauer is the unanimous MVP selection by BDD writers as Baer never asked to change his original BDD ballot from Mauer to Ben Zobrist. (Editor’s Note: It’s the best we could do for controversy when you have a player receive 15 of 15 first-place votes.)

Mauer posted arguably the best offensive season for a catcher in the history of baseball. Joe led the American League in batting average, on-base percentage and slugging percentage with a batting line of .365/.444/.587, all three being career highs. He also posted career highs in home runs (28) and RBI (96) and also scored 94 runs. Mauer’s batting average stayed above .400 until June 21st and was recognized as BDD’s Player of the Month in May. Despite missing the first month of the season, Mauer played in 118 games and made 113 starts with the Twins posting a 74-59 when he was in the starting lineup. The Twins catcher finished second in WAR in the American League behind Zobrist (8.2 to Zobrist’s 8.5) but Mauer crushed the rest of the American League with a 91.0 VORP, well ahead of Derek Jeter who was second in the AL in VORP at 72.8.

Others receiving votes:

• Mark Teixeira, New York Yankees
  Teixeira finished second in BDD’s voting. He posted a .292/.383/.565 batting line in his first year in New York and led the American League in home runs (39) and RBI (122).
• Ben Zobrist, Tampa Bay Rays
  Did Zobrist get a first-place vote or not? Until Baer weighs in on the controversy, we won’t know. No matter what, the Rays second baseman/utilityman had a career year in Tampa Bay. His .297/.405/.543 batting line, 28 doubles, 7 triples, 27 home runs, 91 RBI, 91 runs scored and 17 steals were all career highs. Zobrist played every position except catcher for the Rays and had a combined 18.5 UZR which helped put him over the top in FanGraph’s WAR by 0.3 over Mauer.
• Derek Jeter, New York Yankees
  Jeter had one of his best years with a .334/.406/.465 batting line and produced 18 home runs, 66 RBI and scored 107 times. He was also 30-for-35 on steal attempts and the three time Gold Glove winner often refuted by advanced defensive metrics posted a positive UZR (6.4) for the first time since the metric was calculated in ‘02. You can teach an old dog new tricks, I guess? With or without his “improvement” in the volitale UZR, it’s likely Jeter was the same guy at shortstop (at age 35, how much more talented could he become?) but at least his plus UZR takes one more bullet out of the hater gun often aimed at Captain Clutch if he collects his fourth Gold Glove.
• Kevin Youkilis, Boston Red Sox
  Youkilis was a major contributor to the Red Sox Wild Card run. His career high .961 OPS season was worth 5.5 WAR and the corner infielder also added 27 home runs, 94 RBI and 99 runs scored.
• Miguel Cabrera, Detroit Tigers
  Cabrera was in the top 10 in the American League in batting average (4th at .324), on-base percentage (6th at .396), slugging percentage (6th at .547), hits (4th with 198), total bases (3rd with 334), home runs (6th with 34) and RBI (8th with 103).
• Ichiro Suzuki, Seattle Mariners
  Ichiro collected his 2,000th Major League hit in ‘09 but the vote the Seattle outfielder received wasn’t out of nostalgia. The consistent All-Star became the first player to ever collect 200 hits in nine consecutive years. His .352 batting average was the second highest in the AL and Ichiro led the American League with 225 hits, the sixth time in his career Suzuki led in that category.
• Zack Greinke, Kansas City Royals
  BDD’s Cy Young selection also received some MVP love. For more on Greinke’s amazing season, read the post recognizing the Royals ace as our AL Cy Young selection.
• Alex Rodriguez, New York Yankees
  How much of an impact did A-Rod have on the Yankees run to 100-plus wins? Forget his .286/.402/.532 batting line, 30 homers and 100 RBI. Instead, let’s bring some attention to the Yankees record when A-Rod was in the lineup — 81-41 (.664). Since they were only 22-19 (.537) without him (13-15 before his return from injury), it’s hard to argue that Rodriguez didn’t make the Yankees drastically better.
• Jason Bartlett, Tampa Bay Rays
  Last year, the BBWAA voted for Bartlett enough for him to finish 18th in the AL MVP balloting. In ‘09, Bartlett improved offensively with a career year. His batting line of .320/.389/.490 were all career highs as were his 14 homers, 66 RBI, 90 runs scored and 30 steals. If he continues to turn in great offensive years like this, Bartlett will never reach the scrappy status of David Eckstein.
• Kendry Morales, Los Angeles Angels
  Many expected the Angels to take a huge step backward at first base after losing out on the Teixeira sweepstakes. Morales did everything he could to make sure that wasn’t the case. He hit .306/.355/.569 and slammed 34 homers and knocked in 108. If you’re scoring at home (or even if you are alone) that’s only five homers less than Teixeira and 14 RBI short of what the Yankee did in New York. Plus, Morales turned in a very good defensive season at first base.

Here’s what the BDD team had to say:

Bill Baer
When casting his BDD ballot, Bill said: “Zobrist may be a star in the making, but Joe Mauer had an outstanding year playing the most important position on the field.” This conflicted with his final BBA ballot which he explains here. Billy, you got some more ’splainin’ to do! (Editor’s Note: In an e-mail reply, Bill explained to me that he did further research after his BDD ballot was cast which changed his voting decisions.)

Brian Joseph
“One of the best offensive seasons for a catcher… ever? How can I ignore that? By no means is this bias because I selected him in BDD’s Dream Draft in the off-season, Mauer was the real deal in ‘09! The Yankees were so good, I couldn’t decide if Teixeira or A-Rod were more valuable so I just put them second and third. Did I mention that Mauer was my top selection in the BDD Dream Draft after nine other experts passed on him?”

Eric Polsky
“This is also a very easy choice. Mauer was the best hitter in the AL and he also did so while playing the toughest position possible — not to mention he helped carry the Twins to the postseason after the injury to Justin Morneau.”

Zach Sanders
“Mauer’s added power to his already sweet game made for one great season.”

Michael Street
“Teixiera is a stud among studs, while Mauer had to carry his team, plus he has the demanding role of catcher. Despite this, as well as a month lost to injury, his ratios were stronger than Teix, and his counting stats of 94 R, 96 RBI weren’t that far behind Teixiera’s 103 and 122, who had more men on base to knock in. Cabrera even came close to edging Teix for the same reason, as he did it with a lesser team around him.”

Doug Thorburn
“No single player was more valuable to his team in 2009 than Joe Mauer, not even Pujols. This guy is scary good.”

Isaac Thorn
“Even without Justin Morneau, Minnesota fought its way into the postseason because of Mauer’s production and leadership. I also really like Mauer stealing signs from second base. That shows me he’ll exploit any advantage he can find within the rule book to succeed. I like that.”

Bo Wulf
“Unbelievably productive at catcher and carried the Twins on his back to the playoffs.”