MLB Mlb Awards

Albert Pujols won his second straight National League MVP Tuesday, a unanimous selection of the Baseball Writers' Association of America.

Pujols is just the sixth player in National League history to win the award unanimously , and the first since Barry Bonds, who swept the honors in 2002. He is also the 12th player in either league to win the award in consecutive seasons. Bonds was also the last player to accomplish that feat, winning MVP in four straight seasons from 2001-04.

It is the third time Pujols has won the award -- he also won in 2005 -- and he has finished in the top five in the MVP voting in every year of his career except one, 2007, when he finished ninth.

Twins catcher Joe Mauer was a nearly unanimous selection for 2009 American League MVP by the Baseball Writers' Association of America, receiving 27 of 28 first-place votes to win the award in a landslide Monday.

He beat out Yankee teammates Mark Teixeira and Derek Jeter, who finished second and third, respectively, to win the award for the first time in his career. Tigers first baseman Miguel Cabrera, who finished fourth in the voting, was the only other player to receive a first-place vote.

Mauer hit .365 to win the batting title for the second straight season and third time in his career, matching the total number of batting titles won by all other catchers in major league history. Babe Phelps is the only backstop in major league history to qualify for a batting title and hit for a higher average, hitting .367 for the 1936 Brooklyn Dodgers.

But Mauer's triumph is complete. In addition to winning the batting title, he also led the American League in on-base percentage, slugging and OPS, a feat never accomplished by a catcher before.

Since Zack Greinke and Tim Lincecum won Cy Young awards this week with modest victory totals, there has been much discussion about how baseball writers are finally moving into the 21st century and looking beyond the win column.

Although I'm all for patting baseball writers on the back -- since I am one, and I did vote for Greinke -- I think in the case of the NL Cy Young, my colleagues may have looked past victories, and still picked the wrong guy to make their point.

Let's start with the ol' FIP, or Fielding Independent Pitching. FIP is a stat intended to quantify how well a pitcher performed based solely on the things in his control (strikeouts, walks and homers) without regard to the vagaries of the defense behind him.

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Tim Lincecum won his second consecutive Cy Young Award on Thursday, pulling out a narrow victory that is likely to be the story of this awards season.

The Giants' 25-year-old flame-thrower edged out Cardinals' teammates Chris Carpenter and Adam Wainwright in an election that was just as tight and unpredictable as expected, with a twist at the end.

Lincecum (15-7, 2.48) had the fewest victories of any starter to win the Cy Young in a nonstrike season, and he also became only the second pitcher to win the Cy Young without getting the most first-place votes.

Lincecum received 11 first-place votes among the 32 ballots cast, from two writers in each National League city. Wainwright got 12 first-place votes, but he finished third because he had only five second-place votes. Carpenter, the only one of the three who was not named on all 32 ballots, got nine first-place votes and finished second.

It's a baseball podcast. The math is easy, right? BaseCast. Let's rock.

The American League Cy Young Award winner, Zack Greinke, was announced Tuesday and the National League Cy Young winner will be announced Thursday, so what better time for the MLB FanHouse crew to discuss both pieces of hardware.

In this edition of BaseCast, Jeff Fletcher, Ed Price and I discuss the implications of Greinke capturing the award, both for the voting body and for the team he plays for, before trying to wrap our head around the intriguing NL race, which features three excellent pitchers (Adam Wainwright, Chris Carpenter, Tim Lincecum), but no clear favorite.

Listen in after the jump.

As much for keeping the Angels together through the death of pitcher Nick Adenhart and a rash of early-season pitching injuries as for winning the AL West, Mike Scioscia was named American League Manager of the Year by the Baseball Writers' Association of America on Wednesday.

Scioscia earned 15 of 28 first-place votes. Runner-up Ron Gardenhire of the Twins got six first-place votes. Joe Girardi of the Yankees, Don Wakamatsu of the Mariners and Ron Washington of the Rangers all got at least one first-place vote, and no manager was named on all 28 ballots (first, second or third place).

This is Scioscia's second Manager of the Year award. He also won in 2002 as the Angels won the World Series.

This year was different. The Angels lost starters John Lackey, Kelvim Escobar and Ervin Santana in spring training, and then on April 9, Adenhart was killed in a car crash.

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Jim Tracy didn't even need a whole season to earn the NL Manager of the Year Award, or to earn a three-year extension.

Tracy, who took over for fired Clint Hurdle in late May, became the second manager to win this award after taking over a team in the middle of the season. The other was Jack McKeon, who took over the Florida Marlins early in 2003 and led them to a World Series title.

Shortly after Wednesday's announcement of the Manager of the Year award, the Rockies announced that Tracy had signed an extension through 2012, which had been expected for a few weeks.

Tracy was picked first on 29 of the 32 ballots submitted, from two writers in each NL city. On a 5-3-1 voting system, Tracy earned a total of 151 points, easily outpolling Cardinals' manager Tony La Russa, who got two first-place votes and 55 points. Dodgers manager Joe Torre finished third, collecting the remaining first-place vote and 33 points. In all, eight managers were named on ballots, and none of them were listed on all 32.

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With his American League-best 2.16 ERA, Royals right-hander Zack Greinke became the first starter to win the AL Cy Young Award with fewer than 18 wins.

In results announced Tuesday, Greinke received 25 of 28 first-place votes. Mariners ace Felix Hernandez got two first-place votes and finished second in the balloting, and Detroit's Justin Verlander received one first-place vote and finished third, one point ahead of Yankees lefty CC Sabathia.

Greinke was 16-8, and his relatively low win total was due to a poor Kansas City offense. The Royals averaged 3.8 runs scored in his starts, tied for the worst run support in the AL. Greinke had six starts in which he allowed fewer than two runs but did not get a win.

The National League featured a strong class of rookies in 2009, and although Florida left fielder Chris Coghlan didn't get called up until May 8, he impressed enough to win the Rookie of the Year award from the Baseball Writers' Association of America.

Coghlan wasn't named on seven of the 32 ballots (which included three players each) but had 17 first-place votes to 10 for Philadelphia left-hander J.A. Happ.

Atlanta right-hander Tommy Hanson was third in the voting, with Pittsburgh center fielder Andrew McCutchen fourth.

Upon his promotion to the majors, Coghlan was inserted as the Marlins' left fielder, and three weeks later he became the team's leadoff man -- two roles he had never been asked to do. But it never stopped him from hitting, and Florida went 67-54 in his starts.

For the second time in five years, an A's closer has won the American League Rookie of the Year, but this one came as a bit of a surprise.

Andrew Bailey, who was a longshot to even make the team out of spring training, followed 2005 winner Huston Street in taking the award. Bailey had 26 saves and a 1.84 ERA for the A's, earning an All-Star berth along the way. Despite those numbers, he was considered by many to be behind Texas shortstop Elvis Andrus and Tigers pitcher Rick Porcello in the race.

Bailey earned 13 first-place votes among the 28 ballots cast, from two writers in each of the 14 American League cities. Based on a 5-3-1 voting system, Bailey totaled 88 points. Andrus came in second with eight first-place votes and 65 points, followed by Porcello, with seven and 64.

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