Mauer is not only AL MVP, he's also baseball's most valuable player

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After becoming the first catcher to win a batting title, Joe Mauer became the second catcher in 33 years to win the A.L. MVP. Jamie Squire/Getty Images

So, it looks like I spent another sports year feeling pre-agitated about things that did not come especially close to happening. Zack Greinke won the Cy Young Award ... he won it rather easily. There was no sudden and overpowering push to get Jack Morris into the Hall of Fame while Bert Blyleven writhes in baseball limbo. The Cleveland Browns did not hire Eric Mangini.

OK, well, wait, sometimes dread does come to life.

Mostly, though, Joe Mauer won the MVP award. Ahhh. Peace at last. You probably know by now that I've been pushing Joe Mauer for the MVP for a long time now. I thought he was the MVP in 2006, when he hit .347/.429/.507 and became the first American League catcher to ever win a batting title. The MVP that year went to his Twins' teammate Justin Morneau, who finished ahead of Mauer on EVERY SINGLE BALLOT, including the ballots of the two Minnesota writers. The big argument that year, you might recall, was that the MVP should have been Derek Jeter. Few cared about Mauer. So I just assumed that I and a few of my friends had just gotten it wrong.

Then, in 2008, I thought Mauer should have won the MVP again. And this time I had an MVP vote -- so I voted for him. Mauer hit .328/.413/.451, became the second American League catcher to win a batting title (after Mauer), and, for whatever it's worth, he also won the Gold Glove. I'm not sure what that's worth... even bold analysts tend to get a bit nervous when it comes to judging catcher defense. I've heard opinions ranging from "Mauer is the best defensive catcher in the league" to "Mauer is overrated defensively" to "Mauer is dreadful defensively." My own observation (which I do not trust much at all) is that he's very good defensively, solid at the fundamentals but streaky at throwing out base runners. Whatever the case, he's a great, great hitter -- remarkable considering how difficult it is to hit over a long season when playing catcher. He finished fourth in the MVP voting in 2008 and again finished behind his teammate Morneau. And again, I just shrugged and figured, "Hey, wrong again."

Then came this year. Mauer missed the first month of the season. He returned on May 1 to face the Kansas City Royals, and in his first at-bat he homered. Now, admittedly, it was a home run off of Sidney Ponson, which should only count as about .6 of an official home run. But it was no fluke. For three days I watched Mauer go 7 for 10 against the Royals with a homer and two doubles. In my memory there were no cheap hits, either. He crushed everything.

And Mauer kept crushing the ball. His first 45 games, he hit .417 with 14 home runs. He slugged .744. I talk sometimes about the hottest hitters ever -- George Brett in the summer of 1980, Rod Carew in May and June of 1977 (.439/.494/.670 in a pitcher's era), Ted Williams throughout 1957, Barry Bonds at the start of the 2004 season*.

*You know, we all believe we have the Barry Bonds story figured out, one way or another. But no matter what you believe: The first 25 games of the 2004 season, Bonds was intentionally walked 22 times. His numbers: .463/.704/1.111 with 10 home runs, 44 walks and six strikeouts. No matter what he may have taken to get there, those numbers are simply beyond belief.

For six weeks Mauer was about as hot as any of them. And, sure, his season peaked and dipped as all baseball seasons do. But at the end of the year he had hit .344/.444/.587. He led the league in all three slash categories -- the first guy to do that in the American League since Brett in '80. And more:

• He became the third catcher to lead the American League in batting average -- after Mauer & Mauer.

• He became the first catcher to lead the American League in on-base percentage since 1933.

• He became the first catcher to lead the American League in slugging percentage since... well, I believe since ever.

Mauer also won a Gold Glove -- whatever that's worth -- and for whatever this is worth he also hit .371/.521/.527 as the Twins went 17-4 down the stretch to steal a playoff spot in the lousy American League Central. It seemed to me that he was probably as obvious an MVP candidate as I could ever remember. And I worried that he would not win again.

Well, he did win -- he was selected MVP on 27 of the 28 ballots. The player selected on the other ballot was Miggy Cabrera, which, well, was just a bizarre choice. I mean, I like Miggy, and he had another great offensive year. But Mauer hit 40 points higher, slugged 40 points higher, walked more and was even just about equal in the counting stats (96-94 in runs; 103-96 in RBIs) despite missing the first month of the season. And, oh yeah, just remembered, Mauer also was a CATCHER and a good one while Cabrera played FIRST BASE and was adequate there at best and there's no way that... but see, this is the trap. I'm not upset about this. Because it was just one ballot. It occurs to me that the point of the balloting is not to give us a list of the five best players in order. No, the point is to pick an MVP. And I think the voters got it right... and by a large margin. My worry was that numerous voters would go cuckoo and that Mauer would get lost in the flying Cocoa Puffs. But no. He won. He won easily. So it's easy to move on.