Preemptive Strikes
Your 2009 American League MVP - called a couple days prematurely.
I just hope the Twins resign him, now. KG, Randy, Johan, Gaborik. This would be the most painful in my book.
Keizo Konishi of Kyodo News can suck it. Mauer received 27 of 28 first place votes, the lone exception being the aforementioned moron, who somehow voted for Miguel Cabrera. Miguel Cabrera. The guy who was being held overnight in jail after his wife called the cops during the Tigers' final stretch run.
Kyodo News embarrassments aside, congrats Joe!
May 1: On his first swing of the season, Mauer lined a homer to left-center off of Kansas City's Sidney Ponson. (In retrospect, I'm really glad I attended this game).
May 7-21: Batted .418 with 7 homers and 21 RBI during a 14-game hitting streak.
May 17: Made one of the defensive plays of the year when he fielded a ball in front of home plate, bluffed a throw to first, turned, then dived to tag out the Yankees' Brett Gardner, who tried to score from second. (Highlighted in the above video).
May 21: Was 3-for-4 with a grand slam and career-high 6 RBI in 20-1 rout of the White Sox.
May 25: Named AL player of the week.
June 1: Named AL player of the month for May.
June 7-20: Batted .412 with 2 homers and 7 RBI during a 12-game hitting streak.
June 20: Shown above, he hit 14th homer off of Houston's Brian Moehler, establishing a career high.
July 8: Went 3-for-5 with a homer and 2 RBI in a loss to the Yankees -- but finally had enough plate appearances to qualify for the league leaders.
July 24: Went 2-for-4 with two homers in 6-3 loss to Angels.
Aug. 2-18: Batted .524 and with 7 homers and 19 RBI during a 15-game hitting streak. Posted a .952 slugging percentage. Raised batting average 30 points during the streak.
Aug. 13: Was 2-for-4 with a homer and 4 RBI in 5-4 loss to Royals.
Aug. 18: Went 3-for-5 with 2 homers and 3 RBI in 9-6 win over Rangers (below).
Sept. 13-14: Had back-to-back three-hit games in wins over Athletics and Indians.
Sept 18-Oct. 6: Walked 19 times -- six intentional -- over the final 17 games.
Sept. 19: Hit 28th, and final, homer of the season off of Detroit ace Justin Verlander.
Oct. 6: Won AL batting title. First player to win back-to-back batting titles since Nomar Garciaparra in 1999 and 2000.








