Hamilton wins 2010 AL MVP
Josh Hamilton named 2010 American League Most Valuable Player Becomes fifth different Texas player to win BBWAA award Texas Rangers outfielder Josh Hamilton was named the 2010 American League Most Valuable Player in an announcement today by the Baseball Writers’ Association of America (BBWAA). It marks the sixth time a Texas player has been voted A.L. MVP by the BBWAA, first since Alex Rodriguez in 2003.
He was listed first on 22 of the 28 ballots cast by two writers in each league city, second on four and fourth on two for a total of 358 points, based on a tabulation system rewarding the following point totals for first through 10th place votes: 14-9-8-7-6-5-4-3-2-1. Hamilton, Miguel Cabrera, Robinson Cano and Jose Bautista were the only players named on every ballot.
This is the sixth time a Texas player has won the MVP award, with
Hamilton being the fifth different individual to earn the honor. The others: Jeff Burroughs (1974), Juan Gonzalez (1996 and 1998), Ivan Rodriguez (1999), and Alex Rodriguez (2003).
He is the first outfielder to win the award in either league since 2004, when the Angels’ Vladimir Guerrero and Giants’ Barry Bonds both won. Hamilton, Guerrero, and Seattle’s Ichiro Suzuki (2001) are the only A.L. outfielders to win since the Rangers’ Juan Gonzalez last won in 1998. Hamilton is also the first A.L. West player named league MVP since Guerrero in 2004. The A.L. West had produced the league MVP for 9 consecutive years from 1996-2004.
Hamilton becomes just the sixth player to have been the first overall selection in the June amateur draft (beginning 1965) that has gone on to win an MVP award. He was selected first in the draft by Tampa Bay in 1999. Minnesota’s Joe Mauer, selected first overall in 2001, won last year’s MVP in the A.L.
Since Kansas City’s George Brett won the A.L. MVP with his league-leading .390 average in 1980, this marks just the sixth time in a span of 30 years that a batting champion has won league MVP. Hamilton becomes just the third A.L. player in that span to win the batting title and MVP in the same season, joining Mauer (.365 in 2009) and Seattle’s Ichiro Suzuki (.350 in 2001).
Hamilton won the award after appearing in 133 games due to a late-season injury, the fewest for any MVP since Bonds played 130 games in 2003. The last A.L. position player honored while appearing in so few contests was Brett, who played 117 games in his 1980 MVP campaign. Since Joe DiMaggio appeared in 120 games in his 1939 MVP season, the only A.L. players with a games total as low as Hamilton in an MVP campaign were Brett and Mickey Mantle (123 G in 1962).
Texas players have now won 5 of the last 15 American League MVP awards beginning 1996, tied with San Francisco (5) for most MVP’s among all major league clubs in that span. The only other team to feature more than 2 MVP’s in that 15-year stretch is St. Louis (3). Since the Rangers moved to Texas in 1972, the organization has had 5 different players win the MVP award. The only other teams to see more than 3 different individuals win an MVP award for their club in that span are Cincinnati (6), Oakland (6), and Boston (5).
The Rangers had players win BBWAA awards for both Rookie of the Year (Neftali Feliz) and MVP (Hamilton). It marks just the ninth time a team has swept both A.L. awards in a single year, first since Seattle’s Ichiro Suzuki took both honors in 2001. Texas also has players win both awards in 1974 (Mike Hargrove-ROY, Jeff Burroughs-MVP).
2010 AMERICAN LEAGUE MOST VALUABLE PLAYER VOTING
| 1st | 2nd | 3rd | 4th | 5th | 6th | 7th | 8th | 9th | 10th | Points | |
| Josh Hamilton, Texas Rangers | 22 | 4 | 2 | 358 | |||||||
| Miguel Cabrera, Detroit Tigers | 5 | 11 | 10 | 1 | 1 | 262 | |||||
| Robinson Cano, New York Yankees | 12 | 12 | 1 | 3 | 229 | ||||||
| Jose Bautista, Toronto Blue Jays | 1 | 4 | 8 | 5 | 1 | 6 | 1 | 2 | 165 | ||
| Paul Konerko, Chicago White Sox | 4 | 7 | 6 | 5 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 130 | |||
| Evan Longoria, Tampa Bay Rays | 2 | 3 | 6 | 5 | 5 | 1 | 1 | 100 | |||
| Carl Crawford, Tampa Bay Rays | 1 | 6 | 3 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 2 | 98 | |||
| Joe Mauer, Minnesota Twins | 2 | 1 | 3 | 6 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 1 | 97 | ||
| Adrian Beltre, Boston Red Sox | 1 | 1 | 3 | 4 | 9 | 6 | 83 | ||||
| Delmon Young, Minnesota Twins | 1 | 2 | 4 | 2 | 1 | 3 | 44 | ||||
| Vladimir Guerrero, Texas Rangers | 2 | 1 | 4 | 3 | 22 | ||||||
| Rafael Soriano, Tampa Bay Rays | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 3 | 21 | |||||
| CC Sabathia, New York Yankees | 2 | 3 | 1 | 13 | |||||||
| Shin-Soo Choo, Cleveland Indians | 1 | 1 | 2 | 9 | |||||||
| Alex Rodriguez, New York Yankees | 1 | 1 | 1 | 8 | |||||||
| Felix Hernandez, Seattle Mariners | 1 | 6 | |||||||||
| Ichiro Suzuki, Seattle Mariners | 3 | 3 | |||||||||
| Jim Thome, Minnesota Twins | 2 | 2 | |||||||||
| Joakim Soria, Kansas City Royals | 1 | 1 | |||||||||
| Mark Teixeira, New York Yankees | 1 | 1 |
POSTSEASON AWARDS WON BY RANGERS IN 2010
Josh Hamilton – BBWAA American League Most Valuable Player; Sporting News MLB Player of the Year; Sporting News A.L. All-Star Team; Players Choice Award for A.L. Outstanding Player; Louisville Slugger Silver Slugger Award; New York BBWAA Chapter Sid Mercer-Dick Young Player of the Year Award; Boston BBWAA Chapter Ted Williams Award (Baseball’s top hitter)
Neftali Feliz – BBWAA American League Jackie Robinson Rookie of the Year
Vladimir Guerrero – Sporting News A.L. Comeback Player of the Year; Sporting News A.L. All-Star Team; Louisville Slugger Silver Slugger Award
Ron Washington – Boston BBWAA Major League Manager of the Year
