Albert Pujols won his third Most Valuable Player Award from the Base Ball Writers Association of America. He also won his third Sabermetric MVP, although they haven’t been in the same years. Following is a list of our NL Sabermetric winners alongside the writers’ choices (italics denotes where the two picks differed). Pujols’s Sabermetric score and rank is also shown.

In addition to the remarkable achievement of winning three MVPs (by each standard), Pujols has finished in the top three of the Sabermetric rankings for the last seven years; he has a similar record with the writers, though they regrettably voted him ninth in 2007. Pujols’s 2009 Sabermetric MVP score was the second-best of his career and of any winner since the chemically-altered seasons of Barry Bonds:

Albert Pujols is supposed to win the NL MVP award today in a landslide. Indeed, he won the Sabermetric Triple Crown and led the senior circuit in some of those "newfangled" stats like Wins Above Replacement and weighted OBA. He even gave something for dino-writers to like, leading in home runs and finishing third in batting average and runs batted in.

Given that the winner is a fait accompli, the only real drama is who will finish second and third. Perhaps our Sabermetric MVP rankings can shed some light, at least on who should be the runners up:

With Prince Fielder finishing only two points behind Pujols, perhaps “landslide” is a bit much. High Cy Young winner Tim Lincecum had the second-highest WAR among National Leaguers, but a relatively low WPA dropped him below Fielder, who impacted his team’s chances of winning more than anyone but Pujols. Chase Utley, who had the second-highest WAR of batters, was similarly subpar in WPA to Fielder. The compelling story from a Cardinals’ standpoint is that the team had three finishers in the top 12 (including, obviously, the top spot). Speaking of the Cardinals, the NL’s playoff teams — the Cardinals, Dodgers, Phillies and Rockies — accounted for 11 of the top 25.

With so much of society regressing these days, it’s encouraging that in a small area of American culture, things appear to be progressing: the voting record of the BBWAA. Today, they unveiled their pick for American League Most Valuable Player, Minnesota’s Joe Mauer.

Was the Mauer win a validation of the writers’ continued acceptance of what is commonly (and sometimes derisively) known as Sabermetrics? Whether grudgingly or willingly, the writers are apparently incorporating into their thinking more meaningful statistics and new ways of understanding the game they cover. Mauer was second in the league among non-pitchers in Wins Above Replacement (WAR), behind only Ben Zobrist, who is so obscure that most fans probably don’t even know what team he plays for. But this experiment lacks control: After all, Mauer led the league in batting average, a traditional mark of success, and his team went to the playoffs, another trusty MVP credential. Moreover, Derek Jeter, the putative challenger for the award, was himself third in WAR, making him a Sabermetrically defensible selection. So Mauer’s win didn’t necessarily prove anything about the impact of Sabermetrics in the establishment media.

As for our own methods, we have a simple but we think elegant way of determining the MVP, which combines Wins Above Replacement and Win-Probability Added: WAR + WPA. (It’s kind of an OPS for MVP candidates.) This is the fourth year we’ve put together our Sabermetric MVP rankings, and here’s what the American League looks like for 2009:

The pitcher whom the writers chose for Cy Young also was most valuable, by our lights (and it wasn’t even close). But perhaps Zack Greinke also winning the MVP was too much to hope for; he . Zobrist, whose respect is evidently still limited to Sabermetric quarters, produced both in the raw and in context. In other words, he wasn’t simply "playing for the stats"; he performed when his team needed it, positively impacting its chances of winning. Yet he finished a distant eighth in the voting. As for Mauer, he was certainly worthy but ranked only fourth; He alone of the top four, however, was the only one "electable," to use the contemporary political jargon. Writers may be willing to defend their pick of Tim Lincecum, but it’s hard to imagine anyone in the establishment media so willing to fall on his sword for the Sabermetric cause as to put Zobrist in one of his top three spots. It’s a long way from murmuring amen in a crowd to dying as a martyr all alone.

On a different note, it’s interesting to see that though the Yankees and Red Sox together accounted for eight of the top 20 and 10 of the top 25, three Mariners placed among the top 10 (and yet the team was 10 games under .500 by Pythagorean record). Mark Teixeira, the writers’ runner-up, was 13th; Miguel Cabrera and Kendry Morales, fourth and fifth, respectively, in the writer balloting, didn’t even make our top 20.

[Note: The United Cardinal Bloggers are conducting their third-annual Cardinal Blogger Awards. Following are our ballot and explanations. If you have any questions or complaints, please contact our agent, Keith Law.]

1. Cardinal Player of the Year

• Matt Holliday
• Albert Pujols
• Brendan Ryan
• Write-in: __________

All three had outstanding campaigns in their own rights. But only one was the best player in baseball last year.

2. Cardinal Pitcher of the Year

• Chris Carpenter
• Ryan Franklin
• Adam Wainwright
• Write-in: __________

We named Wainwright third on our Baseball Bloggers Alliance Cy Young ballot, and Carpenter would’ve been fourth. Franklin, well, he was a bit further down the list.

3. Game of the Year

• July 24 at Phillies
• September 6 at Brewers
• September 26 at Rockies
• Write-in: August 18 vs. Padres

As microcosms of their respective seasons, Carpenter’s one-hitter on Sept. 6 and Wainwright’s division-clinching 11-strikeout outing on Sept. 26 were hard to pass up. We wrote in the Aug. 18 game for both individual performances and team significance. After having already won the first two games of the series against the Padres, sitting through a pair of rain delays totaling two hours and 19 minutes and being down 5-4 heading into the ninth with a mere 15.2% chance of winning, the Cardinals could’ve mailed it in (not to mention they were facing the normally impenetrable Heath Bell). Instead, their unsung heroes — Blake Hawksworth and the bottom of the order — scratched their way back, and Colby Rasmus capped the comeback with a walkoff home run. The win solidified their lead in the Central and, combined with late-inning rallies against Francisco Rodriguez and Matt Capps a few days earlier, gave the team a confidence that they were going to go the distance.

4. Surprise Player of the Year

• Ryan Franklin
• Brendan Ryan
• Skip Schumaker
• Write-in: _____________

As impressive as Skip Schumaker’s 2009 campaign was — "Remember Howie Shanks!" — Brendan Ryan was the Surprise Player of the Year. For someone who was esteemed so lowly that the team traded for the likes of Khalil Greene (who, let’s rememeber, wasn’t exactly on the top of his game to begin with), the Flyin’ Irishman finished third among the team’s position players with a 3.2 WAR and fifth in the league at his position, ahead of such highly compensated names such as Miguel Tejada, Jimmy Rollins and Edgar Renteria. Chris Carpenter, whom few expected to make enough starts to qualify for a league lead in anything, makes a defensible write-in candidate.

5. Disappointing Player of the Year

• Rick Ankiel
• Khalil Greene
• Kyle Lohse
• Write-in: Troy Glaus

Using our methodology from last year, Greene would seem to have this one locked up. Some preseason predictions proposed that he might actually provide surplus value — one Fangraphs article saluted the Cardinals for having "picked up a +2 win player for 2009 … a bargain for their money." But his actual $-3.6 million value makes him an easy target here. At least Ankiel and Lohse were in the black. But Troy Glaus is our write-in candidate, doing even more than Greene to bring down Cardinal nation. Given that his unexpected January surgery left the team high and dry at third base (after an initial anticipated only 12 weeks missed time), which forced the team into an unhelpful chain of moves to fill the spot, and that he played only 14 games (very badly at that), after a 5.3-WAR season in 2008, Glaus represented a 5.5 dropoff in WAR at the position ($24.6 million).

6. Cardinal Rookie of the Year

• Mitchell Boggs
• Blake Hawksworth
• Colby Rasmus
• Write-in: ____________

Rasmus should’ve received more consideration for NL Rookie of the Year. As nobly as Hawksworth performed, Rasmus began to soar, under the weight of some great expections, to boot.

7. Off-Season Acquisition of the Year

• Khalil Greene
• Trever Miller
• Dennys Reyes
• Write-in: ____________

Miller was the best move in a decidedly mediocre offseason for John Mozeliak and the Cardinals.

8. Midseason Acquisition of the Year

• Mark DeRosa
• Matt Holliday
• John Smoltz
• Write-in: _________

Strictly in terms of performance, Holliday wins this hands-down. But, as we wrote earlier this month, that the acquisition didn’t come without a significant cost knocks it down a peg. We gave the Smoltz signing a grade of A (DeRosa was a C; Holliday a B). We also gave the Julio Lugo acquisition an A.

9. Most Anticipated Cardinal

• Allen Craig
• Daryl Jones
• Shelby Miller
• Write-in: __________

Miller compensated for the gutting of the farm system in 2009 and appears to have the highest ceiling of the team’s minor leaguers.

10. Best Individual Blog

• Write-in: C70 at the Bat

The UCB has many outstanding writers to choose among, each with his or her own specialty and point-of-view; it’s kind of like Baskin Robbins 31 flavors. We’re most in the habit of reading the always-enjoyable C70 at the Bat. Why? In additions to the reasons we gave last year, Daniel exhibits an important quality in blogging today: a pleasant blend of authority and humility. He defies labeling and isn’t afraid to talk Sabermetrics or share his heartfelt feelings, sometimes even in the same post.

11. Best Team Blog

• Write-in: Pitchers Hit Eighth

Nick and Josh are the Adam Wainwright and Chris Carpenter (or is it the other way around?) of the UCB: Together they are a formidable duo, turning in an impressive performance just about every outing. Now if only Tony La Russa would legitimize their title again …

12. Best Media Blog

• Bird Land
• Cardinal Beat
• Obviously, You’re Not a Golfer
• Write-in: __________

As we did last year, we’re going to abstain (courteously), out of professional courtesy. They’re professionals, so we try to be courteous (well, sometimes). Truly, though, Derrick Goold and Matthew Leach (along with the slew of writers who contribute to Cardinal Beat) are as dedicated as they are different from each other in their content and takes. All are invaluable to Cardinal fans.

13. Best UCB Project

• Progressive Game Blog
• Roundtables
• Top 7 Prospects
• Write-in: ____________

The progressive game blog takes blogging to a new level and squeezes value out of every inning of a single game. There’s no better way to recapture a game and sample the UCB’s diverse writing like it.

14. Most Optimistic Cardinal Blog

• Write-in: C70 at the Bat

Daniel walks the line between optimism and homerism, but never falls over it. Well, too far, anyway!

15. Funniest Cardinal Blog

• Write-in: Fredbird Follys (sic)

Though they’re new on the block (just began in November), every day is April Fool’s Day for the Follys.

16. Rookie Blog of the Year

• The McBrayer-Baseball Blog
• St. Louis Sports Scene
• Write-in: ____________

Talk about a midseason acquisition: Cardinal fans got a huge boost when Steve Sommer, with the sublimely titled St. Louis Sports Scene, joined the fray in July. And now that he has teamed with another Sabermetric tour-de-force in Erik Manning at the newly revived Play a Hard Nine (hey, love that logo, guys!), the St. Louis blog scene is in its best shape ever. As for Joe McBrayer at the McBrayer-Baseball Blog, we’re looking forward to getting to know his material and hopefully a long tenure in the UCB.

Zack Greinke and Tim Lincecum (who, incidentally, was our pick) have now won this year’s Cy Young Awards. Neither led his league in wins; each was either first or second in strikeouts. Does that mean that wins don’t matter to the voters of the BBWAA anymore?

Perhaps it at least signals a trend. Let’s look at the league rank in wins and in strikeouts for starting-pitcher Cy Young winners in the NL over the years:

From the period of 1967 to 1998, wins mattered most to NL Cy Young voters; to wit:

• The lowest league rank in wins for a Cy Young winner was 5th.
• The winner was either 1st or 2nd in wins 86% of the time.
• The winner had as high a rank in wins as strikeouts 79% of the time.
• The winner ranked 10th or worse in strikeouts six times, and one winner ranked 24th and another 35th.

But in 1999, voters began a trend of subordinating wins to strikeouts. A year after Tom Glavine led the NL in wins but was 24th in strikeouts, Randy Johnson ranked first in strikeouts but was only 8th in wins, the worst wins rank in the history of the NL award. From 1999 onward then:

• The league leader in strikeouts has won the Cy Young 80% of the time, and one of the top two finishers in strikeouts has won 90% of the time.
• The winner had as high a rank in wins as strikeouts only half the time, and three of those five times were first-place finishes in both categories.
• The winner has never had a higher rank in wins than strikeouts.

So it’s fairly clear that voters are prizing strikeouts these days. But, as it started in 1999, it’s hardly a new trend. Even so, it’s a trend that speaks well of the writers. In a season in which no fewer than five starting pitchers were defensible Cy Young candidates in the NL and a handful in the AL, the writers picked the most deserving ones. Just as encouraging has been their apparent rationale for doing so.