Twins MVP and a few other things

My BIL (baseball intensity level -- a holistic statistic) is down this week as the Twins turn their victory lap into a week of frat-house baseball. It was a better use of my time Tuesday night to watch the Ken Burns Baseball documentary than to watch Twins-Royals. The fast forward button never came off last night and it was a lot easier to watch the score box keep changing than to slow down and watch Nick Blackburn struggle.

Blackburn's dugout glove slam after getting yanked reminded me of one of those guys who pretends to want to fight and yells, "Hold me back!" to his buddies as he pretends to make mayhem.

In the meantime:

*Seth Stohs surveyed two dozen Twins bloggers and posted their picks for Twins MVP, top pitcher and rookie of the year. Joe Mauer was the runaway MVP -- and the TwinsCentric post provided another chance for the Mauer bashers to rise up in chorus. Doesn't play enough, doesn't produce enough, whatever. Last time I checked (which was this morning), Mauer leads MLB catchers in plate appearances, and an assortment of offensive categories based on both quantity and quality, not to mention being among league leaders in areas where catchers are typically given a pass. Rather than parsing spoiled milk, here's a link to MLB stats for catchers. Any argument for Jim Thome is diminished by his part-time status and the Delmon Young faction, which is winning a fan poll on our Twins page, needs to understand that Delmon's very good season -- no matter how much we like him -- is diminished by his defense.

*We can like Michael Cuddyer all we want for all the good-guy criteria on the planet. But he's having an average year at the plate and Gardy's notion that Cuddyer is MVP material because he was so willing to step in where needed on defense is as weak as vilifying Cuddyer for hitting the double-play grounder that ended Justin Morneau's season. Give him the Mr. Good-in-the-Clubhouse Award, but not the MVP.

*My MVP ballot in Seth's poll: 1. Mauer, 2. Young, 3. Pavano, 4. Thome, 5. Valencia, 6. Liriano, 7. Morneau, 8. Rauch.

*Just wondering what you think: If the Twins reach the World Series, standing room tickets will have a face value of $150 -- the same price as the part of our season-ticket package that's in Section 309. Would you buy one? And if you would, what would be your strategy for getting a $150 viewing spot?

*I like Ken Burns' Baseball series. Like, not love. I liked Tuesday's top of the 10th inning. But I was hoping to see more of a turnover is talking heads. George F. Will makes me think more when he talks about politics than about baseball, for example. For an episode that was so heavy on the impact of Latino players, I would have liked to hear from more than Pedro Martinez (who is excellent) and Omar Vizquel. And if you'd played any kind of drinking game based on the number of cameos by Don Zimmer, you'd be in no condition to go to work the next morning.

*And did you notice who grooved the pitch that Mark McGwire hit for his 70th home run in 1998? He didn't have a mustache then.