Zack Greinke, his American League counterpart, is more specific. He introduces things called FIP and VORP into the discussion.

This year's top pitchers are aware of these examples of advance metrics, numbers that helped them win, though neither led his league in victories.

"I'm a follower of sabermetrics," Greinke said. "I didn't know if the writers would just look at the wins and losses and strikeouts and ERA or if they would look deeper."

For the uninitiated, FIP is fielding independent pitching, designed to measure pitchers by using only statistics they can control (walks, strikeouts, hit batters and home runs) and not those affected by other players on their team. VORP is value over replacement player, or a measure of a player's contribution compared with what the team would get if it had to use a backup or replacement-level player.

More important is that these advanced metrics are part of the vocabularies of an increasing number of the Baseball Writers Association of America members who vote on the annual awards. And that membership now includes — since last year — representatives of such outlets as Baseball Prospectus, a website and book publisher where many of these measures are developed and discussed.

"Players are more aware of comparative tools," said Christina Kahrl, who has been with Baseball Prospectus since its inception in 1996 and who had an AL rookie of the year vote this year. Kahrl's colleague, Will Carroll, voted on the NL Cy Young and rookie of the year awards.

"With agents and things like arbitration, they're going to get more and more interested in performance metrics."

Kahrl says she's not sure what to expect from this week's MVP announcements, especially in the AL, though the numbers clearly point to Joe Mauer of the Minnesota Twins and Albert Pujols of the St. Louis Cardinals.

"Defensive metrics indicate (the New York Yankees') Derek Jeter had his best (defensive) season in about a decade," Kahrl said. "Mauer's team was one loss away from being maybe the sixth-best team in the (AL). It's going to be interesting."

Short hops:

The Washington Nationals say No. 1 draft pick Stephen Strasburg has a dislocation in his left knee joint that won't require surgery, and he should be fine for spring training. The right-hander twisted his knee during a workout Thursday. … Left-hander John Grabow reached agreement on a two-year, $7.5 million contract with the Chicago Cubs. He went 3-0 with a 3.36 ERA last season in 75 games.

Contributing: Wire reports

Enlarge By Eric Miller, Reuters Measuring value: The numbers say Twins catcher Joe Mauer, shown collecting one of his 96 RBIs in 2009, will capture his first American League MVP award Monday.