Andruw Jones for MVP?

ATLANTA - He uses the word so frequently that it becomes borderline maddening after several months.

With repetition, though, comes importance.

The questions surrounding it stream in daily from all sorts of media types from across this country and several others.

Inquiring minds have to know what Andruw Jones' secret is - as if he consumed some sort of magic elixir between October and February.

Sure, the defense has always been there. Six consecutive Gold Gloves make that fact obvious. But it's another gear in Jones' offensive game that's catching eyes and turning heads.

Because of an NL-high 50 home runs, 125 RBI and 21 game-winning runs batted in - and intangibles concerning his guiding force for the Braves' youth-laden, injury-riddled ride of a season - many teammates and competitors alike think Jones is the odds-on favorite for the National League's MVP award.

"I don't think there's really a race," Philadelphia closer Billy Wagner said last week. "Albert Pujols and Derrek Lee, they've had great years, but when you look at what Andruw's had to protect him and playing with all the rookies, I think that what he's accomplished is worth him being the MVP."

THE FIRST TIME Andruw Jones mentioned consistency this year was the day he hit his first home run of the season.

No, not April 11 at home against Washington. Way before that. Try March 3.

In his first Grapefruit League at-bat, he tattooed a hanging slider from the Dodgers' Jeff Weaver, setting a tone that has carried on through the spring and summer.

"You stay consistent," he said prophetically that afternoon, "and you're going to go far."

He wasn't the only spring soothsayer. Hitting coach Terry Pendleton saw a pupil that was on the verge of the breakout offensive season that had been perennially predicted - but never achieved.

"He can hit 40, 50 home runs. He can drive in 130, 140 runs," Pendleton said in March. "He's got the ability to do something special, we all feel."

Jones homered 10 times in spring training, more than any player in the majors. He also hit .400 and struck out just three times.

However right Pendleton and Jones felt at that time, they were dismayed by the start of the season.

It seems impossible with the monster numbers he's stacked up, but Jones hit only .239 - including a career-worst 0-for-28 skid - with three homers and 12 RBI in April.

So consistency went drainward, it seemed.

That is, until the middle of June, when Chipper Jones' left foot had become so sore that a lengthy DL stint seemed inevitable.

Three starting pitchers were hurting at the time as well. Add in a lack of productivity from the waived Raul Mondesi and oft- injured Brian Jordan, and a steady flow of rookies were forced to join the team.

Jones' rebirth came June 11, the day he made a playful bet with Pendleton that he would have 20 home runs by June 20. In nine days, he needed eight home runs.

He had 19 home runs June 20. Pendleton teased him lightly about losing the bet while thinking inside that the Braves had, in actuality, won.

"It's definitely him, even though D-Lee is one of my best friends and he and Pujols are having great years," Mets left fielder Cliff Floyd said. "You're talking about a guy that had to carry a team with young guys around him while one of the other superstars was hurt."

ONE REACHES CONSISTENCY, Jones has often said this year, through dedicated work - both in the season and out of it.

That concept alone marked a change in Jones, who had notoriously come into spring training camp out of shape and out of sorts. But not this year.

John Smoltz picked up the phone a few weeks after the Braves had bowed in the 2004 Division Series and dialed Jones' number.

"Let's go work out," Smoltz energetically told Jones. "C'mon, let's do it."

A fraternal order of off-season gymrats had been born.

Smoltz was returning to the starting rotation for the first time in several seasons. Jones said he was inspired by Smoltz's fire, at age 38, to shift back from the bullpen.

When Smoltz looked at Jones, he saw a still-youthful 28-year-old riddled by lofty expectations that were seemingly impossible to live up to. After all, Jones had averaged 34 homers and 102 RBI since 2000.

"I think I saw a guy that was living in the should-bes," Smoltz said. "Maturity set in. I think he realized some changes had to be made."

After Smoltz saw Jones get over the hump of consistent exercise, he began to smile internally.

"I hate saying what I'm about to say, but I told some people to watch what he was going to do," Smoltz said. "And, I was right."

THE DEFINITION OF the league's most valuable player would seem simple.

It's not necessarily a measure of the best offensive player; that's the Hank Aaron award. It instead hinges on the word valuable.

"There is no clear-cut definition of what Most Valuable means," the official ballot says. "It is up to the individual voter to decide who was the Most Valuable Player in each league to his team. The MVP need not come from a division winner or other playoff qualifier."

The first three tenets of the ballot are interesting to consider when weighing the three frontrunners: Jones, Lee and Pujols.

If simply measuring statistic for statistic, either Pujols or Lee would be runaway victors.

Yet batting average and on-base percentage - two categories in which Jones trails Pujols and Lee by wide margins - are of little concern to some.

"I could give a heck about average," the Mets' Cliff Floyd said. "It's about power numbers and driving guys in."

Well, then. The last NL MVP that was under .300 was San Francisco's Kevin Mitchell, who hit .291 in 1989.

As Jones is likely to do, Mitchell led the league in home runs and RBI.

And he's compiled those numbers without much help.

Chipper's 19 home runs are the most by any other Brave, and he's missed 89 games this year.

Further, Jones has driven in an inordinate number of his runs in what baseball deems "Close and Late" situations. He has 21 game-winning RBI, one ahead of Pujols and 11 above Lee.

"Clutch hitting is what makes you an MVP," said Chipper, who won the award in 1999.

Then, there's the intangible factor, that the Braves wouldn't be driving toward their 14th consecutive division title of Jones didn't emerge as a leader.

"If Andruw Jones is not on that team, I don't know that they're in first place," Cincinnati's Sean Casey said. "You can't really make that case with the other guys. And we're talking about MVP, most valuable player. His impact has been huge."

Reach Travis Haney at travis.haney@morris.com.