Thread: Article: Joe Mauer Hates Pop-Ups

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I gotta say....... sometimes I would rather see an infield fly ball than a double play grounder.

Originally Posted by h2oface

I gotta say....... sometimes I would rather see an infield fly ball than a double play grounder.

I will now open my sealed envelope to prove that I totally called this as the first comment.

mauer envelope.jpg

That being said (drawn?), I guess a pop-up is better than a double play. I did not consider this.

Originally Posted by h2oface

I gotta say....... sometimes I would rather see an infield fly ball than a double play grounder.

I cannot think of ANY TIME that I would rather see my guys get doubled-up than an infield pop-up

Originally Posted by mnfanforlife

I cannot think of ANY TIME that I would rather see my guys get doubled-up than an infield pop-up

My brother, my brother, my brother, people that hate on Mauer are...idiots. He has one of the smoothest swings you'll ever see and is a first ballot hall of famer, and you wish he would pop out more...dumb.

I used different samples for a few of the charts. The rate charts (IFFB/PA) used 2002-2012 data, which is all that FanGraphs has available. The volume chart used 2004-2012 data to mirror Mauer's career. Sorry for the terrible and embarrassing oversight.

I don't see anyone "hating" on Mauer here, just observing that one out made in an AB is better than two. The only one making it personal and calling someone an "idiot" is a self professed "twerp"........... or......... can only twerps call another twerp a twerp, even though he calls himself a twerp?

Originally Posted by Brad Swanson

I will now open my sealed envelope to prove that I totally called this as the first comment.

mauer envelope.jpg

That being said (drawn?), I guess a pop-up is better than a double play. I did not consider this.

Nice article...good research...and it shows how great of a hitter he is..but, you're right of course, you had to know that the whole DP comment was coming right away...gotta pull the negative out first...those 4%-5% of PAs he hits into DPs is a really killer :-)

None of the great hitters today hit into DPs...especially those that make a lot of contact :-)

Originally Posted by ThePuck

Nice article...good research...and it shows how great of a hitter he is..but, you're right of course, you had to know that the whole DP comment was coming right away...gotta pull the negative out first...those 4%-5% of PAs he hits into DPs is a really killer :-)

None of the great hitters today hit into DPs...especially those that make a lot of contact :-)

Exactly, I'm sure the Tigers are encouraging Miggy to change his approach, to mitigate all those DP's and hopefully pop out more often.

Originally Posted by mnfanforlife

I cannot think of ANY TIME that I would rather see my guys get doubled-up than an infield pop-up

How about in a tie game with no outs, bases loaded and the double play still gets the go-ahead run across. An infield pop-up scores nothing and the inning-ending double play is still intact for the next hitter.

I like reading about these unique stats, but I guess I'm more curious as to why Mauer struck out 88 times last year. It really never dawned on me that that number had increased so significantly until I read your passing comment.

That's way out of his norm, and he's approaching the unflattering 100k level. I like Mauer, I'm not bashing him, but what happened last year to drive up his K% to 13.7%? His contact percentage was only down .8% from his career average. However his swing percentage was at 35.4%, down from his career average of 37.3% and his swing percentage of pitches in the zone was 52.5%, down from his career average of 55.5%. It would seem to me that his seeming desire to be the most selctive hitter is actually driving his K% up.

Originally Posted by nicksaviking

How about in a tie game with no outs, bases loaded and the double play still gets the go-ahead run across. An infield pop-up scores nothing and the inning-ending double play is still intact for the next hitter.

I like reading about these unique stats, but I guess I'm more curious as to why Mauer struck out 88 times last year. It really never dawned on me that that number had increased so significantly until I read your passing comment.

That's way out of his norm, and he's approaching the unflattering 100k level. I like Mauer, I'm not bashing him, but what happened last year to drive up his K% to 13.7%? His contact percentage was only down .8% from his career average. However his swing percentage was at 35.4%, down from his career average of 37.3% and his swing percentage of pitches in the zone was 52.5%, down from his career average of 55.5%. It would seem to me that his seeming desire to be the most selctive hitter is actually driving his K% up.

yeah, he finally had more than 65Ks in a season. This one season is definitely showing a trend :-)

Originally Posted by ThePuck

yeah, he finally had more than 65Ks in a season. This one season is definitely showing a trend :-)

I didn't say anything about a trend, I simply wanted to know what changed last year.

Originally Posted by ThePuck

Nice article...good research...and it shows how great of a hitter he is..but, you're right of course, you had to know that the whole DP comment was coming right away...gotta pull the negative out first...those 4%-5% of PAs he hits into DPs is a really killer :-)

None of the great hitters today hit into DPs...especially those that make a lot of contact :-)

Right. The flip side is that the hard grounders which sometimes turn into DPs also sometimes turn into singles through the hole and doubles down the line. Pop-ups rarely turn into anything but outs. No question you prefer a guy with this hitting profile.

Originally Posted by nicksaviking

I didn't say anything about a trend, I simply wanted to know what changed last year.

If I had to guess, and that's all it'd be, is he was probably feeling the pressure of constantly being told he needed to hit HRs and be the kind of hitter he really isn't and this was causing him to push. Or it could just be one of those things....you know...just turned out that way.

It appears to me that Mauer does a better job than most at making square contact (thus the high LD% and high BA, and when he does miss, he misses high on the ball at a much higher rate than the rest of the league.

While he is clearly a superstar and under appreciated, and ridiculous to even consider making suggestions to someone vastly better at hitting major league pitching than almost everone on the planet, I think that this article does demonstrate that it may be true that if he could move his contact point/target zone a bit lower on the ball, without sacrificing his LD%, he could swap out some ground balls for fly balls and therefore home runs, and be an even better hitter than he already is.

> Mauer was the best in the AL last year at not making outs.

Among players with enough appearances, no one in the NL topped him either. No reason to include the qualifier; Mauer was the best last year at not making outs.

Quick, since Mauer entered the league in 2004, who has the most GIDPs? A billion points if you know. 2 billion if you look it up. I reward research.

Originally Posted by Brad Swanson

Quick, since Mauer entered the league in 2004, who has the most GIDPs? A billion points if you know. 2 billion if you look it up. I reward research.

I'd guess Pujols

Originally Posted by ThePuck

I'd guess Pujols

You'd be right, one billion points!

He is also first in WAR over that span. Mauer is 11th.

Originally Posted by ashburyjohn

> Mauer was the best in the AL last year at not making outs.

Among players with enough appearances, no one in the NL topped him either. No reason to include the qualifier; Mauer was the best last year at not making outs.

Exactly, and that is what makes him such a great player.