Defending Joe Mauer's value at $23m/Per

[Boom Boom]

I criticize Mauer for not hitting for more power or driving in runs, and being too patient at times. But I recognize that he's one of the elite talents in the game and I don't think it was a mistake for the Twins to sign him to the contract that they did.

 

Now, if the Twins, after signing Mauer to that monumental contract, use Mauer as an excuse to not spend more to surround him with better players, then it's open season to criticize.

[Karl]

If it is goodwill, then it doesn't count to the 52% number?

 

comparing the worst contracts the Twins have with Mauer's priceless strawman work. Should I cherry pick all the great players making $1MM or less, and point out how many wins you could have with those contracts? Or, find the 5 lowest paid starting pitchers that are good, and point out how you spending $6MM on Span is a bad idea relative to that? Making bad decisions with lots of players (aka, your list) is actually better than making a huge, bad decision with one player. Which is the point of a lot of people on this thread, actually.

 

What is most popular on this site, is starting threads about how Mauer is worth it, and everyone that says otherwise is wrong, followed by pages of people saying he's not worth it, and others saying he is, and no one changing their mind.

Mike, this was not an excercise in reductio ad absurdum. You make a valid point that most every comparison leaves a logical counter argument.

 

However - the real issue to me was the percieved atrocious overpay of #7 at $23m/yr is hardly the only current problem,and not by a longshot the worst problem in the allocation of current payroll funds.

 

We may not all agree that Joe is a gross overpay - that is not the point of debate.

 

Here is another way the Twins are spending $24.25m/yr.

 

7W 14L 6.45ERA 152IP 194H 79K 109ER 66BB 1.71WHIP 4.67K/9

 

This ghastly pitching line is the combined totals for Pavano, Blackburn, Baker and Capps for 2012. At a combined cost of $24.25m in 2012.

 

I think we can all agree that 2 AAA callups could produce the combined line shown above. That is at least as bad of a percieved overpay. AAA Minimum salary (think Hendricks/DeVries) $1m combined for both. Leaving an overpay of roughly $12.5m/yr per pitcher.

 

"Making bad decisions with lots of players (aka, your list) is actually better than making a huge, bad decision with one player."

 

I can't imagine anyone making executive decisions thinking that lots of contracts that turned out bad is better then one contract that turned out bad. That said, I understand the distinction being made here - only Capps and Pavano were truly bad decisions at the time they were made. Mauer was a good decision, turned bad in hindsight and Baker was a "meh" decision that turned out bad.

[Riverbrian]

He got the 4th largest contract in baseball history, how the hell did he not get every penny?

 

The market wasn't set by other GM's cause at the end of the day the Twins either agree this is what we wanna pay Joe (joining the stupid GM's) or you say no. It's that simple, if Joe wasn't a 180 cause that's what Teix or AGoz got good for him, god bless him. But that doesn't mean the Twins have to say yes.

I get your point... It's valid... Ultimately... It means that you would have done without.

 

He just might have gotten every penny. The Twins may have overpaid by a million or two compared to what others would have offered... I really don't know.

 

The only thing that I'm pretty sure of. Bill Smith and the Pohlads were looking for a poster boy to open the stadium with. Joe was going to be that guy.

 

I dont think either party at the negotiation had a gun pointed at anyone's head.

 

Joe was probably thankful he gets to stay with his team and home state. The Twins Front office was probably high five central. Saying we got him locked up.

 

Happiness all around and then the Leg Weakness thing happened.

[StormJH1]

Mauer is not being booed for being a singles hitter. And he's not being booed specifically because of his 2012 performance. He's being booed because what happened in 2011 between the string of minor ailments, the perception that Joe doesn't want to play unless he's at or close to 100%, and the disappearing act he pulled for months at a time from fans and the media, when all people wanted was a legitimate answer as to why he couldn't show up prepared to play baseball for the first year of a $184 million contract, while he appeared just fine in every Kemps commerical and Jimmy Fallon appearance days earlier.

 

Comparing his OBP to the reaction of fans is kind of silly because it isn't about that. Most of the fans in the ballpark come to only one or a handful of games each season - they're booing is a residual of Mauer as an overall disappointment, and that includes all of last year. Is it unfair/counter-productive? Sure, but it's about more than what's on the field at this moment. Also keep in mind that when you're celebrated and paid as the face of franchise that his been among the 2 or 3 worst in baseball for two consecutive seasons, you get blamed for that too, whether or not it's realistic to expect 1/9 of the lineup to do anything about it.

[StormJH1]

I criticize Mauer for not hitting for more power or driving in runs, and being too patient at times. But I recognize that he's one of the elite talents in the game and I don't think it was a mistake for the Twins to sign him to the contract that they did.

 

Now, if the Twins, after signing Mauer to that monumental contract, use Mauer as an excuse to not spend more to surround him with better players, then it's open season to criticize.

I don't think the Twins have used that excuse, and certainly not openly. First of all, how COULD they, given that they made the decision to commit 1/4 of the their payroll to him in the first place?

 

What people are missing is that they HAVE added better guys "around Joe" in the past few years. Thome was a great find. Willingham is arguably more valuable than Cuddyer and Kubel combined to this team, not to mention the 3 draft picks we got for making that exchange.

 

So yeah, you can beat up the front office for not adding Cliff Lee, C.J. Wilson or whatever high-priced free agent you can come up with, but the problem the Twins has been the guys that were already surrounding Joe. Fault Mauer all you want, but he's still a "building block", if not an elite one. But all of the reasons for our success in 2010 are either gone, hurt, or ineffective (Baker, Liriano, Pavano, Thome, Morneau). The simple truth is that Mauer hitting 29 home runs was great, but historically wasn't all that relevant to the Twins winning 85-90 games and making the Playoffs. The Twins had the same level of success they did in '09 in 2006, 2010, and almost in 2008 (Game 163 vs. Chicago) in years where Mauer hit for average and 10 HR's.

 

That's not to say that I'm defending Mauer's style of play, per se, since it's clear in years where he falls of the face of the map (like 2007 and 2011) that the team struggles. He does matter. But the core of the team is broken, and they've had success with Mauer doing what he usually does...so I don't believe in openly booing Mauer for what he is.

[UCLA_YANKEE_COLA]

I thought this thread was serious until I read people judging Joe Mauer's worth based on his number of RBI. Well played guys, you almost had me!

[Curt]

I've never understood why people don't like a player because of his salary.

 

"No, I know you are offering $184 million but, really, $100 million is enough."

 

Who does that? You?

 

"Sorry boss, that raise is too big. Just give me half of it and save some for Ralph in Accounting, he really needs it."

 

Why would he? If you feel a need to be angry with someone, how about the owner/GM? If it was a bad decision, it was their decision.