MIN 5, CHW 4: You Are Appreciated, Joe Mauer

Thanks for the great work, Tom, it is appreciated.

And what a day for Mauer?  Will be shocked if he ever plays again after yesterday.

Missed the first part of the game watching the Pack play the Bills.  But several things really hit me yesterday.

First, pencil Trevor May in as next year's closer.  A converted starter with four pitches, does that remind anyone else of Joe Nathan?

And Astudillo reminds me a bit of Kirby Puckett.  Similar fireplug body with an outgoing personality.  He really is a solid catcher who can play second base, third base and left field.  May not be great defensively at those positions, but doesn't look all that bad either.  And what an interesting batting style...that works!

What a pleasant surprise that Lewis Thorpe was named the minor league pitcher of the year.  I have been a big fan of his since he turned 17 and am among the few who believes he has ACE potential.  Hopefully, he is at Target Field by early summer.

I see that Max Kepler has gotten a lot ill will here of late.  I believe Bert mentioned yesterday that he has only 1 error this year.  I have seen him hit lots of line drives that were outs, which may be tied to what some of you refer to as a low BABIP.  Another 50 points on his BABIP would be what, 25 hits a year (1 a week).  That's another 40-50 points on his batting average.  Hitting .275 with good strike out and walk rates, 20 home runs, 30 doubles, great defense in right field, solid in center, and enough speed to be a good base runner.  That's someone who is on the verge of being an all star, not someone that should be cut or a 4th outfielder...at least in my opinion.

I recall the Twins have done well the last couple of odd years and bad in even years.  Heck, '87 and '91 were also odd years.  Well, next year is 2019...could lightening strike again?

I grew up with Joe. It's tough seeing him hang 'em up (possibly). I'd love seeing the Twins sign him for a 1-2 year deal, but this was about as good of a sendoff as you can get (other than getting him a WS ring). If this was it all I can say is thank you. 

If this season is viewed through a two year lens—that is, how many games should a team win if two years ago it only won 59–78 seems like a very realistic number. The question is whether last year’s win total was a fluke, or this year’s was suppressed by injuries.

Thanks for the recaps Tom, enjoyed them daily.

Thanks Tom and the whole new of TD. TD is my go to site for Twins baseball. As for a bar named for Joe at Target Field, how about a 2% milk bar called "Gosh darn it"?

I couldn't believe how emotional I got when Joe came out in the catching gear. When he squatted behind the plate to take that pitch, it was like a reminder of the years we missed with him as our catcher. Yeah, Joe at 1B was good and cool, but he was so awesome as a catcher. Makes you wonder how Pudge, Fisk, & Boone endured so long wearing the tools of ignorance. I have to admit, I want him to come back next year, even if he's a platoon/role player. Go Joe.

With the win, the Twins finished with the same home record as the Indians and have a better home record than Houston.

 

7th best home record in MLB

Ray of hope! Plus encouragement to attend more games in the future.

It would be interesting to see which players had the biggest home/away splits.

If Mauer retires he went out still being a good MLB player and on his terms.  Dozier on the other hand may be out and not on his terms and that is really sad.  I think that my have been Belisle's last game too. 

If Mauer retires he went out still being a good MLB player and on his terms.  

While I am sure this is/was a very hard decision, it does seem like he will be at peace with it.  In some ways he already had his big professional heartbreak when he gave up catching.  He did a podcast with Corey Koskie about a month ago, where he said he went in a room and cried when made that decision.  (the fact that he did that fairly long interview and was pretty open is when I began to think this might be it).  I think he grieved when he had to give up the tools of ignorance, where this decision is one of his own making - and while hard, more bittersweet than just bitter.

This was a nice gesture:

Dustin Morse
‏@morsecode
Yet another classy move by Joe Mauer...

He donated all his game worn equipment from yesterday to the Minnesota @Twins

Future generations will get to learn about Joe Mauer and what he means to this franchise - including his own.

 

I missed listening/watching many Twins games this year, but never missed the recaps of them.

Can't thank Tom enough for all the work he puts into them. And I think he ended it with his best one here!

Thanks so much Tom, may 2019 game caps be done with many more wins!!!

I went back on MLB.tv to watch this game. To me it was Mauers' good bye to playing game.

i'd find it hard to believe he will play again. And again Tom, great recap to a special game!!!

Count me as change of heart guy. I’ve always been suspicious of that 29 home run year followed by the big contract and then the lack of power that followed. Not anymore. It started this year as I for some reason isolated him more watching games. It hit me that the way he carried himself this year and perhaps thinking it could be his last year while playing on a struggling team was done in a very very professional way. In September I started to read anything about him I could find. Some stories from this web site reminded me that i’d Forgotten how special his 09 season was. Especially batting over .400 the one month, and very near .400 another month. He really wasn’t more than 2 hits more a week batting .400 for the year. His drop in power after signing the big contract may have been the toils of catching all the years and then concussions on top of everything. I now believe had injury not started to derail his seasons that perhaps some other bigger HR years would have occurred. It doesn’t matter now about HRs. If the double was his last big league hit, the hit was a textbook bookend to a solid career. Did he only take one pitch as catcher as part of the script, or did his emotions cause him to lose his composure and pull a Lou Gehrig? I kind of want to believe that both happened.

He was only going to catch one pitch. The batter agreed not to swing at it and they promised it would be a ball. He was never going to risk taking a foul ball of the mask.