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Brock Beauchamp

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Everything posted by Brock Beauchamp

  1. Yeah. Damn Mauer for imploding on the mound against the Yankees all those years. If only he had pounded his mitt more aggressively while yelling "GO GET EM, BOYS" the Twins would have multiple championships by now. And it's not exactly fair to point out that Joe has one extra base hit in the postseason because PHIL CUZZI.
  2. Oh man, I disagree. I think First Class was the best of the X-Men films.
  3. Superman 1/2, V for Vendetta, A History of Violence, Batman, Avengers, Captain America, Men in Black, Hellboy, Road to Perdition, X-Men, X-Men First Class... All quality films (and I'm skipping several more that could be counted in the "above average" category).
  4. Also, a guy is going to get a longer leash when he posts a 1.000+ OPS in AAA as a 25 year old at a position of need. He's going to get an even longer leash if the MLB team is bad.
  5. Really? Nobody wants to yell at me about broken crap on the site? Sheesh. What happened to you guys?
  6. I don't know where you get the information that he's a golden boy. The only rumblings I've heard from the Twins about Plouffe have been neutral to negative. I get the impression that they're playing him because they have no other options.
  7. I think one of the key differences is consistency. Plouffe was good (ridiculously good) for 30-40 days before the injury, after which he never recovered. Dozier, on the other hand, has been doing this for a little over half a season. He had a downtick in July but still posted an OPS of .715, which was still better than any month he posted when he was "struggling". He immediately bounced back in August and posted another .800+ OPS month. He's doing the same in September. If he finishes the season like this, he will have posted an .800 OPS for 2/3rds of a season, or about four months.
  8. Well, Dozier also had a breakout in 2011 so he has shown that he can hit. The difference to me is that Plouffe basically broke out for 30-45 days in 2012 whereas Dozier has posted a .700+ OPS for 90+ days. When you start to creep past the two month mark, pitchers have adjusted and if the hitter is still getting results, that means their adjustments aren't working. Also, Dozier finally looks like the player advertised through the minors. He's showing good discipline (never Plouffe's strong point), making contact (again, not Plouffe's strong point), and has a solid, though unspectacular, glove. The only surprising thing is his power, which is why I'm not comfortable saying he's an .800+ OPS player going forward. Dozier looked like a lost player in 2012. He didn't have good bat control like he did in the minors, he didn't show any discipline like he did in the minors, and his hands/footwork were awful (again, unlike the minors). I think he was overwhelmed and it basically destroyed every aspect of his game. I don't see that with Plouffe. I'm still hopeful that Trevor will become a good starter going forward but given his defensive struggles, rumblings that the front office doesn't care for him much, and his player profile of "streaky, but powerful", I hold much less hope of him becoming a regular player than I do Brian Dozier. I think he's a prime candidate for platoon duty at the minimum, though.
  9. Without a doubt I would put more stock in Dozier's results. In the case of Dozier, there is a clear date to draw the line where he changed as a hitter. Before that point, he sucked. After that point, he became an .800 OPS hitter. During that rapid uptick in performance, he was working with Bruno and they found a hitch in his timing. They fixed it three months ago and wham, he's a different hitter now. That can't be a coincidence. The two events coincide perfectly and after three months of consistent performances, I think it's safe to say that Brian Dozier is now an above-average second baseman. Now, that doesn't mean he'll continue to OPS at .850 for several years but I'm pretty comfortable in saying that we've seen the real Brian Dozier over the past several months. Plouffe, on the other hand... *shrugs* I don't get the guy.
  10. I think he makes it in if he never plays another game. The old school will love the batting titles and gold gloves from the catcher position. The new school will love the fact that he was a catcher who got on base 40% of the time. And it's downright criminal that Piazza wasn't a shoe-in on his first ballot.
  11. I finally picked up a new copy of Win7 and installed IE10 for testing purposes. Yet again, it appears that Microsoft has released a browser that breaks designs that work in every other browser, including IE9. Le sigh. Anyway, if you see IE10 bugs, list 'em here and I'll start to plow through them.
  12. Yep and yep. If Pinto can OPS at .750, there's no reason not to move Mauer away from the position, at least on a semi-regular basis. Maybe Joe drops to catching 50 games a season. Maybe he stops catching entirely... Either would be fine with me at that point.
  13. It's a secondary concern. If Mauer is killing the Twins at catcher, then you move him for the good of the team... but that's not the case. He's quite fine at catcher and in his age 30 season. Really, I think there are too many variables in play to make a truly informed decision. Can Sano stick at third? Is Arcia an OF? Can Pinto hit and play defense? The Twins could end up with 2-3 1B/DH types, which means that large sacrifices must be made to let Joe play first. Or, the inverse... Pinto could come out of the gates strong and make this decision very easy. I'm not saying that Mauer has to stay behind the dish, I'm merely suggesting that there is no clear answer and moving him away from the position largely based on fear is the wrong decision. Joe has a lot of value behind the dish, value that is much harder to replace at catcher than it is at other positions.
  14. The NFL's problems are an entirely different argument. It took the NFL far too long to realize that gear had turned into an offensive weapon, not an injury preventative measure. They let this situation happen to themselves. Baseball players balked at the new helmet because it looked funny. Well, I think we can both agree that was a stupid opinion to have but there's no reason that has to happen with catching gear should it arrive on the scene in the next few years. I have no issues with MLB just making these decisions en masse and not giving the players an option.
  15. It's possible and should the data back that up, I'm in favor of it. What I think is more likely is a rapid deployment of better gear and a study into what can prevent the injury from occurring.
  16. I'm not proposing that Sano move to 1B but Miguel himself may force the situation. It's far from a given that he has the ability to be a MLB third baseman, though we certainly have more hope for that now than we did a year ago.
  17. I'm not trying to downplay concussions at all; they're serious injuries and I commend MLB for adding the 7 day DL for concussions. My point is that I think Twins fans are overly sensitive to concussions because of Morneau and Koskie. Catchers have been doing this for a century and many of them play until their mid to late 30s at the position. By all accounts, Joe's concussion is about as minor as a concussion can be. It's worth keeping an eye on and thinking about as a long-term issue going forward but you can say that about any player. Joe is not special in that regard, nor should we have any additional concerns about him past the fact that he makes a lot of money.
  18. That's just it. This conversation changes dramatically if Pinto can play defense and hit .750.
  19. That was a typo, which I had already changed to .680. Getting an .800 OPS first baseman on the FA market is not hard to do. Arcia could also be that guy, as could Sano.
  20. I say he continues to catch until he shows a declining skillset. I'm also okay with giving him more time at 1B/DH in seasons like this one, when the Twins winning 1-2 more games with a quality catcher is irrelevant.
  21. How much is it really worth? 150+ games of Joe Mauer at an .860 OPS, replacing an .800 OPS first baseman or 120-130 games of Joe Mauer at an .860 OPS, replacing a .680 OPS catcher It's not an easy decision. Personally, I want to see Joe in the Hall someday and his best chance of that is at catcher. He's only 30 years old. I'm all for extending his career at first base but I don't think that decision has to happen in 2014.
  22. Is this truly a "major" head injury? He apparently received a mild concussion and the Twins are being extremely cautious because their 2013 squad is awful. Yes, concussions are scary but realistically, 99% of the time people recover from them just fine. Guys have been sitting behind the dish, getting concussions for 100 years. Yes, there is a small chance that Joe will go all Justin Morneau on the Twins and that would suck. But there is a very small chance of that happening. Argue whether that small risk is worth it but let's not act as if Joe just stuck his arm in a wood chipper. He's expected to be back by the end of the week.
  23. Pudge Rodriguez averaged 126 games a season over his first ten seasons. Joe Mauer is at, what, 119 games a season? Mauer's "injury history" is being blown waaaaaaaay out of proportion. Catchers get dinged up and miss games. When they're healthy, they miss games just to rest. Expecting anything more than 130 games a season from a catcher is asking too much. Whether you want to argue that Joe's bat will improve at first and that the 10-15 additional games he'll play at the position will outweigh the lineup strength he provides at catcher, so be it. But his injury history is being overstated. He has missed several partial seasons, two of which were as much due to the Twins being awful as Joe being "injured".
  24. Santana is pitching like an ace this season. It's a stretch to think they'll be able to replace that internally.
  25. People said this in 2004. People said this in 2007. People said this in 2011. Yet Joe continues to catch and continues to hit. If Joe wants to catch, you let Joe catch.
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