LaBombo

Especially if he went yard on 3-0 counts in consecutive at bats after going literally, for real, years at a time without evening swinging at a 3-0.

Don't look now, but Hicks looks like Hicks circa 2013. The biggest difference between the two so far has been that Florimon has played excellent defense, while the jury is still out on Hicksie's. For the record, if reports of Nunez' defense are accurate, I'd rather see Florimon flail at the plate than Nunez flail in the field, solely for the simple fact that the Twins have painted themselves into the pitch to contact corner again, and need every grounder converted to an out that they can manage.

It means Gladden's job description requires him to say something positive-sounding, however false or meaningless, about a guy who is 2 for 28.

Florimon's at bat was maybe the worst I've seen since the one in which Javier Valentin, an alleged switch hitter batting from his utterly useless right-handed side, managed to very nearly hit himself in the leg swinging at an inside breaking ball.

He's been their best player for ten years, so... darning with faint praise?

That situation aside, a single is more valuable in general when considering only the offensive outcome. It moves non-consecutive baserunners and exploits the possibility of error. But the tangible cumulative effect that walks have on starters in the age of hard pitch counts can be devastating. Math avoiders, avert your eyes: Pitches/IP = 7.626 (K%) + 15.678 (BB%) + 13.518 It's from Fangraphs, not the Bureau of Weights and Measures, but the methodology looks sound and it makes intuitive sense: If a starter walks lots of guys, pitch count will catch up to him even if runs allowed doesn't. Putting Mauer into the equation, his walk rate means that on average, a lineup of nine Mauers means the opposing starter will throw two more pitches per inning than if he put the ball in play. Big deal, right? Except that two more pitches per inning means that the average starter probably leaves the game an inning sooner. That's huge. Yes, I get that Mauer isn't single-handedly chasing starters. But adding to opposing starter pitch counts is a valuable and tangible skill.

Nobody is saying that. The people apologizing for Mauer's HoF-ish career are wondering, as the N^2 article does, why the Twins' best player is also its most frequently and puzzlingly criticized.

"Valuable" would have been a more accurate word than"better". They all achieved fielding-independent results that were pretty close to each other, but Correia and Pelfrey logged more innings. And since the comparison was made in the context of deciding who should be in the rotation now, it's relevant to note that they were as good in the second half of the season as they were in the first, while Deduno saw his walk rate rise to an unacceptable 4+ per 9 innings. Was never a fan of either the Correia or Pelfrey signings, so it's not very rewarding to defend them. Deduno is fun to watch, so it's not very rewarding to point out his warts. But the impression that Deduno is obviously better than KC or MP is worth debating. And the idea that he's an obviously better investment in the future than either is hard to swallow given the fact that he's a year older than Pelfrey, whose post-TJ ceiling has yet to be established, and Correia, though older, has enough of a whiff of serviceability in his track record that he stands a slim chance of bringing something in trade. Short story long, I'd be fine with Deduno replacing the slowest non-Hughlasco antelope in the fifth starter herd next month. But the notion that it's some sort of affront to the allmighty that he's not in the rotation tomorrow is hard to swallow.

And it's a self-nullifying argument to boot. If they don't matter, what's the harm in replacing them?

Barring injury, Nolasco and Hughes aren't leaving the rotation after two months' worth of struggling, let alone two starts' worth. That leaves Correia, who was better than Deduno last year, Pelfrey, who was arguably better and had better seasons than his 2013 before TJ, and Gibson, who was worse than Deduno but has the 2014 rotation's only win and its only ERA under 6. Deduno will get his chances to start at some point, either due to injury or ineffectiveness of the front five. Until then, he should continue to work on turning himself into a relief pitcher. Most relievers in MLB were starters at one point in their careers, so it's an extremely common career arc and the odds are he'll get it figured out eventually. In fact, you could argue that he already has, with the exception of control, already started to do so based on his high K rate and low FIP/xFIP. Like the rotation, he's a work in progress as a reliever, and I hope he continues to progress. He's fun to watch when he's on, and entertaining in an America's Funniest Videos sort of way when he's not.

That's because Pelf was pitching. It's a totally different vibe now with Nolasco or Hughes on the mound.

The failure to defend Mauer from at least the unfair portion of that belief rests squarely on Ryan and St. Peter. Mauer probably has caused them to pass at times on signing free agents or get rid of guys they couldn't afford to keep, and he probably will again before his deal is up. But money hasn't been an issue for three seasons now, and arguably four, based on their own guidelines for spending vs. revenue. They've consistently underspent, and whatever the wisdom of that, it's pretty compelling proof that Mauer's contract hasn't been holding them back. Being more up front about that might take some heat off of Mauer, and put it where it belongs, on management and ownership.

Not sure how Rick Anderson keeps his job if the rotation is one of the three or even five worst in the AL again. As for Gardy, you could rightly point out that he's in the right place for lightning to strike twice. The only time since WWII that a non-expansion manager was retained by his team after four consecutive 90+ loss seasons, it happened here in Minnie to Tom Kelly. So he's in the right place to avoid accountability, in theory. Two problems with that. One, Kelly had two World Series rings and the enormous respect and gratitude that they commanded from the franchise. Gardenhire is highly regarded, but his post-season record isn't get-out-of-jail-free card that Kelly's was. If anything you could argue it's the opposite. Two, that Twins team had a different owner, one who cared so little for it that he didn't just try to sell it to out-of state buyers, he tried to eliminate it for profit and started exploring that option before Kelly's last year even began. Why would he waste time hiring it a new manager? Gardenhire's job probably is safe, and yet to assume so requires ignoring not only a mountain of historical trends, but plummeting TF attendance figures at a time when the league-wide numbers are up. However secure his job may seem, those are two very difficult factors to overcome. Also, what's it say that your employer recognizes the longevity represented by 1000 wins by giving the gift of carcinogens? Nothing, I know, but the irony is a little fun.

So somehow Mauer's value was diminished because most teams during his catching career relied on catchers who were half the hitter he was? You realize that's a fantastic argument in favor of the notion that Mauer has been incredibly valuable, right?

May have to avoid the game thread tomorrow night. Not sure I can stomach the virtual certainty that someone will lament the Twins' failure to sign Bruce Chen...

Ten days into the season, it's pretty safe to say that's yet to be determined. In the mean time, yes, we "apologists" will continue to point to the decade he spent as a Hall of Fame caliber hitter, "for a catcher". The words you chose made it appear that such a standard is widely discredited, when the opposite is in fact true.

That, or bad coaching. However unlikely, it's possible that Gallego told Punto, "See if you can find a spot that you can't score from, and also can't safely return to third from!" Had to laugh when I saw the play, because it was the perfect mirror image of the trademark Punto fake hustle play, 'running out the fly ball'. Which is great, unless you do it the Punto way. At least once a week you'd see him running hard for the next base after hitting a fly, and ending up in exactly the wrong place when the catch was made. Less than half way, full throttle, head down, virtually guaranteeing that if the fielder were to muff the catch he'd just get thrown out sliding head first when the fielder or another one backing him up recovered it. Good to see that even long after his departure from the Twins, all those lessons at the Yasiel Puig's Dad Baserunning Academy are still paying off for Li'l Nick.

Figured they would, but thanks for confirming it. Takes away some of the disappointment of missing the first half of the game.

The 'Punto plays the game the right way' narrative was an aggravated assault on reason and empiricism. His base running buffoonery today has renewed my gratitude for Bill Smith's decision to surgically separate him from Gardenhire's hip.

He was indesbutably an elite hitter as a catcher. He's not at first until the prognostications about big silver lining jumps in offensive quantity and quality about the switch come true for the next half decade.

Has there ever been a more succinct, precise, compact and yet comprehensive summary of how the Twins have utterly and lately abysmally failed to capitalize on having one of the best players in the history of the game for a decade?

Thanks for that; until now I had no idea what an arrogant knucklehead Verlander is: AB 62 2b 4 HR 3 RBI 9 BB 12 SO 10 AVG .371 OBP .473 SLG .581 OPS 1.053 Tip for Verlander: The next time you feel the inexplicable need to denigrate the game of one the best hitters in baseball, you might want to check ESPN Batter vs Pitcher and see if that player has kicked the living crap out of you at the plate, equaling or bettering his insanely great career year rates in the process...

If there's a primary way to value a player without taking into account his position, we're all ears. Who is not all ears is the Hall of Fame, which Mauer "apologists" rightly point out he was well on his way to before the concussion, and wonder why that requires an apology. Not judging a player's offense relative to the peers of his era at his a position is a practice rapidly disappearing as the voters of the Reusse/Hartmann generation retire and the sun sets on the RBI's/Wins/'Popularity with the media' Age.

Some interesting takes on Mauer, and my net takeaway is that there are a surprising number of reasons (and of varying legitimacy) for disliking Mauer. Will throw one more into the mix. In a discussion of the hand-wringing over Mike Piazza's defensive issues in his prime, Bill James posited that there's a very strong tendency for bad franchises to blame their struggles on their best player. Whether it makes them 'bad fans' or not aside, it seems to me like there's a similar tendency among fans. Nowhere was it more clearly on display than in a thread somewhere several years ago debating the relative value of Joe Mauer and, I swear I'm not making this up, Nick Punto. While on some basic subatomic level Mauer and Punto had the same exact job, to help the Twins win baseball games, every fan was free to make up any job description for them they wished. And there was a fair-sized contingent whose job descriptions went like this: Punto - Field multiple positions, use up bushels of outs at the plate, and turn his uniform brown (from the outside, not the inside). Mauer - Carry the team to a championship. Defined by those terms, Mauer was virtually guaranteed of "failure" due to odds alone, with only the details of how he failed (too little power, not 'aggresive' enough, lack of leadership, etc.) being argued amongst them. Meanwhile Punto was absolutely assured of "success" as long as his defense remained passable. Although that school of thought utterly baffles me the way breaking stuff baffled Greg Gagne, like I said, everyone is free to define a player's role and their expectations however they want. That said, the people who define Mauer's career in the terms above seem to me to have been missing some of the enjoyment of what was until the concussion almost certainly a Hall of Fame career.

The one regarding his golf game?