StormJH1

While I feel a bit "dirty" ripping Gardy for a personal situation like this (and we may not know all the details), I kind of agree with you. One games, or perhaps two (given that it is on the West Coast) is understandable for what is a big event Gardy should definitely not miss. But a whole road series? Willingham took a pre-arranged paternity leave for the birth of his daughter, which is arguably even a bigger life event, and he'll miss roughly the same amount of time Gardy will. There are also rules specifically put into place by MLB and the players union to allow Willingham to do that. Plus, it's not like Gardy has to take pre-game warmups or even really do anything at the game. If he can arrive at the park on time, he could literally sit there comatose and make a few pitching changes after we get down 6-0 or so.

If Scotty Ulger is as good of a manager as he was a 3rd base coach, I don't think Gardy has to worry much about a coup. They should have WPA as a statistic for 3rd base coaches, he probably cost us several runs that season, while he wasn't busy impersonating runners on third that he erroneously sent home...

I refuse to believe Mauer will ever be traded by this organization. I think a lot of the frustration thrown at him is not necessarily about him as a player (he is, after all, a very good player), but the fact that he is bulletproof in this town and virtually had this organization held hostage with his contract, the new stadium, and the perception that even in the Metrodome, Mauer's popularity, alone, probably sells 2,500 - 7,500 tickets a night. The fact that has them hostage with a smile and a .320 batting average (instead of complaining to the media or openly demanding the money), doesn't change the financial reality of what his contract means for this team. As for the overall organization, I don't know if "broken" is the right word. Obviously, they did a lot of things remarkably right. Their run of sustained success, weaker division or not, was invaluable in developing and maintaining a fan base. And in getting a stadium built, as evidence by the current struggles of the Vikings, which are an even more popular Minnesota team. But in the midst of that success, they were absolutely not doing the things in the lower levels of the organization that were needed to replenish their talent. We're still sorting through a whole generation of pitchers (now in their early or mid-20's) who were drafted in the image of the crafty, strike-throwing right hander. You could probably name a dozen of these "Radke" clones that we've sorted through, but they're all virtually the same - good enough to hover around the majors, but never really had a ceiling any higher than a 4th or 5th starter. I think that the organization has already "fixed" some of what was broken, but we just haven't seen the results of that yet. Kyle Gibson does not look like your typical Twins draft pick, but he got hurt. Miguel Sano was an aggressive youth signing, and he's about as promising of low minors prospect as you could ask for. Nishioka, while it completely didn't work, was an effort by the Twins to "go outside the box" and aggressively acquire a player they thought had potential to be a star. And I think the 2011-12 offseason WAS a "success" from the standpoint that this team made more moves to improve their future, as opposed to just patching it up or acquiescing to re-signing popular players that wouldn't have helped the team's future (Nathan, Kubel, and Cuddy). I would be surprised if the Twins don't use a number of the picks that they stockpiled in the June draft on power arms and high-risk, high-reward prospects. You can always sign or claim replacement level players at the major league level, even on the low budget. The goal of the draft is to try and find guys who are significantly BETTER than that, and if you whiff on 4 out of 5 of those efforts, that's just the price of admission. I think they're starting to get that, as ugly as the on-field product is, and will continue to be.

Great news from a musculoskeletal standpoint, yes, but just as I was starting to get my Morneau optimism up (peaking around the Yankees series), we are reminded of why so many of us warned against expecting much of anything from him this year. It isn't just the concussions (though if it were, that would be enough). It's the combination of wrist, neck, etc. ailments that ended his seasons prematurely or broke him down after the All-Star Break, even prior to getting kneed in the head in July 2010. Wrist problems can be a huge problem for power hitters, and the timeline of when this started to bother him again coincide with his bat cooling off. It really would be nice if there were more Chris Davis-type "4-A" players in this organization that have 20 HR power you could plop in at 1B for awhile. (Even Garrett Jones, hey, we had him!) I'd like to see what Parmelee can do for a solid month, but we haven't seen it yet.

I can't be "upset", really, with giving up on a player that never figured to have a significant role (same way I felt about Hughes), but I'm a little confused by it. What was the number, 18 PA's? And about a third of those were pinch hits. Granted, there's a good chance he'd be hitting .220 or less with average defense had he played everyday (or even only against righties). But we never really gave him that chance. It just seems like guys like Mike Lamb and Tony Batista got longer looks than Burroughs did, and those were better teams than this one. I'm not one of those guys that says "cut Valencia", but I applaud them for at least trying to press him a little by threatening a platoon situation. But that strategy ended before it ever really started, apparently.

Understand your skepticism, but I'm not so sure this time around. I think Doumit has been serviceable enough at catcher that Butera won't get much run. Just be prepared for the inevitability that either Mauer or Doumit (or both) are going to break at some point this year, so Butera and Towles will play some role on this team.

Never understood the Slowey hype. Go back to '05/'06, and people were talking about this guy like he was going to be an absolute horse for years. Impeccable control. Keeps the ball the down. Gets a ton of grounders. Turns out that strikeout success in the minors does project fairly well to the majors, but pitch-to-contact is a whole different ballgame. How many Brad Radke clones has this organization drafted over the past 10 years? It's the one major failure of an organization that did a lot of things right over those years, and we're paying for it now.

Since the entire post was premised upon the value of WPA as a statistic, I referred to this FanGraphs explanation and had myself a good laugh: Why you should care: WPA takes into account the importance of each situation in the game. A walk off home run is going to be weighted more then a home run in a game that has already gotten out of hand. This makes it a great tool for determining how valuable a player was to his team’s win total. Something tells me the sabermetrics community's uncompromising love for Joe Mauer is not a product of all of the "walk-off homers" he hits...or the ones he hits in blow-out games! I readily concede that Joe Mauer is awesome at "trying not to get out". So, if that list based on 20-odd games is to be trusted, Nick Markakis is better than Mauer, Puljos, Adrian Gonzalez, Hosmer, Bautista, and Cano. Got it. I don't think Mauer is a "bad" #3 hitter, I just think that one thing that is very difficult to measure with any kind of statistic is mentality at the plate. Morneau in his prime was an example of a guy who could mash for the fences (and maybe strike out), or prolong the inning with a base hit when we were down by multiple runs. Mauer's approach, almost always, is to prolong innings so that other guys get a chance to drive him in. That doesn't make him bad, but ideally he'd be a great #2 hitter if we had better options at #3. Actually, a healthy Morneau, in many ways, would be a great #3 hitter.

Did I miss something? When did Mauer get hurt? He got a day off against C.J. Wilson, a lefty he happens to be terrible against. Even the most aggressive Mauer hater (and I'm up there) would acknowledge that it's better to give Mauer a day off now and then, since any little injury, no matter how insignificant, is going to sit him down for 2 weeks minimum. As for Morneau, this is bad news. Not as bad as concussion problems, but this suggests another long-term problem that he can't get over. Plus, anything having to do with the wrist, elbow, or shoulder destroys power hitters, even if they can stay in the lineup. The thing about punching the locker was never corroborated. It's entirely plausible in light of how last year went and what Amare Stoudamire did yesterday. But I think that came from a tweet (Phil Mackey?) and some of the Strib guys tried to follow up on it in the offseason and never got confirmation that it happened. Suppose it doesn't really matter at this point, he clearly has a problem.

And how is he going to get that "experience" sitting on the bench and being used as a pinch runner? That's exactly the point - sending him to AAA was necessary to allow him to play. He can't be a regular in the bigs right now, especially for a team like this. We "punt" offense at too many other positions to play a "Juan Pierre" type with no prayer of run production. Plus, I'm not as convinced on his defense as others are. His arm is a MAJOR problem that is often discussed on these boards. But during his callup while Willingham was on paternity leave, he made some decisions that would've gotten Willingham or Doumit murdered had it been them out there. (Thinking specifically about one where he pulled up on a catch that Span routinely makes, and let it drop about 5 feet in front of him). I think it's funny that in many ways, Ben Revere is basically Carlos Gomez, only with less power, and not as good of a defender. Gomez couldn't get on base, either, but he was an outstanding CF'er (at least in '08/'09, haven't seen him much since). Yet, the fans murdered Gomez because he was part of the Santana trade, and they like Revere because we drafted him and he "smiles" a lot.

It's bad. But the scary part is that it isn't unexpectedly bad. Mauer has basically been Mauer, and he's played EVERY GAME. At the beginning of the year, we had no idea if Span and Morneau could even stay in the lineup, but they've been healthy and fairly productive. The bullpen, despite letting go of virtually every proven commodity except for Capps and Perkins over the past few years, has been serviceable. Then there's the rotation. Yuck. I'm not too sympathetic to those who are surprised by this. Yes, losing Baker kills. Perhaps it's surprising that Pavano lost 3 mph off his fastball, and that Liriano continued the downward slide. But where was the upside? Pavano was never going to post a sub-4.00 ERA. He can't miss any bats, and the defense behind him and the other "pitch to contact" guys is not all that good. Hendricks feels like a poor man's Kevin Slowey, who felt like a poor man's Brad Radke. And the worst part of it is that there's no help on the way. Scott Diamond is not going to win 12 games for us. They certainly aren't going to go spend money on any veteran solutions (though post-hype garbage on the waiver pile is certainly possible). This is the worst rotation in the majors -and they play in a ballpark that favors pitchers. Seattle's a bad team, but middle of the road starters can thrive there because of the park. San Diego makes average starters (and relievers) look like All-Stars. How bad, then, must guys like Blackburn, Pavano, and Swarzak really be? Could you imagine them pitching half their games at Fenway or Coors?

Haha. I'll vote inside the park, though to be fair, one of his near inside-the-park homers last year was at Target, and I'm pretty sure it hit off the wall. In other words, he almost hit out of the park, so I suppose it is ​possible

I enjoyed Dan Gladden as a player and I'm not too familiar with him as a person. But I hate his style on the broadcasts. As was written above, he has no level of excitement for big plays, and fails to explain half of what's going on. I would much rather have a broadcaster with the Dick Bremer problem (getting TOO excited for plays that turn out to be routine) than killing the energy level of what you're being paid to convey to the fans.

Respectfully disagree. Especially on the hitting part. I'm not sure if you have a specific version of Inge in mind from year's past, but you realize that Inge was so bad last year, that he didn't crack the Mendoza line in half a season? That he couldn't beat out guys like Ryan Raburn and a number of other dudes who weren't even real 3rd basemen? That they traded for Wilson Betemit (then dumped him after the season) specifically so they wouldn't HAVE to give Inge time at 3B? Inge has had a little bit of power, at times. He's never been able to hit for any acceptable level of contact. He's kind of like a nightmare version of J.J. Hardy's game, for those unfamiliar. Fans here don't like Valencia because he's different, and probably sort of an ass, plain and simple. So what? For all the problems with WAR (Wins Above Replacement) as a statistic, at least it doesn't try to figure in "clubhouse presence" into how many wins a player is worth.

The highest level of baseball I ever played was 12-year old Little League, so this comparison is NOT about me in any way...but I was an average-to-good player who never hit a homerun, though I hit for a good average and took walks whenever I could. But I had kind of a fragile pscyhe as a 12-year old, so I remember being almost relieved that I drew a walk because if there were two outs and I got on base, it meant I was essentially passing the buck onto the next guy to get a big hit. I was "helping" the team by avoiding being the one to let everyone down. When I watch Mauer play, I'm reminded of that element of myself, and I don't like it. I was a run-of-the-mill player for my level, Joe Mauer is supposed to be a SUPERSTAR. He's supposed to WANT to be the guy who delivers the big hit. But that's not what I see when I watch him. He's a "team player" in a sport that is really about individuals, especially when hitting. He's a guy that batted in front of one of his best friends (Morneau) for years and seemed to have the attitude that by drawing a free pass (or slapping the ball harmlessly into the infield instead of striking out), he was letting other people finish the job for him. That's a great approach for OBP and impressing sabermetricians...I'm not convinced it makes him a "great" hitter. He's may be one of the all-time greats at avoiding outs, which would make him extremely valuable in an elite lineup. But as 1/9 of the offense of the Twins, I still contend that Morneau at his best, or any number of the power hitters around the AL would have been more valuable hitting in his spot And the "positional scarcity" argument doesn't work for me, either. It makes sense on fantasy baseball teams or loaded offenses like NYY, BOS, DET, or LAA, because you may have 7 or 8 dangerous hitters in those lineups, and they need somewhere to play. But on the Twins, when they're playing such below-average offensive players at 3B, SS, 2B, corner outfield, etc...why does it matter that Joe Mauer, as only ONE guy, happens to be the catcher? It doesn't. In fact, Mauer's contract is part of the reason that we have holes at some of those other positions (though certainly not the only reason).

I was 22 when I left Detroit, so I'm a "Detroiter" by birth, but compared to the people who chose to stay there and work there, no, I'm absolutely not a Detroiter by identity. That was exactly my point about Mauer - he left. It's an argument about semantics obviously, but it is relevant - you can't deny that Mauer's perceived "Minnesota-ness" has been incredibly valuable to his popularity and earnings here. Crap, Hrbek has a retired number and a statute for crying out loud and he didn't even sniff the Hall of Fame. Do those accolades happen if he wasn't from Bloomington? Part of me thinks it's cool that Minnesotans are so proud of their own, but I refuse to factor in birthplace when evaluating the merits of a player or the quality of a human being. I think other people do factor it in. That's all I'm saying.

That trade for McLouth (which was viewed as stupid by the Braves even at that time) came off of McLouth's 2008 season where he hit. 276 with 26 HR's and 23 steals. That was a "Mauer 2009-esque" aberration, and never a true reflection of his game. I don't think Span's going anywhere. The concussion thing will scare a lot of people off and he has more value to us than in a trade, at this point.

This is what J.J. Hardy is. Apart from his times with the Twins, I've been a fantasy owner/observer for some time. Last year he had this huge season with 30 HR's and everyone was cursing the Hoey trade. But even in the context of that "breakout" year, he batted .200 in April, .247 in May, and .195 in July. He actually doesn't strike out an ungodly amount (his most in one year is 98 K's), unlike his teammates Mark Reynolds and Chris Davis, but he doesn't really walk either (Career OBP = .319). That style of baseball was so foreign to what the Twins do that it really stuck out here. Then, of course, there's the injury problems. But if he stays healthy, he'll have runs where he's hitting 4 or 5 dingers a week, and if all of it averages out to about a .250 average, 20-30 HR's, and steady defense at SS, that's pretty valuable at that position. Certainly moreso than Carlos Gomez or Jim Hoey

Thank you. Inge is a catcher the same way Doumit is a catcher, except that Doumit has played more in the last few years. This argument that we need 5 different bench guys who are emergency catchers is kind of like saying the Vikings should make sure their next free agent WR was also a quarterback in high school (Willingham has 15 MLB games as a catcher, btw!). Inge is basically Drew Butera-bad at the plate right now. Yes, his 3B defense is good, but he's 35 years old. You don't solve the Valencia problem with more washed up utility players...I'd even rather see Burroughs every day than this. The Comerica Park dumpster diving comment above was funny, but it actually has gone both ways. They got Delmon, Jacque Jones (indirectly) and Adam Everett from us, and we've had Craig Monroe, Oliveros, maybe Inge, and probably countless others I'm forgetting. Even as he sucked in Detroit, he still had his following: [video=youtube;HSJhqugGprU]http-~~-//www.youtube.com/watch?v=HSJhqugGprU

Right, and it's compounded by the fact that Miguel Cabrera had two pretty ugly off-the-field incidents in consecutive years. He was out partying with White Sox players early in the morning while the two teams were competing for the playoffs, and then got his faced scratched up in a domestic altercation. Then, the following year, he publicly berated a Detroit-area waiter (who was under 18 years old), calling him "fat" and making a huge scene. This crap gets swept under the rug when you put up MVP seasons one after another.

I'm tempted to make jokes about it too, but trying to refrain because what he did really isn't at all funny. But I did always feel like the Twins dodged a bullet with him. The bat throwing video was widely circulated and got a ton of play on ESPN, but it happened in April 2006. Had it happened even a year later, YouTube and Deadspin would have gotten more of a foothold, and he would've gotten murdered online. But the worst "incident" I can recall with him in while with the Twins was also one of the funniest: Jose Mijares throws at Adam Everett of the Tigers for something earlier in the game (breaking up a double play roughly, or something, don't remember) Tigers pitcher in the next inning beans Delmon Young in retaliation Delmon starts hopping around in pain like he got shot Delmon charges his OWN dugout, instead of the pitcher, trying to get to Mijares to rip his head off for getting him beaned (Actually, Mijares was really stupid to bean a guy in a critical division guy, but it was still really funny...can't find the video)

On the first point - That would make sense except that I (think) the article referenced people booing as soon as he's announced. So, yes, they could be referring to what happened in a previous at-bat (GIDP, weak groundout, etc.), but there's definitely a "cool-to-hate" phenomenon with him. On your second point - THANK YOU. This has never made sense to me as an "outsider" who moved here 10 years ago (and is now a loyal, diehard Twins fan). I was born in Detroit. I left that place and my family to come and live in Minnesota (and work and pay taxes here). But being "Minnesotan" isn't about that...it's a "birthright". People like Mauer are celebrated Minnesotans because they were born here and are associated as "coming from here". In other words, he's not being celebrated for what he represents, he's being celebrated because the narcissism of other people who live here wants things that come out of Minnesota to be perceived as great, including 1st overall MLB draft picks. Mauer lives in Florida, he doesn't just "winter" there. He's a professional baseball player, which means he spends virtually February through October travelling wherever his job requires. You can't be a "hometown hero" and be virtually invisible to the locals. He doesn't have any significant presence in the community or with charity, even compared to other players on the Twins who've been given a fraction of what he has. in part because he doesn't LIVE here. The local media (see: Rosen, Mark, et al.) treats him with kid gloves. You never see pictures of this "celebrity" out in public, and nobody knows virtually anything about his personal life. If Lindsay Guentzel didn't happen to come across a rumor from her St. Paul connections and throw it up on a blog, would we even know he's engaged yet? This is guy who wouldn't even explain to the media for two months why he couldn't play. Mauer doesn't want you to know these things. He "cares" about his performance and the success of the team a great deal, but only on his terms. And he's enabled to be that way because (a) he's pretty good; and ( he was born in Minnesota and went to Cretin. I'm not saying Mauer's a bad guy or that I wouldn't even strive for the same degree of privacy if I were a $184 million baseball player. I'm just saying...when the Minnesotans ask why Mauer seems to operate under his own set of rules, they should look in the mirror occasionally for the answer.

I've probably been about 20 games or so since his epic 2009 season in the Dome - I don't think I've ever really booed Mauer (or any Twins player) for that matter. I think it's different to boo in baseball because it's such an individual sport...it feels less cruel and ad hominem to boo something like a hockey team when they fail to get a shot in a 2-minute power play. The specific stats you cited in that article don't concern me. I think his performance this year is similar to how he played in 2010, when he played 137 games and batted .327. And if he maintained that through 2011, I don't think the backlash would have surfaced to the extent it did. Most of us knew that 2009 was somewhat of a mirage, and that we were overpaying for Mauer to some degree. I think 2011 brought back some feelings about Mauer that people hadn't talked about openly since the '07 seasons, which included his propensity to drag out nagging injuries and apparent unwillingness to play through pain. Throw on top of that the perception that he basically insignificant as a clubhouse leader and became more and more secretive with the organization and the fans just as people were desperate to get more answers. So I think a lot of the booing you hear this year is residual from that, even though there's plenty to be happy about regarding Mauer in 2012 this year. It's kind of like the Brandon Jennings "55-point night" effect, people got a taste from 2009 that Mauer could be deadly impact power bat in the middle of the lineup that he was subsequently paid to be. The fact that people want him to be that guy (or that he's paid to be) doesn't mean that he is. But in my book, openly booing him when he comes to the plate won't make him into that guy either, so why do it?

(Ivan) Dereck Rodriguez - Outfielder DOB: 06/05/1992 (19 years old) 6'1" 175lb Drafted: 6th Round of 2011 Amateur Draft by Minnesota Twins Yes, Ivan Rodriguez has a son playing professional baseball, and he was drafted by the Twins last year. Aaron Gleeman ranked him as the 38th best Twins prospect. However, it is far too early to know if he will be a legitimate big leaguer or not. Unlike his father, Dereck is a tall, speedy outfielder. He apparently has a terrific arm in the outfield, so much so that there was some talk of trying him out as a pitcher. (His arm velocity from OF throws has been clocked a 95 mph). He hit only .156 in rookie ball, but that was after just 98 plate appearances. Here is an article from Bleacher Report discussing his rise as a prospect and his efforts to keep his relationship to his dad on the down-low as a prospect: http://bleacherreport.com/articles/1099203-dereck-rodriguez-forges-his-own-path-to-the-big-leagues Here is a YouTube clip with a 2-minute interview of Dereck talking about his high school career, and showing him working in the cages, ala Joe Mauer practicing with the Quick Pitch [video=youtube;-bCx3pXvZOQ]http-~~-//www.youtube.com/watch?v=-bCx3pXvZOQ No 2012 statistics yet for Dereck Rodriguez, but my assumption is that he'll be in rookie ball or Low A again. I will update later if I see that he has gotten some games in.

Saw on Twitter that Bobby V had to submit the Red Sox lineup twice because he thought that Hendriks was left handed. Not sure if that's a worse sign for Bobby V or the strength of our rotation...