jokin

I've played on a multiple-national-championship college team and coached multiple state and national champion high school age teams. My best teams were with players who, at their own particular level, had what Kirby had, what Jack Morris had, what Koufax had, what Bob Gibson had, what Larry Bird had in basketball....as great as they were as regular season all-time greats, they routinely progressed away from the mean at playoff time. I definitely don't want to be characterized as a basher, the numbers are what they are, and I look forward to the day that Mauer gets his next chance to step up to the opportunity.

If that's typical of your own interactions with your wife, I wouldn't go as far to say those interactions are borderline insane, but I can make a fair guess that you were no longer "actually happy" after your emotionally distant and socially inattentive faux pas.

Careful, certain posters think your comments, which are the essence of common sense........ qualify you as "borderline insane" or going out of your way to whine and complain.

Wow, seriously? You are somehow qualified to call people "borderline insane" or less than human, for quoting them accurately? I also didn't use a single adjective. I made no reference to the tone of the comments, I guess I prefer a stiff-upper-lip approach to sports as opposed to the metro-sexual get-all-my-feelings on the table approach to high-level sports. I noticed you had no comment on the trees and their need of their presence in CF as an excuse- and then the hitting results after their removal. Aren't the players coddled and rewarded richly enough? The fans built the stadium and pay the salaries, the aesthetic integrity of the park and intent of the designers of the park were whimsically cast aside for a mere trifle.

I really liked Thome's answer, manning up to the job at hand is never sterile.

As of today, Mauer is on pace to catch only 72 games. Doesn't the positional adjustment score skew the WAR number for C relative to 1B? Konerko and Encarnacion are having monster years at the plate and Mauer's offensive numbers are best when he's playing catcher, not so much at 1B/DH. See below: Here are the full FanGraphs positional adjustments used in WAR: Catcher: +12.5 runs (all are per 162 defensive games) First Base: -12.5 runs Second Base: +2.5 runs Third Base: +2.5 runs Shortstop: +7.5 runs Left Field: -7.5 runs Center Field: +2.5 runs Right Field: -7.5 runs Designated Hitter: -17.5 runs As noted above, these values are calculated on a per 162 defensive game basis, and players receive weighted credit for each position that they play.

Don't forget to add Joe Mauer for nothing more than analyzing what he does for a living: "It's definitely frustrating as a left-handed hitter," Mauer said. "I'd be lying if I told you there aren't times at the plate where you're like, 'Oh, I've got to maybe pull a ball,' or things like that. It messes with your approach a little bit." Don't forget that they apparently complained as a group (oh, I meant to say analyzing what they do for a living) to remove the center field trees after 2010- only to see averages and production plummet further. I'd love to hear Plouffe, Willingham, Parmelee and Thome,....and Soriano,......and Bautista.... Oh wait, Thome has gone public with his analyzing what he does (did/er, will do again, now that he's back in the AL as an Oriole) for a living. Here's Thome griping away: "There were some balls that you hit that could get knocked down, sure, I think maybe (it's) the weather or something," Thome said. "Whatever. You just go hit. You don't really worry about all that."

No, but are you possibly too young to remember Puck's first two years with the Twins? His SLG% in those two years were a paltry .336 and .385. With his diminutive and somewhat unusual body shape, there weren't many people who predicted the type of "Power Player" that he would morph into. In the last 10 years of his career, his SLG% was over 500 five times and he only had one season under .460 (.446 in 1990), as you can see, a totally different player from years one and two.

Mystery further solved and further support on why Puckett is more valuable (particularly in the 3 spot): Kirby's power production in his 10 seasons as a power player, average XBH/season: Doubles-37.3/yr Triples 4.0/yr Homers 20.3/yr Mauer's power production (while throwing out his short rookie year and this year): Doubles-29.7/yr Triples 2.1/yr Homers 11.1/yr

SSS as it may be... Kirby Puckett postseason record slash line: 309/362/536/898 Joe Mauer postseason record slash line: 286/359/314/673 Kirby got lucky in his 2 post-seasons with: 10XBH/5 Home Runs/16 RBI Mauer was unlucky in his 3 post-seasons: 1XBH/0 Home Runs/1 RBI

I know you're not suggesting this, but, I hope we don't all go through rounds and rounds of criticizing Plouffe because of which situaton he hits most of his home runs in. Dick and Bert were all over this the last couple of days.

On this basic fact, I am in full agreement. I think where some of the disagreement comes is that I would proffer that all Twins fans have an investment in seeing that this contract "investment" made by the Twins gets a maximum return on capital- on Joe- and what and how his role on the team best benefits the Twins in getting back to making serious runs at the Series on an annual basis.

Runs scored is partly a reflection on what you do once you're on base (advancing via steal, hit, "taking the extra base", WP/PB, etc.), and partly by how many HRs you hit, as well as who is hitting behind you, and Mauer has had a series of great hitters behind him, probably who hit at a higher level than those behind Puck, so yes, it is partly Mauer's fault and to Puck's credit. Regarding RBIs/RISP-- Fine, I am aware of this stat as it is front and center regarding Mauer's performance all the time- this is what is so confounding about Mauer's RISP numbers while batting in the 3 spot. Crunch the numbers around the league who bat #3 which is a premier RBI spot in the order, and year after year Mauer is in the bottom half for RBI. There are many factors that come into play, but you can't simply say it was because Puckett played in more games that he has . Both batted largely in the same spot in the order, Puck averaged 149 games/yr and Mauer averaged 134 games/yr with that huge differential in average RBI/yr, far greater than the 15 less games played. This suggests there are other factors with RISP that have to account for this difference- IE, how many of Joe's hits with RISP actually drive in a runner, and what is the SLG% for both with RISP? Plus, what is the value of Runs Created when not in RISP situations?

Agreed in full. For all the heat that Terry Ryan takes, this was a perfect FA-leaving/FA-replacement scenario. Well-played, TR.

Kirby's approach at the plate was "the anti-Joe Mauer". I don't know if there are splits for Puckett, but he was a very good "bad ball" hitter. When asked what his hitting philosophy was, he stated that he didn't have a philosophy, "I just go up there hackin'". His BB% is close to Ben Revere's. You are largely correct about tangibles, although the last 10 years of Puck's career, when he converted himself to a power player, he averaged 20.3 HRs/YR-- Most players develop more power over time, not less-- Joe has done it once, and will likely never come close to that number again. The RBI stat has largely been discounted by modern day stat-hounds as a statistic of random/lucky opportunities, I still don't think it properly accounts for "timely hitting"- IE, Puck averaged 96 RBI/yr for his career on many more bad teams and bad hitters batting in front of him, Mauer has averaged only 69 RBI/yr, with some very good plate protection behind him. Runs scored is valued by stat-hounds, Kirby averaged 89/year, Mauer has averaged only 75/year. Career SLG%: Puck-477/Mauer-469. And that gets me to the intangible advantages, and Puck proved in his career that he was ready and willing to be the team leader- still waiting for Joe to step up to the plate, I hope it happens, but I remain doubtful.

My impression is that he wasn't going anywhere. He's the MLB catcher's version of Greinke. His agent, Ron Shapiro, had to be one of the luckiest men alive back in 09/10, look at the facts on the table: 1) If Mauer really wanted Pujols-type money, he could have waited for FA to bid his value even higher 2) GM Bill Smith 3) Mauer has career year at age 26 in 09 4) Mauer's power production numbers were wildly inflated in a soon-to-be irrelevant stadium 5) Even as he was producing numbers that were ridiculous for a catcher, his full-time catching days were already numbered 6) Mauer was physically breaking down even as his numbers were still on the upswing 7) The Twins couldn't possibly afford the PR disaster of losing the "face of the franchise" during Target Field's marketing stage 8) Did I mention Bill Smith? Oh yeah, Shapiro was "negotiating" with possibly the most unprepared GM in sports history

My sentiments exactly. The catching position is a natural leadership position, unfortunately that just doesn't appear to complement Joe's natural personality, which at times, when dealing with the media, is somewhat reminiscent of the classic literary character from Gone With The Wind, the milquetoast Ashley Wilkes. It just doesn't appear in his nature to do what Puck, and to a lesser extent, Hunter, accepted naturally, ie, the willingness to put the team on his back. He was seemingly unaware that with his new contract now in effect, that more would be asked and expected of him in terms of "preparation and effort". When he's playing near the top of his game at the plate, he's a marvel with the bat, it is somewhat reminiscent to what Rod Carew could do with the stick, without the bunting. Unfortunately, he's being paid to produce like 2009 is his normal output. For him to come closer to justifying his contract he must 1) stay healthy, which should limit the batting slumps; 2)continue to reverse his semi-disastrous early-season GB/FB ratio (even now, still ridiculously high at 3.15 vs career 1.89); 3) which in turn, can continue to increase his slugging percentage closer back to career norms (check out Joe's 2010 stats, they almost perfectly match his career norms- 2010: 327/402/469 vs career numbers of 324/404/469), after today, Mauer's slugging % has soared significantly this month to his present season high of 448. 4) Joe has had 3 of 8 years in his career exceeding a 500 SLG %, which was accomplished w/o a drop in BA. I'd gladly trade a few points of OBA for a few more points of SLG for a player making $23 MIL and batting in the 3 spot. I give the Twins and Mauer credit for effectuating a plan in terms of managing/limiting his catching duties in order to maximize his value at the plate. Joe's current rate of games at the catcher position relative to total games played for 2012 is only 44%. That translates out to only around 72 games at catcher for Mauer in a 162 game season and that probably is what it is for the rest of his career, which changes the valuation metrics on his contract significantly.

Huh. I agreed with your previous post about anonymous posters at their keyboard, demeaning people by calling them names and besmirching their character. I guess this post qualifies for your closing sentence, "two-at-a-time" qualifier, then. Such fun for everyone.

Yes, he does appear to have a lot of upcoming opportunites to break out the 4th inning-or-so-mop-up duties during the frequent 10-2 thrashings.

The Rangers club is a good argument for the "creative destruction" model of successfully competing in the business world. It's almost exactly 2 years ago that Texas filed for bankruptcy, $500Mil in arrears in salaries owed. New management built a strong, sound franchise on a leftover base of tradeable or developable assets that wasn't currently jelling in the previous philosophical approach. In turn, they aren't afraid of taking risks in finding new young talent and back-filling with proven talent in areas of need, and now look where they are. How about some creative destruction in the Twin's philosophies and front office staff?

They can offer him the $7M. Liriano is indeed, an unrestricted FA at the end of the season. By my reading of the CBA and yes, there is a level of opaqueness in the legalese language, there is a certain period of time, about a week after the end of the World Series, the "dead period", where the soon-to-be FAs can be offered by the previous team the "qualifying-for-compensation contract number" and contacted by prospective teams without specific contract offering language, and then a follow-up 7-day period for the impending FA to consider accepting or rejecting the previous team's offer. This apparently is the procedure to determine whether or not the previous team is entitled to a comp pick. Once FA is official, the Twins could make the $7M offer. It's hard to imagine, given Liriano's erratic history, that anyone will offer that much without heavy incentives and other protections for the offering team.

What a pleasant surprise. The odds are long, but with that size, and the demeanor he demonstrated tonight, he can be an imposing figure out there. Add a Fu Manchu and a scowl, he could become a manster-sized Al Hrabosky. In a game where practically all a lefty pitcher needs to be in posession of, is a pulse, he could stick, especially with more ABs against RH batters like Youkilis.

Great, let's go to 4-hour average length games, because 3:15 isn't long enough. Improve the umpiring by breaking the collective arrogance of the umps, so fully on display by this jerk, Dimuro. Isn't that nice-guy Jack Hanahan he throws out there? One solution is a seperate video ump, with complete overrule authority, no special ump visitation conferences under the stands, a 60 second time limit on any overrule. The other is to speed up the time between pitches, to offeset the replay time.

At tonight's press conference, Gardy in complete denial about the LOB issue. He completely denied that the RISP tonight was 1-10. He seemingly wasn't aware that the Twins outhit the Sox and had a series of poor ABs that snuffed out potential rallies. The bright side is definitely the bullpen, Robertson certainly pitched like he wants to stay with the big club, gotta be happy for the big kid in his debut. Meanwhile, Hendriks defintely showed he has a pulse and gives some hope that he can become a competent SP in time. In an added plus and based on the post-game interview, he was apparently in another life, the co-star on House, playing Dr. Chase.

First team to 9, wins.