Oldgoat_MN

It's bizarre how many people disregard basic facts and reason when judging Joe Mauer. If you have that toward of attitude it's because you simply don't like him on a personal level. Your tweet in February is pretty simple: Fangraphs value of Mauer - $298.8 million, total earned - $195.025 million. I enjoyed catching the national TV shows (MLB Whiparound, Intentional Talk) the day after his 2,000th hit and contrasting the praise the national media gives him, with some of our local media's treatment.

Well that was, um, different.
Thanks, I guess.

Souhan is a provocateur, and I always read his stuff with that perception in place. But he does owe his reader some semblance of rationality. Mauer could have gotten far more in NY or Boston than here. LOTS. Nor does he owe us the personality of a Hunter, Hrbek, or Puckett.. Both Puckett and Mauer had injuries seriously impacting their careers in different manners. Both were good at their positions. I will say that Mauers talent was far more impressive at his postion than Pucketts was. Kirby may be in the HOF, thanks in large part to a couple plays one October. But he wasn't the talent at his position that Mauer was at his. As for Mauers future, I personally wish he would retire. He could still help the Twins, lord knows they need it. But I would hope he considers his health for the rest of his life and his family. I can't believe he would want to risk yet another concussion or concussion symptoms. It's frankly not worth it. He doesn't owe the Twins anything whatsoever, nor there fans.

I'm entertaining this one more time, but genuinely believe we've gotten off track here.
 
I realize that was Twins only WAR. My comment is reflective of players only appearing in the Twins uniform.
 
It's convenient to note that Puckett's career was cut short, while dismissing the fact that Mauer's prime (which was on a much higher trajectory) suffered the same fate.
 
If you want to fault Joe for not being the vocal leader he never claimed to be, and never displayed intentions of being, I don't know what to tell you. In regards to his $184m, that figure never hampered the Twins front office from executing on supplementing talent. Their failure to do so, again, isn't a reflection of what Mauer brought to the table on his own.
 
Again, love the discussion, just don't see it being the backbone of the discussion I was trying to have within the blog.

I don't recall such an instance.
He may have been promised to be fast-tracked when he signed from Indy ball. His .895 OPS in A+ (SSS) suggests there may be something there.
And being a RH hitting outfielder may have prompted the FO to see if he is a viable option for the big leagues.
Still, seems aggressive.

There are very few Minnesotans who believe that one of our major sports teams (Lynx excluded) will win anything more significant than a Participation Trophy. Those that do also likely still believe in Santa, The Easter Bunny, and Happy Endings. While these people are rare and pose no significant risk to the community in general, they are still being monitored closely by local authorities.

I'd rather have normalized BABIP LaMonte Wade with his zone control and > Grossman defense.
 
.370 BABIP Gordon with his 3.3% walk rate and < Adrianza defense won't do as much to move the needle.

A1A reason - it's baseball!

If we go single/double/triple, why is a home run not a quadruple? A grand slam can be a 4x4

From a talent standpoint, I'd agree, but in general it doesn't mean much. They'll end up lining him up for the Puerto Rico series.

I'd happily go 4 years on Darvish. It's the 5th and 6th years that make me nervous.
Appreciate the way you've stated your opinions on the matter.

I'd happily go 4 years on Darvish. It's the 5th and 6th years that make me nervous.
Appreciate the way you've stated your opinions on the matter.

I'm in agreement on years 3 and beyond.   Darvish will be worth the money, probably for two more years.  I'm also the guy with the Japanese, Twins-fan Mother-in-law who still wears her Kurt Suzuki Jersey, and would go ga-ga if Davish came here.  So, part of me wants him here for non-baseball reasons.

What a considerable miscalculation that was.
 
Great line. Please know you were not alone.
Fun write-up on the arm slots. I just wonder if this would amount to 'tipping' his pitches. Not that every batter has the time to study release points for each relief pitcher on an opponent's staff. 

Not as plugged into Twins minor league system as I need to be, clearly! And new to Twins Daily. Both, hopefully, things I can rectify this season.
 
 

I enjoyed this, thank you. I've been looking at this stuff some, but I'm not certain how to best apply it. For example, it makes me awfully suspicious that Kyle Gibson ranks ahead of Clayton Kershaw in QOPA. I always like to have another data point, but I just don't know how valuable it is.

You know, IF you're the Twins and IF the Cole for Gordon/Jay/Granite deal is something you consider fair, why wouldn't you make that deal EVEN IF you do get Darvish signed? 
 
Those three prospects for 2 years of Cole seems a little high to me, but given my admitted bias toward Twins young players, that probably means it's pretty close to being a reasonable deal. I just don't quite understand why you would hold off on making it until you get an answer from Darvish. In fact, adding Cole might even show Darvish how serious you are about competing right now.

Thank you Mike. That's fun stuff.
I know one man who played against barnstorming teams. He told me about the time the other team featured Bob Feller as their pitcher.
I got all excited and asked him how many pitches he saw from Feller. He looked at me like I was slow and said, "Three".

Good piece. Whoever gets Duda is probably going to get a solid value, but I'm not sure he's the best fit for the Twins due to his trouble with lefties. He's a career .218/.289/.370 hitter against LHP. The Twins ranked fifth in wOBA vs. RHP (.332), but were 14th vs. LHP (.320).
 
Maybe that doesn't matter.
 
It looks like right now the rest of the AL Central pitching staffs are very right-handed heavy. Cleveland doesn't have a single southpaw projected to be in their rotation. Danny Duffy and Matt Boyd may be the two best LHPs in the division, unless there's somebody I'm forgetting. Each team is going to be able to matchup with their bullpens, of course, but you can always pinch hit for Duda if say he's due to face Andrew Miller or something. 
 
With all that in mind, I'd definitely much rather prefer Duda to Mike Napoli, who the Twins have been linked to this offseason.

I agree, this is getting embarrassing. You did a great job touching on the racial issues, but people also overreact to the Park and Nishioka signings. They weren't even disasters. The investments made were modest and I even think there's still some debate that either guy may have panned out if they hadn't have gotten injured. 
 
With posting fees and everything else a grand total of $38.85MM was committed to those two players. Nishi was a $5MM posting and a $9MM contract, Park was $12.85MM posting and a $12MM contract. And some of that was even recuperated when each of those guys returned home. 
 
These weren't six-figure signings. Their failures did not cripple the franchise. These are fans who saw their club give Ricky Nolasco $49MM and Phil Hughes a $42MM extension, if anything the argument should be don't give pitchers money. But then again ...
 
Why am I even arguing this!?!?!? Park and Nishioka have nothing to do with Darvish, Ohtani or anyone else!!! It's just the worst take ever on so many levels and I've seen it like a hundred times now. Barf. Those fans don't deserve to get to see Darvish or Ohtani pitch for their team.

The Twins no longer are headquartered at Lake Woebegone, where the hitters are strong, two of the numerous TV announcers are good looking, and the free agents are slightly above average. 

I think Brandon's point is that it is the sacrifice bunt that is a negative play. The statistics show that over and over again.
 
Bunting for a hit is an exciting play. I like those as much as anyone.

I think Brandon's point is that it is the sacrifice bunt that is a negative play. The statistics show that over and over again.
 
Bunting for a hit is an exciting play. I like those as much as anyone.

I think Brandon's point is that it is the sacrifice bunt that is a negative play. The statistics show that over and over again.
 
Bunting for a hit is an exciting play. I like those as much as anyone.

Bunting is almost always a negative play. It doesn't hurt to know how, but I don't want to see teams do it more.