Nick Nelson

You can view the page at http://twinsdaily.com/content.php?549-Is-Mauer-Breaking-Down

[ATTACH=CONFIG]960[/ATTACH]Much has been made of Twins fans booing Joe Mauer at Target Field this year. Personally, I'm not offended by it. It's how some invested fans choose to express their disappointment and frustration. They paid for the tickets that help pay the players' enormous salaries, so those in attendance should be free to voice their displeasure with what's happening. In this case, it's not totally unjustified. Not that I myself would ever boo Mauer. There have been ball players in this game's long history who have been deserving of booing – scumbags, entitled pricks and racists among them – but No. 7 is not (at least to my knowledge) any of those things. He's a very handsomely paid athlete who is not currently providing the value that the Twins hoped for and expected when they inked him to a $184 million contract extension three years ago. I doubt it's his fault. It's not like Mauer isn't trying, which is why the booing strikes me as odd. By all accounts, he worked out like a maniac during the offseason, desperate to distance himself from the nightmare season that was 2011. But I do wonder if it's a little too late, and the years of punishment behind the plate have fundamentally weakened him as a hitter. After grounding out three times on Wednesday, Mauer is now hitting .270/.391/.365 on the campaign. That's far from embarrassing, but it's also quite similar to the .287/.360/.368 line he finished with last year, when he admitted he never felt right all season. Last year Mauer totaled three home runs and 15 doubles in 333 plate appearances. This year, at his current pace, he'll have 16 doubles and two homers when he reaches that PA mark. That's a real lack of power, and it stems from an increasingly extreme ground ball rate. His approach at the plate has been excellent. He's striking out at a measly 9.3 percent clip (ninth-lowest in the majors) and he's on pace to draw more than 100 walks. Yet when he puts the ball in play, he rarely does so with authority. His 58.7 percent grounder rate eclipses last year's 55.4, which was at the time a career high. He's still a great, professional hitter, but when I see him now I just don't see signs of the the dominant player who in 2009 hit .365 with 28 homers. I don't even see the guy who in 2010 hit .327 with 43 doubles. It was some hybrid of those models that the Twins hoped they'd be getting at least in the early years of his contract, but right now Mauer appears headed toward rather quickly becoming a first baseman and No. 2 hitter who takes great at-bats and gets on base a ton but doesn't hit for much power or run well. That's not a $23 million franchise centerpiece. It's Doug Mientkiewicz. And that's why the people boo. But Mauer is out there on the field every day, trying to get things figured out, so you won't hear me joining the chorus. Catching for many years takes a toll, even on the most pristine of athletes. I wrote an article last year framed around one of my favorite quotes from Johnny Bench: "A catcher and his body are like an outlaw and his horse. He's got to ride that nag till it drops." Bench was one of many backstops who have either retired early, switched positions or seen their production wane rapidly with age. I'll name another example – one with parallels to Mauer that cannot be ignored: Jason Kendall. Kendall spent the first nine years of his career in Pittsburgh, serving as a full-time catcher and hitting .306/.387/.418 while averaging eight home runs. In 2005, at age 30, he was traded to the Oakland A's, and over the next six years he would hit .260/.333/.318 while hitting eight home runs total. Kendall retired at age 36, which will be Mauer's age when his contract with the Twins is up.

This. I'm sure Bates is a nice guy, but I can't believe all the hand-wringing I'm seeing over dropping him. He was a 28-year-old first baseman slugging .286 in AAA.

Penny was the only SP in the majors with a lower K-rate than Pavano last year. Pass.

Actually, we won't know until we find out. Obviously his penchant for falling behind in the count has born no ill effects in Triple-A.

I have no problem with Incmikowski's positivity. What I find annoying is his tendency to rip those who take a critical approach. He posted one tweet a couple months ago, during the "access" debate, that really irked me: Well, that's easy to say for a person who, by his own admission, stays away from any kind of negativity. When would he have to answer the bell for anything? His job is to present a positive, viewer-friendly image and lob softballs to players in post-game interviews – I agree with Seth that he does that well. Incmikowski is not, however, an analyst of the team, and it'd be nice if he respected the people who are. When a team is on pace to lose nearly 120 games, even casual fans want to be able to find honest and critical assessments of what's going on.

Making an impact on what's happening is not really my concern. In my view, this season is already basically a lost cause. I'm more interested in identifying players who can help the team in the coming years, and this strikes me as a good opportunity to take an extended look at Slama. If he's bad, what is there to lose?

There's a frightening third option: that Mauer's numerous physical ailments have fundamentally weakened him as a hitter. I'm hoping this is not the case but the possibility cannot be ignored. His GB/FB ratios over the past couple seasons have been hugely inflated from previous career norms...

Snepp! Hadn't noticed you around here before. Welcome!

In that case, I yield to your obviously vast level of expertise when it comes to major-league managers and their impact. These are adult, millionaire athletes we're talking about. The notion that they need managers to teach them how to play and make sure they try their best is silly. By the time they've reached the majors their fundamentals (or lack thereof) are ingrained. Yes, I've watched most of the games. I also watched most of the games from 2002-2010 when the Twins (under Gardy) were renowned as one of the most fundamentally sound teams in the game. I'd venture to say that the issues now are more related to personnel than the manager randomly forgetting how to coach. Gibson's overall record as D-Backs skipper is 142-135. What does that prove or refute, exactly? Is your argument that he's chiefly responsible for the massive improvement of Arizona's pitching staff from 2010 to 2011? Did his very presence make pitchers pitch better, or did he as a former hitter have some special insight that he shared with them to drop their ERA by a full run? Explain.

I don't know about the mental aspects, but I'll be keeping an eye on whether the move to the bullpen pumps some life into Liriano's fastball and especially his slider. His pitches just haven't had their normal bite even when in the zone.

The improvement in plate discipline is extremely encouraging. Please share any updates you come across on his defensive adjustments to the infield.

You can view the page at http://twinsdaily.com/content.php?532-Sleeping-on-Slama

After seeing the two starters who were supposed to serve as veteran leaders in the rotation exit after recording only 12 outs on successive nights, it's not hard to understand why the Twins have been carrying 13 pitchers on the roster for much of the year. What is hard to understand is why, with all these different relief slots, and with so many different guys being shuffled in and out, the Twins still haven't been able to find room for Anthony Slama on the major-league roster.[ATTACH=CONFIG]918[/ATTACH] Slama has clearly never been held in particularly high esteem by the organization, despite his dazzling numbers in the minors. He owns a lifetime 2.00 ERA and 1.08 WHIP, and he has averaged more than 10 strikeouts per nine innings at every single level, yet he's been mired in Triple-A for four years and at age 28 he has logged only seven MLB innings. The knocks against Slama are that his control isn't very good and he's weak against left-handed hitting. Those things both may be true, but neither precludes him from being a useful big-league reliever. His numbers in Triple-A are absurdly dominant. In 133 1/3 total innings for Rochester, he has registered a 2.36 ERA and 161-to-66 strikeout-to-walk ratio, yielding only 87 hits. This year, he has struck out 43 percent of the batters he's faced while posting a 0.59 ERA as the Red Wings' closer. Although he's been able to consistently overcome his flaws and decimate hitters at every level of the minors, the Twins simply do not seem to view him as a guy who can make an impact at the next level. Apparently, they're not alone. At the end of last season, Slama was removed from the 40-man roster and exposed to waivers. Nobody claimed him. I presumed at the time that both the decision to outright him and the lack of interest from even reliever-needy bottom feeders stemmed largely from elbow problems that ended his 2011 campaign in August. Yet this year, the side-arming righty has shown no ill effects from the injury – he's been nearly unhittable. So at this point Slama is healthy, averaging almost two strikeouts per inning in Triple-A, and 28 years old. Oh, and there's an open spot on the 40-man roster. In this lost season, it's baffling that the Twins aren't interested in taking an extended look at what the guy can do against big-league hitters. If control is his biggest problem, why not make him a project for Rick Anderson? What is there to lose? Slama's stuff might not be especially great, but I have an exceedingly difficult time believing that a pitcher can overpower hitters to that degree at the highest level of the minor leagues and stand no chance of providing value in the majors. Give him a chance.

He actually has three walks during that span, and he handed out six in the three appearances prior, so yeah, the control is a legitimate issue. Still no reason he shouldn't be given an extended look in the bigs. Is there no belief that he could benefit from working with Rick Anderson?

He's always had control issues, which is a big reason he hasn't gotten much of a shot in Minnesota (not that Jeff Gray is much of a strike-thrower).

"Unlucky"? He was flat-out terrible, which is exactly what his track record foretold. He never should have been on the team in the first place, regardless of his spring training statistics.

Well, he IS four years younger than Carroll...

No one really knows, therefore this discussion is - at best - uninformed. How much impact does a manager truly have? In most cases I think it's very little.

Two straight starts for Drew Butera. This is my nightmare.

This cracked me up.