KGB

Anyone of the catchers would be an upgrade.

Dead arms throwing 13 innings a month's, old timers everywhere ask what's happening with our youth.

If OBP was most important, they would teach bunting instead of launch angle to beat the shifts. But that isn't happening anytime soon.

Not if you actually looks at the numbers.

No, just not agreeing that batting him down in the order and Mauer at the top of the order makes sense. Slugging percentage has a closer relationship to runs scored than OBP, so batting someone with a high OBP doesn't correlate with scoring more runs. Also Dozier is horrible at hitting with runners on base and in scoring position and Mauer is very good at it. So to switch them around doesn't make a lot of sense to me.

Sorry for the formatting, but if you look at the teams ranking in runs scored, OBP and SLG, SLG correlates a lot closer to runs scored. The OBP ranking has some large outlier in the Reds (4th in OBP and 17 in runs) and Rays (12th in OBP and 25th in runs scored. Team Run OBP Slg Astros 1 2 3 Yankees 2 3 1 Red Sox 3 5 2 Braves 4 6 5 Indians 5 7 4 Rockies 6 13 9 Cubs 7 1 10 Dodgers 8 9 7 Angels 9 10 6 Pirates 10 8 13 Athletics 11 22 11 Blue Jays 12 23 12 Rangers 13 15 23 Diamondbacks 14 25 19 Mariners 15 14 8 Brewers 16 17 14 Reds 17 4 20 Giants 18 11 15 Tigers 19 20 17 Phillies 20 16 24 Cardinals 21 19 18 Nationals 22 18 21 Twins 23 21 16 Padres 24 29 28 Rays 25 12 25 Mets 26 24 26 White Sox 27 28 22 Royals 28 27 29 Marlins 29 26 30 Orioles 30 30 27

https://www.fangraphs.com/community/when-slugging-percentage-beats-on-base-percentage/ Slugging percentage has been better indicator during Mauer's career.. Dozier scored 100 runs a year, so it was working. He just needs to start hitting again.

www.spotrac.com/mlb/minnesota-twins/logan-morrison-7405/ Contract Notes: Plate Apperanace Incentives $550,000 each for 450,500, 550 Vesting Option: 500 PA: $8.5M 550 PA: $9M 600 PA: $9.5M I believe his contract vest at 500 PA. They might have better options, but the FO hasn't shown an interest in adding younger players early to the 40 man roster so they probably would promote Carter or Vargas first. Maybe in September you would get a young player who would be added to the 40 man next year. Also don't see them trading for a bat at this point.

I don't think he will be better, but you can't let Morrison get to his vesting option. So you will need to make a move with him.

That remains to be seen. With the team lacking offense, bringing in below .200 hitter doesn't seem like a great plan.

Yes, but you are never going to know what the budget is and if they spent the Hughes savings. But I think it's pretty clear the deal wasn't in place and came together during the 10 days period of Hughes being DFA. So it was a FO decision to make the trade. Unlike a lot of people who have fallen in love with the FO, I'm still in a wait in see mode. But I think this was a solid move in getting $7.5 of flexibility. Last year, they traded international cap room a prospect about the same level as you would get in this pick and also by absorbing $4.5 million of Garcia's salary last year they ended up getting a better prospect from the Yankee's then you are probably going to draft. So getting the savings can be spent in a lot of different ways and seems like they got a lot more than they have spent in prior trades for someone they were ready to cut loose. The move is a lot better than all the young pitchers we have lost through waviers and rule 5, so we could draft a 27 year old AA pitcher or sign Rodney and Duke.

I love how it always comes back to the Pohlad's being cheap. #3. The DFA Hughes, so they didn't have any deals set up. They were ready to eat the whole salary, so I don't think you can blame the Pohlad's for the trade. Like most business, they operate with a budget which doesn't make an owner cheap. So the FO office knowing they have a budget, received an offer that allowed them to receive some budget flexibility, choose to take the trade offer. They determined the future budget flexibility was more valuable than the draft pick.

But at the time of the trade it had very little value to the Twins. They also sent a million to Seattle, which I don't believe got them any top prospects since the Yankees sign the final couple top prospects.

Last year the Twins the Twins picked up the 85th draft pick from the Angels for a $1 million in internal cap space. So it looks like good value.

Can you explain why you think the front office has done an excellent job? I get the feeling people like the idea of a young and analytical front office and think that is great, but based on what they done so far, I don’t see anything great.1. They went to the playoff last year, but that was more in spite of the front office moves then because of the moves. At the trade deadline, they acquired a starter then one bad week, they traded him. Then they traded the closer. Unless you think picking up Barton Colon was the move the team needed, it sure looks like they were not trading to make a playoff push. 2. They had a highly regarded draft, but that usually happens when you have the first overall pick. It’s going to take a few more years to really evaluate the draft, but I think it going to be interesting how the draft is rated this year when they are middle of the pack in the draft. 3. They were unable to sign any of the young players to extensions this off season. I don’t know if the offers were low or if all the players just decided to bet on themselves, but going missing out on 5 offers doesn’t sound great. 4. I know signing Morrison and Lynn were popular moves, but as of yet have not paid off. And the Rule 5 draft and roster moves with the relief pitchers are looking bad. Everything is still early, so there is time for things to turn around. But I think if Terry Ryan was still here and made these moves, most people would be looking to fire him

And a 15 hit difference is 30 points on his batting average. Here's a breakdown of the average drop from 2013 to 2014: 2013 .324 2014 .277 ------ Drop .047 change due to BABIP .030 change due to HR drop .015 increased strike outs .002 -------- Total .047 The BABIP and K's are reduction is clearly not concussion related. If you want to home run reduction or any reduction in slugging percentage is concussion related, I'm fine with that, but you really can't say that was a "great to pedestrian in ten months" drop since his home run total was always pretty pedestrian.

At .437 it falls in the moderate range, but closing out on the weak rating. .00-.19 “very weak” .20-.39 “weak” .40-.59 “moderate” And the "great to pedestrian in ten months" is very misleading when you actually look at his BABIP during those 2 years. He had a 10 year average BABIP of .340 but jumped up to .383 in 2013. I think any other player, this board would be all over with prediction about his upcoming drop in production due to going back to is norm. In 2014, that is exactly what he did with a BABIP of .340, but somehow the reasoning is it has to be related to his concussion.

http://twinsdaily.com/topic/27398-regarding-and-re-evaluating-mauer-yet-again/page-3 As we discussed before the correlation between his hard hit rate and average of ball in play is close to poor, so I'm don't think it supports his drop in production being related to his concussion.

The biggest reason for the upswing in 2017 was his reduction in strike outs. Not being a power hitter, he's got to put the ball in play and his strike out percentage was rising since the bilateral leg weakness year. So it maybe more a change of approach than recovery from a concussion. Season K% 2011 11.40% 2012 13.70% 2013 17.50% ------------------------- Concussion 2014 18.50% 2015 16.80% 2016 16.10% 2017 13.90% 2018 14.30%

Based on the situation at the time of the draft, I think the Twins made the correct decision of drafting Mauer. But I know in 2002-2003 with the Twins winning the division and having potential to get to the World Series, I would have traded Mauer for Prior in a second. Knowing what we know now, if I am given the choice of 15 years of watching a borderline HOF player and having zero playoff wins or have a 2-3 year window with a realistic World Series chance, I'd take the second option.

The annual April forum that Mauer has turned it around. Soon to be followed by the annual April forum to send Buxton down because he can't hit. Then the August forum that we need to sign him to a 10 year contract. The classic never grow old.

I hope Tyler Kinley is the real deal and they don't end up sending him back to Miami. Otherwise the decision to waive all these pitchers looks bad.

Agree,he likely bottom of rotation pitcher. Now hopefully a free agent pitcher falls to them like Addison Reed did. They don't seem as desperate as they looked before and rotation are filling up. Prices will be going down

Only a few catchers do make if to the HOF,and Mauer caught less than a 1000 games and will probably end his career playing less than half his games as a catcher. Banking on just the JAWS formula feels like a long shot.

https://www.baseball-reference.com/players/m/mauerjo01.shtml Of the 5 HOF predictors,Mauer is a predicted in only 1. Along with Santana, his best hope is a Veteran's committee. I think it's very difficult to see him getting enough votes from the writers.