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Mauer also has better post-season numbers than HOFer Carew over only 40 and 50 at-bats, respectively. Mauer has a .275 DA, with a .341 OBP. Underrating a career for near average production in just a handful of post-season games is overrated. That said, clutch hitting in the post-season is certainly a big positive. For that reason, Puckett has to be right there with Mauer, Puckett, and Killebrew.

Thanks for doing the research on age, 2wins. I was going to do the same thing after reading the comments. You saved me a good hour.

You may be right about managers not wanting to play both catchers in the same game, but I don´t see a problem with it. I definitely believe that managers are hesitant to pinch hit for or pull a catcher from a game. If Castro got hurt, Garver would move behind the plate and Sano or Kepler could fill in at first. The Giants have regularly given Posey thirty or so starts at first with only two catchers on the roster. The difference is that they're giving Posey a break from catching, whereas the Twins would be resting Mauer. My question would be whether Garver hits well enough to merit the move. It could be a good way to get Garver more at-bats as he develops as a major leaguer. It´s an interesting idea, SF.

I don't think you can pigeonhole Allison as right fielder. From ´64 thru '70 he played more games in left than in right, and he was primarily a center fielder in his ´59 ROY season. For his career, he appeared in 8 more games in left field than in right. If you subtract his stats in Washington, Allison played 144 more games in left. Hrbek was at worst a pretty good defender. Led the league in fielding in ´90, twice 2nd, along with 3rd and 4th finishes. Hrbek ranks 51st all-time in fielding % at first base. Here is a stunning find; Mauer ranks 4th all-time, Mienkiewicz tied for 6th, and Morneau 9th. Mauer ranks #1 among all among all active players at both 1B and catcher. His Fld% at catcher is 6th all-time, tied with Jason Castro. Mike Redmond ranked 3rd, Pierzynski is ranked 8th, Lenny Webster, 11th, Suzuki 22nd, Ramos 24th. Conclusion: Hell if I know, other than the Twins dominate the statistic at C and at 1B. Gaetti played a career total of 36 innings at SS, 3 innings at 2B, 2 1/3 innings pitched, and 106 innings in the outfield. He didn't play a whole lot at 1b or DH. Gaetti played over 20,000 innings during his 20-year career, with 4 Gold Gloves. I´d give the nod to Gaetti at third over Koskie. End of nitpicking. An enjoyable, thought-provoking article.

Vargas Career Splits vs RHP AB 526 HR 26 W 38 SO 171 BA.241 OBP .295 SLG. 439 OPS.735 vs LHP AB 257 HR 14 W 27 SO 80 BA.272 OBP .341 SLG .432 OPS.773 What was the deal with Vargas in 2017? While the sample sizes are small, he torched left-handed pitchers in ´15 and ´16. VS LHP in ´15- .364 .397 .473 .869, VS LHP in ´16- 378 .462 .800 1.262 VS LHP in ´17- .185 .289 .308 .597 His combined MLB/MiLB career splits are more varied but seem to show better numbers as a right-handed batter. Did the opposition find his Achilles heel from the right side, or is there reason to believe that he can once again produce big numbers against lefties?

I think that it's conjecture to the extreme. Has it been reported anywhere that the vision problem rules out a potential MLB career? Is the 100/20 vision report false? Is a physical just a charade? As I see it, until facts prove otherwise, a defect was discovered that lowers his value to something less than $3 million dollars. It doesn't mean that he isn't worth signing at all. It just means that his market value has dropped following a customary physical. Due diligence is a good thing.

I don't thinjk the contract clause is much of a factor. Santana has logged 200+ innings twice in the past six seasons. If he regresses more than expected I don't see much chance that he locks in. If Ervin is trending 200 in late August, it probably will mean that he still has it. If his arm goes south, shows it's age, late in the season, it would be logical that his workload would decrease. There would be no need pull him early to prevent him from locking in. Point is, Ervin's history shows that he is a steal at $13/14 million when he is able to pitch 200 innings.

Note that the previous SEC Triple Crown winner was Rafael Palmeiro. A different style, but it would be nice to see Rooker bringing that kind of production.

I worry about Seattle more than NY. Otani grew up during Ichiru's ten All-Star seasons there. Seattle got a ton of coverage in Japan during that time. In 2010, Seattle had a 14% Asian population, though only 1.1% Japanese. The downtown inner harbor zip code is 7.7 % Japanese, a pure downtown area with a small population, but high rent housing and close to Safeco. It's also the closest location to Japan. I think a lot depends on how money hungry Otani is and how much influence his agent carries. His agent is likely pushing NYC. NYC for the hard cash, Seattle for the comfort, and the Twins for the best spot to start his MLB career.

What's the story on Vargas batting RH vs RH pitchers? 2 of the 3 homers batting right came against right-handers. Baseball Reference lists all of his 2017 and career at-bats vs RH pitchers coming from the left side. Am I missing something? Is baseball Reference missing something? Also, that HR 483' bomb was the only one he hit against a lefty last season. I'm a long way from home, so it's rare to ever see a Twins game. Is Vargas giving up on the left side? His splits from the right side improved greatly from 2015, the opposite result from the left side.

I love these articles. Always interesting. My only quibble is that many, if not most of the capsules don't list the age of the player. The stats are hard to evaluate without knowing the age. Marte, for instance, might seem obvious because he was a 16-year-old international signee, but it would be nice if I didn't have to bother doing the math. Anyway, just a request. Either way, the ranking articles always get an A+ from me.

Tough crowd this morning. Looking back, I enjoyed a surprising and exciting season. I commented optimistically in mid-June that the team had a chance of going into the All-Star break with a winning record. The assumption by most, if I remember correctly, was that the floor was going to collapse eventually, sooner rather than later. Then came the trade deadline dump. The team became stronger. Anyway, it was a season of many good memories and I'm looking forward to the future.

If you use 4 starters, there would never be a need for anyone to pitch with 3 days rest. If every game goes to the limit, there are still 10 off days guaranteed. Slotting the starters by order of preference, the #1 and #2 pitchers would each get 6 starts, the #3 pitcher 5 starts, and #4, 3 starts. Regardless of sweeping, going the limit, or anything in between, if everyone always gets at least 4 days rest, the #4 starter gets called on 3 times. The ALDS is the one series that allows the team to nix the #4 starter completely by having only the #! pitcher go on 3 days rest. That's because there is a day off between games 2 and 3, and another between potential games 4 and 5.

"....(even recording a three-out save in a game which the Twins won by 10 runs...." A misprint here. It was a three inning save. The other is impossible to achieve. Nonetheless, a great read. Nathan was lights out, and trading Liriano brought us the joy of Escobar.

Reusse has been a nasty cheap shot artist for decades. I'll refrain from going further on such an easy target. Souhan also thrives on negativity, but he at least makes some arguments in the process of tearing into people. Sano is a special talent. We need to remember that he's only 24 and he missed the entire 2014 season before breaking in as a regular midway through the following season. He has really impressed me with his ability at third base this season, especially after going through the RF experiment last season. His best days are ahead of him

Seth, I see that Rooker is 3-28, with 10 K's, and 2 BB´s in his last six games. Have they found a hole in his swing?

The first signability question. pick. Extra allotment $$ may be in play here. From minorleagueball.com: "PROJECTION Enlow projects as a mid-rotation starter, although he could be more than that if his fastball reaches its maximum potential and if the change-up develops into a plus pitch. He’s being mentioned as a late first round or supplemental round possibility on draft day and he’ll definitely need to be selected early due to the signability issues. College becomes increasingly likely if he gets too far past the top of the second round."

It's not that complicated, nor is it that simple. Your argument isn't realistic, IMO. Again, I'm not saying the theory is good or bad, just giving the person who originally asked about it an example of how a team worked the system to their advantage. Granted, the amounts allotted have changed, but there is some reasoning behind the strategy. I don't have a clue whether the gambit will work, but unless the team felt that Greene was the real thing, this draft didn't offer anyone worth latching onto for better or worse. Time will tell.

Hope is the word I used. I understand the comment, but suggesting that Falvey doesn´t have a plan seems to be jumping the gun a bit. The sup picks haven´t even been made yet. The repetitive boilerplate "Twins FO will blow it" comments are wearing on me. The Falvey regime has hardly started.

2012 draft. Astros cut a lower deal with Correa at 1.1 and had the extra $$ to get McCullers to pass on his commitment to Florida. Right or wrong, it looks like the Twins are hoping lightning strikes twice. http://bleacherreport.com/articles/1205703-top-mlb-draft-prospect-lance-mccullers-prepared-to-bring-the-high-heat

This makes the rest of the night much more exciting. Can´t wait for the supp pick. Wow! A real roll of the dice here.

The Cardinals have been pretty successful with bringing future starters and using them in the bullpen. The injury history listed doesn't entirely correlate with that process, imo. Wainwright broke in as a 23-year-old with two short relief outings, a total of nine batters faced. He came out the bullpen 61 times the following year, then became a front-line starter the last 9+ seasons, with at least 198 innings pitched in seven of them. He only had 20 starts in '08 and suffered his severe injury in '15. his age 33 season. This after pitching a total of 568 combined innings the previous two years. Garcia broke in at age 21, with 1 start in 10 appearances to go with 106 innings in the minors. To support your point, he only made 8 starts (9 appearances) the following season. He made 60 starts over the next two seasons and then battled injuries in each of the next three seasons. He had 30 starts last season and 10 so for this year. Wacha arrived in 2013 after 15 ML starts. He made 9 regular season starts in 15 total appearances and 64.2 innings worked. He then racked up another 30.2 innings in the post-season, going 4-1 and was the MVP of the NLCS. Like Garcia, Wacha was injured the following season, with 19 total starts.30 starts in '15; 24 starts last season and 3 games in relief. ) starts this year. As a 22-year-old, Rosenthal arrived in '12 after 20 minor league starts and 109 innings. He pitched 22 innings out of the pen in the regular season followed by three scoreless innings in the post-season. As a major leaguer, Rosenthal pitched exclusively out of the pen. In his 6th season, he has a 162 game average of 68 appearances, 68 innings, and 25 saves.His injury came last season, holding him to only 40 games, but he is right back to form this season. Also, Carlos Martinez broke in at age 21 as a spot starter for two years after being a minor league starter. He has transitioned into an ace starter with no injury issues. Alex Reyes was 4-1 last year, with a 1.57 ERA in five MLB starts and seven relief appearances at age 21 plus 65 innings pitched in Memphis.He had 73 minor league appearances, all of them starts. He's a TJ patient. He was the #2 rated prospect in the MLB. Marco Gonzales was scheduled to pitch in the Futures Game in '14 at age 22 but was scratched when he was called up to fill in for an injured Jaime Garcia-. He ended the regular season with 10 games, 5 starts, 34 innings, and a 4.15 ERA. Like the others, he pitched in the postseason that year. He battled a shoulder injury the following year but did get a September call-up. He then missed last season with TJ surgery. He was the Cards 5th rated prospect. Shelby Miller and Joe Kelly are the only other examples I can think of. They both were minor league starters that come up as spot starters, Shelby at age 21, Kelly at 24. And like Wacha, Martinez, and Lynn, they too went on to pitch in the post-season in the first year they were called up. Miller has gone on to average 33 starts a year. Kelly started 15 of 37 appearances in his second season, then became a full-time starter for two seasons and 42 total starts. Chris Carpenter missed nearly all of his final season in '12 after leading the league in innings pitched in ´11, but he was 37 years old and had already worked back from four previous injuries in his long career. He ended up having a rib removed and returned to pitch 13,2 post-season innings, giving up 4 earned runs. Conclusion: mixed bag, but a successfully mixed bag. The Cards have always managed to develop outstanding young pitchers to augment a consistently strong starting rotation. I don't think any other franchise can match them. Because they are so often in the post-season, they have an extra incentive to use their outstanding starting pitcher prospects in the bullpen to start their careers. That isn't the case in Minnesota at this time. So after throwing all these stats out, I'm not convinced one way or the other. I´m a true blue loyal Twins fan, but I take some solace in following the Cards in the NL. It´s much less painfull.

TWINS GET: P Kevin Jepsen RAYS GET: P Chih-Wei Hu Charlotte Class Adv A, 0-3 W-L, 18 inn, 7.36 ERQ P Alexis Tapia Princeton Class A, 1-0 W-L, 23.1 Inn, 3.86 ERA

I love these articles and appreciate the information. One request for the future: please consider adding the position and age of the players listed, especially at the lower levels. It may not be relevant to a particular story, but it's a good habit and it adds the reading experience. Not a criticism, I'm more than happy with the year-round coverage and insightful comments. Thanks.

I think that was his point.