ewen21

One thing I don't understand about Joe...... Every hitter goes up there looking for something. Every hitter has a "happy zone" where they look to crush the pitch. Joe almost NEVER does that. You rarely (if ever) see him lay serious lumber on a fat pitch. He is more likely attempt to slap that pitch into left field. There is a time and a place for that, but Joe started doing it an he never ever stopped. He has so much bat lag going through the zone that when his reflexes slow down a little more he will be completely cooked.

I have seen people reflecting on Joe's career and making statistical comparisons about where he ranks against other players ever since he had that dreadful year in 2011. It is as though the epitaph was being written when this all started with the premise being: has Joe done enough to secure his legacy? I'm sorry, but who cares? Why all the looking back for these last several years? He had a handful of tremendous years and then he cratered. We can speculate forever as to why this was, but the fact is he doesn't contribute a whole lot to actual wins and losses. He hasn't since Target Field opened. I see a guy who comes up in big situations looking to walk. It's as though he is deathly afraid of looking bad. It's been especially noticeable this year. For anyone who watches the game and isn't trying to kid themselves, Joe Mauer takes a very passive approach to hitting. ESPECAILLY when runs are needed at crucial times. He has 86 plate appearances in close and late situations. In those at bats he has drawn 20 walks (including 5 intentional passes) with a .182 batting average. On the flip side, with the run differential greater than 4 he has 53 plate appearances, but only 4 walks. He is hitting .408 in those situations. He's looking to do damage then? THere is a reason why no one can name a single "Target Field moment" for Joe Mauer......he is more interested in getting a base on balls when he should be looking to do damage. I guess his biggest TF moment would be that walk off walk several weeks ago. What a thrill that was! Now his quads are sore. OK, how does that happen? It's not like he has pulled a muscle It is more of the old "general soreness". Last week he was interviewed and he said he saw something on video that made him change his approach at the plate. He never actually attempted to articulate what he saw or what he is now doing. He simply said he found something and it is making his legs sore. Huh? Another head scratcher. Within two days of that article he was out of the lineup. I am ambivalent to Mauer at this point and I have seen enough of these career retrospectives. There isn't much to wonder about anymore, but we've been getting them for several years now. What's the point in it? To counter some just criticism of how he has gone about his business? We heard so much about his workout routine and the Star Tribune ran a joke of an article with him "working out" at Mauer Chevrolet. It think he had two five pound plates on the bar he was squatting. Absolutely ridiculous. All that work with the fat stretching guru and his legs still are sore? I'm more interested in the here and now and I am more interested in the Minnesota Twins than I am Joe Mauer. These last few years have not been that good. Let's call a circle a circle and a square a square. I don't care about the name. I don't care about the contract. He is an odd piece for this baseball team. He really doesn't fit, imo. The old Mauer is an entirely different player and it only lasted for about five or six seasons. If we are going to do a retrospective then there needs to be two separate stories.

Bryant has as much to do with Sano as what the weather in Istanbul has to do with the price of eggs. Reusse ran that up the pole and I have no idea why. To cover for his buddy Terry Ryan?

It was a bad move on the surface. I hated it instantly for a few reasons: 1. Kennys Vargas was not a terrible as the Twins made him out to be last year. He had a down sophomore year, but he is everything Park because he'd already proven himself to an extent. Park had NOTHING as far a track record went. 2. The Twins acted as if they HAD TO have him so they went out of their way to bid for him and waste time, energy and resources on getting this guy when all of it could have been better spent addressing other issues, i.e pitching or a stop gap FA outfielder 3. They already made that idiotic decision to move Sano to the outfield. That caused Kepler to get crowded out and then created a scenario where if Sano were to fail in the outfield (more likely than not) we'd have Park stealing his DH spot. The Park move was so unnecessary and I don't think the guy will ever amount to anything. Hated the deal from Jump Street and a lot of other Twins fans did as well so I don;t want to hear about "hindsight is 20/20"

I think of Jose Reyes. A guy who had to use his legs to be successful. It got to a point where injuries started to take over when he hit 30. That is what happens to a lot of "speed first" guys. When he hit a triple last year he was running real fast, but he was running out of control. That will catch up to him

Sounds silly, but I have talked with a number of people who believe his speed and defense already makes him a star.

Eh. His defense is strong, but he will never be an elite player if he doesn't learn how to hit major league pitching. He could have all the speed and defense in the world. If he can't hit then he isn't a very good major leaguer. I hope the Twins don't start looking at him like Willie Mays Hayes...have him use his legs to get on base. If that's what we end up with then so much for all the hype

I don't like the fact that he played 3rd for a few years and now suddenly he has to play the outfield. My question is..... Is Trevor Plouffe THAT good in order to cause this move? and 2 Shouldn't they have seen this coming if they liked Plouffe so much?? Sano is the best prospect we have had and on the surface this seems rather cavalier. Plouffe is OK, but if he has a down year and Sano does badly in the outfield this year then this bad move on paper is a even worse.

The Twins definitely like Plouffe, even though they didn't give him an extension. I am of the belief that Plouffe could have been moved last year. I am probably one of the few who thought that it was time to see if Sano can play third base. It looks like the Twins don't think he can since they are moving him to the outfield--a move I do not like. They probably could have gotten a decent return for Plouffe at the trade deadline, but Ryan is adamant about Plouffe's value to this club. For me it comes down to this..... Sano is a top prospect, one who is about as good as any the Twins have had....EVER. How is it that a guy like Trevor Plouffe (a decent player) blocks him from the position he was groomed to play in the minors? Sano played well over 300 games at third in the minors and now they are sending him to the outfield? That just doesn't make a whole lot of sense to me.

I was listening to sports radio WFAN this morning on my drive into and they announced the USA Today rankings. I was flabbergasted by that pick. I think the White Sox are emerging, but it is far too soon call them the favorite--no matter what periodical we are talking about. Looks like the series with the Sox will have some juice again I am going to have to start hating on them again, I guess

i have a problem with that if it is true. This means that Mauer simply played on without letting anyone know. He gets no points for that given what we know about concussions. That is straight up nuts. The other thing is that the Twins, his support system, everyone surrounding him allowed him to play on with these symptoms for TWO SEASONS. I simply cannot reconcile that. It is such a far-reaching assumption. If Joe played two years with these lingering symptoms aren't the Twins grossly negligent in allowing him to play? Isn't Joe flippin nuts for not saying thing one until just now? This is just straight up weird and it speaks to Joe's lack of regard for accurate communication. There always seems to be a veneer of mystery. I think Joe wants it that way. Odd

With what we know about concussions, there needs to be no grey area. Either Joe is clear to play or he is not. Simple as that. Put him through concussion protocols, give him a full evaluation. Get his vision checked from soup to nuts. He should not step into a batting cage until this happens. If he refuses then he doesn't play. I personally think it is outrageous to assume that he still has had post-concussion issues for TWO YEARS and it has just stayed under the radar while he's continued to play. This implies that the Twins and Joe's entire support system can't connect dots or that Joe has never said anything about after TWO YEARS. That is just absurd. I gotta put a lot of the blame on Joe for not having the common sense to speak up. I'm sorry, but what in the world is he thinking??