A day after imaging a Twins path to the playoffs, everything awful I was expecting from the team showed up for 9 innings of baseball. Mauer didn't get a hit. The starting pitcher didn't go 5 innings. The bullpen gave out like a bad back. To top it off, the sky filled with snow while the game was on. I didn't catch much of this one - just enough to give me the idea that Liam Hendriks might be a threat to my blood pressure this year. Snow after opening day is like getting ...
Doesn't Mauer batting second feel so much better? If you are like me, it makes the frustration I have that he does not drive the ball to RF almost completely go away. I now think of him as a Rod Carew type #2 hitter and not an Albert Pulhols or Miguel Cabrera type hitter that can carry the team on his back. I could never understand why Gardy wanted him in the #3 slot. Now I can finally appreciate him for who he is and not be annoyed that he is not the hitter he was the year before he signed ...
When I sat down in my home office and turned on the Nationals game to hear how Denard Span did with his new team, the sun was friendly and my view was mostly free from snow. By the time I got in my car and tuned into the Twins game, all I could see were piles of snow and gloomy skies. Gray is the official color of being down by two runs. The Twins must have settled in after that, but when I got back in my car I listened to them waste a bases loaded opportunity. Duensing ...
5. The M&M boys Mauer and morneau have been in the twins organization for over the past decade, and have been the face of the Twins for the past 6-7 years. They have combined for 2 MVPs, 6 sliver sluggers, and 9 all star appearance. It now seems that both of them are back to full health and their old selves. With morneau in the last year of his contract, you don't know how much longer he will be in a twins uniform. Especially sense all he wants to do is win now a days, which as we ...
TwinsFest - which I first experienced when the Twins were riding high on World Series victories, was a fun event to walk through and soak up the baseball atmosphere. It comes at the perfect time of year - Baseball has been done for a few months, and wont be back for a few months, Spring Training and Hot Stove coming up and in full effect. Wonderful. Lets start thinking baseball. A fun autograph opportunity for me has been to bring Seth Stohs's Twins Prospect Book. It is a lot of fun ...
Minnesota Deer Hunting opener obviously comes once a year. I have hunted pretty much since I was able to, around 12 years old, and it is almost a holiday in northern Minnesota. I have gone up to the Cotton/Toivola area now for the last 5 years, and I am amazed at the amount of orange you see out there for the 2 days. First off, I think a lot of people are like me, as it is a reason to get out of town, or get away with your friends. I hunt with 3 of my great friends and I look forward to getting ...
The Minnesota Twins enter the offseason saddled with the need to rebuild. As the Twins fan base begins to dwindle, and the shine seems to be coming off Target Field, questions arise about the M & M boys, andtheir long-term value in Minnesota. Both players are emerging out from under a cloud of befuddling injuries, so their long-term health is a question. Both players command a significant portion of team salary, so their combined value is a question. Joe Mauer is likely to increase his playing ...
Updated 09-30-2012 at 02:02 PM by Don't Feed the Greed Guy
Oddly, a lot of sabrmetric geeks I know don’t like the Win Probability Added (WPA) statistic. I don’t want to speak for them as to why, but the comment I hear that drives me the craziest is something like “All you have to do is see that Erik Komatsu was more valuable then Ben Revere to understand that it is worthless.” It drive me crazy because 15 years ago, I would hear the same question from baseball traditionalists when I’d suggest that an on-base machine like Bobby Abreu was more ...
Ask yourself this question, and be honest in your reply: If Joe Mauer were becoming a free agent this offseason, is there any chance – ANY chance, whatsoever – that he would fetch a six-year, $138 million contract? I think the answer is pretty clearly no. That's the prorated remaining portion of the eight-year contract Mauer signed with the Twins after a 2009 season in which he was arguably baseball's best player. He was 26, he was one of the game's most ...
Earlier this week, Charley Walters of the Pioneer Press asked Terry Ryan whether the team's recent run of success has affected the way he's preparing for the offseason. "Regardless of what you look like right now, you still look at the club and figure out where you're headed and where you need to add," Ryan told Walters. "My focus and our focus will always be, as you go through a season, to look at what you've got and what you've got coming up." ...
It is super popular to rip Mauer and his contract, more specifically his "output/dollar spent ratio"but let's be honest - it is 100% not his fault the Twins are so bad this season. Yes, even when you factor in how his $23m/yr ties up so much payroll. My argument: 1) Mauer is the best offensive catcher in the AL. He is also paid the most. 2) Everyone wants to make the argument that he ties up $23m/year for his "pedestrian production". The guy is leading ...
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 ...
I was thinking about the 2012 Twins' imbalance on offense, between getting on base (acceptable) and power (low). A guy we look to for power is Joe Mauer, so I decided to see where he stands at this early stage of the season. Arbitrarily I picked his 2008 season as a benchmark - an excellent season by any standard, but not as insanely high a bar to set as his 2009 season, and one very much in line with his career numbers. In 2008 he had 633 plate appearances, and so far in 2012 he has 83. If ...
The Twins have played 18 games this year, and Joe Mauer has been in the starting lineup for every single one. That's right – you might not have noticed, but the embattled catcher has not taken a day off this season after missing half of the 2011 campaign due to various ailments. This is the longest Mauer has even gone into a season without stopping to rest, and it's not like the early schedule has been particularly forgiving, with only one day off and ...
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