Thread: Joe Mauer singled out 3 pitchers in ST so far

that's from Phil Mackey's notebook (just posted) :

Joe Mauer, when asked who has stood out so far among the guys he has caught in camp. "Gutierrez, I caught him early. It seemed like he was game-ready.
He's got a heavy sink, which is good. Casey (Fien) I caught yesterday. He was really sharp yesterday; I really liked his stuff. I think those were two who really kind of jumped out at me. I was talking with Frankie, and he's been looking pretty good. Trying to get him prepared for the season, too, which is good.

I think that Gutierrez does have a decent outside chance to make the team now with Zumaya down. Fien might surprise us too...

Gutierrez would be interesting. Nice to hear a positive report on him.

I've always come away impressed when I've seen Gutierrez pitch. Good, hard sinker that I could see as an effective late-inning weapon. Control has been a problem for him, but hopefully he can make some strides this year.

If Gutierrez can throw a few more strikes, he's got a good chance to be a solid big league reliever, I think. If he is able to perfect and control that cutter he's allegedly been working on, he could be really good! He's very talented! Missed over a month with arm injuries though last year. Hopefully he'll stay healthy this year too.

It's interesting that so many have opinions on some of these Twins minor league free agents. Even though Fien got a little time with the Tigers a couple years ago, I fully admit that I don't know much about him. It's possible he could be a legit bullpen candidate. We primarily talk about Jared Burton and Jason Bulger, but some of these other guys who don't know could break out.

I heard in today's b-squad game that Gutierrez got hammered so hard that they just ended an inning early.

I guess I didn't hear if he got hit that hard or if he was wild. Either way, not a great first impression, to be sure.

I was initially high on Gutierrez, but he needs to translate his "wicked raw stuff" into more missed bats. Given the uncertainty of the bullpen (and odds of contending), I hope we give him the 90-day trial offer this year. I can't tell if Mauer is speaking positively because of the lack of talent, or he really believes these guys are capable of MLB success. It's difficult to read between the lines with him.
BTW, congrats on the site, it's fantastic. I've read you all individually for over 5 years thanks in part to AG.com, and I enjoy each of your unique writing styles. Keep up the good work.

Originally Posted by John Bonnes

I heard in today's b-squad game that Gutierrez got hammered so hard that they just ended an inning early.

Originally Posted by Seth Stohs

I guess I didn't hear if he got hit that hard or if he was wild. Either way, not a great first impression, to be sure.

Despite the despicable coverage by the local media who were on the Stadium, to the best of my knowledge, Gutierrez' inning went something like: Double, Single, Home Run, Walk before it ended. So a combination of getting pelted and being wild.

Originally Posted by thrylos98

Despite the despicable coverage by the local media who were on the Stadium, to the best of my knowledge, Gutierrez' inning went something like: Double, Single, Home Run, Walk before it ended. So a combination of getting pelted and being wild.

amended because the beat writers are finally reporting on the game. Gutierrez went: walk, walk, double (2 R), walk

And he had 2 outs in between... information about the game keeps leaking slowly

Re: Fien, he's had major gopher ball issues and has hardly established he's throwing the "basic MLB quality stuff" from which you can expect an ultimately average HR/FB number to emerge. (1.16 HR/9 in AAA 2010 and 2.59 HR/9 in AAA 2011. 4 HR in 14 MLB innings.)

His 2010 AAA K% was a mediocre 17.9. He missed more bats last year but got hammered with the long ball. I'm guessing from the numbers: decently hard thrower but poor movement on his fastball, maybe especially when he tries to ramp it up and miss the better hitter's bats. He fails one way (not enough missed bats) or the other (fastball flattens out and it's ding-dong time).

The only hope is he's been the victim of bad luck, but his AAA BABIP numbers have been bad 3 times, and there is some predictivity for MLB performance there. Pass.

Originally Posted by thrylos98

amended because the beat writers are finally reporting on the game. Gutierrez went: walk, walk, double (2 R), walk

Relax thrylos, it is the first B game of spring training. Did you expect FSN and ESPN to televise it? Is anybody going to remember this game two days from now?

Originally Posted by mysonlikes7

Relax thrylos, it is the first B game of spring training. Did you expect FSN and ESPN to televise it? Is anybody going to remember this game two days from now?

No. But I expect the beat reporter with twitter accounts to tweet about the game (like the Red Sox' writers did) , the local sports radio station (who during the whole time of the game had a direct connection to Fort Myers to give scoring updates when runs scored). I did not talk about television, but better coverage from people who could actually do it and chose not to do it.