Jeff Kent might earn membership in the Baseball Hall of Fame largely because he packaged his first base bat inside a second base mitt. From the keystone, Kent was an albatross on defense but being compared offensively to other second baseman inflated his value. Reportedly, he demurred at moving to the cold corner until he could hardly bend to field grounders.
Joe Mauer is Jeff Kent in reverse, and it's causing him to bleed into irrelevance. As a backstop, Mauer's heart-of-the-order stick made him a perennial All-Star. Translate that to first base, sap it of 30 points of batting average, and you have ... a guy.
On average last year, catchers hit for on base and slugging averages of roughly .299/.390. First baseman, roughly .330/.427. That's all catchers and first basemen, including backups and fill-ins.
In a little more than a year's worth of plate appearances as a first baseman, Mauer is hitting .274/.351/.372, including six home runs. That's not Joe Mauer 2009, (.365/.444/.587) but it's All-Star conversation from the squat. At first, it's barely adequate.
Mauer's defensive value nosedives as well, from Gold Glove receiver to least important player on the field.
The result: even hitting just .294 with nine home runs in his first full season, a year of offensive fireworks, Mauer earned the Twins three wins offensively. His last two seasons combined, even in an offensive trough and with 200 more at bats, just 1.7 wins. And 1.7 wins is barely a starter.
To be fair, Mauer is now in his 12th season at age 32, and certainly fading from the glory days. But more than anything, the combination of losing the .300 batting average and leaving the battery has cost him any shot at Hall of Fame consideration.
Showing posts with label Joe Mauer. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Joe Mauer. Show all posts
06 June 2015
18 September 2009
Dead Horse Beating Zone
As the Twins and Tigers begin a weekend duel with an incipient division race in the balance, it's a good time to address the AL MVP race.
There is no AL MVP race. It is not a subject for rational debate among those who know what they are looking at. Minnesota catcher Joe Mauer is not just the best player in the Junior Circuit this year, he's knocking on history's door. Should he maintain his .374 batting average, it will go down as the highest ever by a backstop. Should he maintain his .441 OBP and .610 SA, the real debate will be whether Mauer or Mike Piazza owns the greatest offensive season produced out of a squat. It's worth noting that while Piazza couldn't throw out a slug running uphill through molasses, Mauer is an above-average defensive player.
The pages, speakers and screens have certainly featured homages to the candidacies of Mark Teixeira, Derek Jeter, Mariano Rivera and others. Each has his strengths, but stands in Joe Mauer's shadow this year. (Future readers, if there are such things, may very well note that that sentence includes the names of four Hall of Famers.)
Rivera is the greatest of all time, has whiffed more than a batter an inning, sports a nifty 1.66 ERA and has blown all of one save. But even a season of perfect games isn't MVP material when you only pitch 60 innings, or four percent of your team's games. Let Rivera record three-inning saves, then we'll talk.
Teixeira has the pedigree that people who know nothing about baseball (i.e., sportswriters and yakkers) worship above all else: he collects RBIs for the league's best team. Beyond that, his .289/.378/.543 pales next to Mauer's. And for all his advantage as a home run hitter, Tex has outslugged Mauer 35-27 in 120 extra plate appearances. Throw in the yawning chasm between Mauer's accomplishments at the most difficult defensive position and Teixeira's at the easiest and, well, you're not a sportswriter, so you don't need it explained.
Jeter's .330/.399/.466, solid play at the next toughest defensive position, and 26 successful steals in 31 attempts, make him a solid second choice. Not a close second, but nothing to hang his 35-year-old head about. Relative to a replacement level shortstop, Jeter has added about six wins to his team. That's impressive, and double Teixeira's value versus a replacement level first baseman.
Mauer, he's an eight-and-a-half win bump relative to a replacement level catcher. Indeed, during the first month of the season while Mauer rehabbed from back surgery, fill-in Mike Redmond "hit" a whopping .238/.303/.292 with six extra base hits, not one of which was home run.
Now the elephant in the room. (Caution, dead horse beating zone.) Mauer is the MVP whether the Twins extinguish the Tigers and burst into a division title or fade like an old soldier and finish below .500. The eight and a half wins he's contributed are the same whether they are wins 69-77 or wins 84-92. Mauer's candidacy is unaffected by Minny's feckless pitching or limpid lineup. Similarly, Mark Teixeira can't be the MVP just because he plays with Derek Jeter, CC Sabathia and Mariano Rivera.
Now, two words about the NL MVP race: Albert Pujols. Question, discussion, conclusion.
b
There is no AL MVP race. It is not a subject for rational debate among those who know what they are looking at. Minnesota catcher Joe Mauer is not just the best player in the Junior Circuit this year, he's knocking on history's door. Should he maintain his .374 batting average, it will go down as the highest ever by a backstop. Should he maintain his .441 OBP and .610 SA, the real debate will be whether Mauer or Mike Piazza owns the greatest offensive season produced out of a squat. It's worth noting that while Piazza couldn't throw out a slug running uphill through molasses, Mauer is an above-average defensive player.
The pages, speakers and screens have certainly featured homages to the candidacies of Mark Teixeira, Derek Jeter, Mariano Rivera and others. Each has his strengths, but stands in Joe Mauer's shadow this year. (Future readers, if there are such things, may very well note that that sentence includes the names of four Hall of Famers.)
Rivera is the greatest of all time, has whiffed more than a batter an inning, sports a nifty 1.66 ERA and has blown all of one save. But even a season of perfect games isn't MVP material when you only pitch 60 innings, or four percent of your team's games. Let Rivera record three-inning saves, then we'll talk.
Teixeira has the pedigree that people who know nothing about baseball (i.e., sportswriters and yakkers) worship above all else: he collects RBIs for the league's best team. Beyond that, his .289/.378/.543 pales next to Mauer's. And for all his advantage as a home run hitter, Tex has outslugged Mauer 35-27 in 120 extra plate appearances. Throw in the yawning chasm between Mauer's accomplishments at the most difficult defensive position and Teixeira's at the easiest and, well, you're not a sportswriter, so you don't need it explained.
Jeter's .330/.399/.466, solid play at the next toughest defensive position, and 26 successful steals in 31 attempts, make him a solid second choice. Not a close second, but nothing to hang his 35-year-old head about. Relative to a replacement level shortstop, Jeter has added about six wins to his team. That's impressive, and double Teixeira's value versus a replacement level first baseman.
Mauer, he's an eight-and-a-half win bump relative to a replacement level catcher. Indeed, during the first month of the season while Mauer rehabbed from back surgery, fill-in Mike Redmond "hit" a whopping .238/.303/.292 with six extra base hits, not one of which was home run.
Now the elephant in the room. (Caution, dead horse beating zone.) Mauer is the MVP whether the Twins extinguish the Tigers and burst into a division title or fade like an old soldier and finish below .500. The eight and a half wins he's contributed are the same whether they are wins 69-77 or wins 84-92. Mauer's candidacy is unaffected by Minny's feckless pitching or limpid lineup. Similarly, Mark Teixeira can't be the MVP just because he plays with Derek Jeter, CC Sabathia and Mariano Rivera.
Now, two words about the NL MVP race: Albert Pujols. Question, discussion, conclusion.
b
03 June 2009
Rhymes With Power This Year
While you weren't noticing, the best catcher in baseball came off the DL and began playing like the best catcher in history. In his first 100 at bats, Joe Mauer has been Johnny Bench's daddy.
Mauer has missed half of the season so far, yet ranks 10th in the AL in home runs with 12. In 102 at bats. His BarryBondsian .431/.516/.873 is certainly unsustainable, but if it foreshadows improvement beyond his already notable career splits of .323/.405/.477, he'll win the MVP -- or at least deserve it. You already could have made a case for him in '05 and '08.
Mauer may just be on a tear, but if his 12 dingers mean anything, he's certainly going to slug at a much higher rate than ever before in his career. His season high for home runs prior to '09 is 13 -- in 521 at bats. If there's any wrap against Mauer, it's his lack of power. (Hey, I'm a poet and I had no prior knoweledge of the matter.) But he's unwrapping that criticism so far in '09. On top of that, Mauer's athleticism makes him a first-rate defensive backstop
Actually, there's another knock on Mauer: his health. He's missed more than 200 games since '04, and at 6'5" 215, there's probably just too much lower limb to be squatting for 1,000+ innings a season. It's too bad, because were he able to compile a dozen seasons in that vein, he'd be a lock for bronzing near Otsego Lake. The bar is higher at third base, where he'd probably end up, than at catcher, but if this year's surge is a foreshadowing, that won't be a problem.
b
Mauer has missed half of the season so far, yet ranks 10th in the AL in home runs with 12. In 102 at bats. His BarryBondsian .431/.516/.873 is certainly unsustainable, but if it foreshadows improvement beyond his already notable career splits of .323/.405/.477, he'll win the MVP -- or at least deserve it. You already could have made a case for him in '05 and '08.
Mauer may just be on a tear, but if his 12 dingers mean anything, he's certainly going to slug at a much higher rate than ever before in his career. His season high for home runs prior to '09 is 13 -- in 521 at bats. If there's any wrap against Mauer, it's his lack of power. (Hey, I'm a poet and I had no prior knoweledge of the matter.) But he's unwrapping that criticism so far in '09. On top of that, Mauer's athleticism makes him a first-rate defensive backstop
Actually, there's another knock on Mauer: his health. He's missed more than 200 games since '04, and at 6'5" 215, there's probably just too much lower limb to be squatting for 1,000+ innings a season. It's too bad, because were he able to compile a dozen seasons in that vein, he'd be a lock for bronzing near Otsego Lake. The bar is higher at third base, where he'd probably end up, than at catcher, but if this year's surge is a foreshadowing, that won't be a problem.
b
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