Posts tagged Joe Mauer
MLB All-Star game line-ups announced
Jul 5th
Yesterday the line-ups were announced and as usual there are the usual familiar faces, but also some first timers in there.
read more http://blogs.bettor.com/MLB-All-Star-game-rosters-announced-a14903
Mar 23rd
He is the American League’s best player, playing at one of the most demanding positions on the field and yet he excels at every aspect of it.
All-Star catcher Joe Mauer made the Minnesota Twins fans extremely happy yesterday by putting an end to speculation he might leave the franchise by committing the next eight years of his baseballing future to the club.
His services have come at a cost however, $184 million over the course of the deal and it includes a full no-trade clause. Indeed the cost is high and only two people in the history of baseball have signed more lucrative contracts than Mauer’s, Alex Rodriguez twice and Derek Jeter, but he could have demanded much more on the open market if he had so wished.
Red Sox planning for 2011?
Dec 14th
It is no secret that this year’s free agent pool lacks depth with just three top quality players on the market and as a result some teams may be looking towards 2011 already.
The Red Sox are in a position where they can still challenge for the play-offs next year without strengthening too much in the present.
John Lackey, Jason Bay and Matt Holiday are the big three names available this winter and with Bay already announcing that he is ready to move on from Boston, Holiday looks like the main target. However, as the Red Sox showed with Bay, they will only sign Holiday according to their terms and that could be a major problem, considering the fact Holiday’s agent is Scott Boras and he likes players to sign on his terms, not the team’s.
So if that deal falls through the Sox would be left with a look at 31-year-old pitcher Lackey who would be a welcome addition to the team’s starting rotation. But Lackey will definitely come at a price likely to be in the five-year $80-90 million range, a price that might scare the Bostonians off.
But there would be a benefit to signing Lackey at the asking price. The move would allow Clay Buchholz to become available for trade and with San Diego’s asking price for first baseman Adrian Gonzalez being Buchholz and another top quality prospect, Red Sox general manager Theo Epstein might consider the move.
Unless Epstein can pull off a blockbuster trade it looks more and more likely that they will look to next year’s free agent pool in order to strengthen the franchise.
Top of that list will be Joe Mauer who won this year’s MVP award and has three consecutive batting titles to his name. The Red Sox will be hoping that talks between Mauer and the Minnesota Twins stall during the season and he goes on to the open market. If he does Boston will be prepared to throw a tonne of money at the catcher to make sure cross-town rival New York don’t get their hands on him.
If the two start a bidding war then expect the price to hit close to $200 million, but Mauer is a Minnesota local and according to sources is inclined to stay with the Twins, especially as next year will see the opening of the Twins’ brand new stadium.
If Mauer does re-sign with his home town team during the season expect the Sox to quickly sign current catcher Victor Martinez who is also eligible for free agency after this season.
One player the Red Sox will have an eye on is left-fielder Carl Crawford, who would fit Boston perfectly. He hits for average, some power and covers an awful amount of ground in the field and if the Sox fail to sign Holiday or Bay this winter there will be a gaping hole in left-field come this time next year.
Pujols becomes the MV3
Nov 25th
Last week I posted about how voters are finally starting to get the decisions right with regards to the CY Young award voting. That trend seems to have spread to MVP voting as well with Albert Pujols winning his third career MVP award in unanimous fashion.
Just the other day Joe Mauer was voted near unanimously as American League MVP, claiming 27-28 first place votes available, and yesterday Pujols became the first player since Barry Bonds to win the award unanimously whilst also becoming the first player to win consecutive MVP awards since Bonds won four in a row (2001-2004).
It is only the 15th time in history someone has won the MVP unanimously, however that number should be slightly higher because Mauer should have been the 15th and Pujols should have been the 16th.
The decision by the journalist to vote for Miguel Cabrera over Mauer has to be one of the worst decisions of all time. To put his decision into context think about this.
On the last weekend of the season with only two games to go, Cabrera was arrested at his home for a domestic incident and had a blood alcohol level of 0.26, three times the legal driving limit in Michigan. That Saturday during a 5-1 loss to the Chicago White Sox he went 0-4 leaving six runners on base. The loss forced Detroit into a one-game play-off with Minnesota which they eventually lost.
The journalist from Seattle must not know his baseballing history or have any idea what constitutes an MVP. Put it this way, only four players in the history of the game have hit .365 or more, 25 home runs or more and 90 RBIs or more. Want to have a guess who those four players are? – Lou Gehrig, Mickey Mantle, Joe DiMaggio and Babe Ruth is the answer to that question. These are four of the greatest players ever to have played the game and now Mauer becomes the fifth to join that exclusive group, becoming the only non-Yankee in it as well.
So is the journalist saying that Mauer’s historic year is bettered by Cabrera? Yes Cabrera had 34 HRs, 103 RBIs and a .324 batting average, but Mauer played a whole month less than him and is the Twins’ catcher, the most difficult position to play in the field. He is also a gold glover, meaning that not only is Mauer one of the best hitters in the game but also excels defensively. And who led his team to the play-offs ahead of the Tigers? That’s right Joe Mauer.
Recent Comments