If you don't want him, I'm sure there are plenty of teams that are willing to take him off your hands.

Ack, double post.

Clint Courtney's career high in Games Caught was 128, and for that he got the nickname "Scrap Iron." I don't know what you'd have to do anymore to get the nickname "Titanium Tough."

If you don't want him, I'm sure there are plenty of teams that are willing to take him off your hands.

Not with that contract, no.

Still, the man is hurt. He can't help being hurt. It's bad for the team if he plays while he's hurt. End of.

It's really going to suck when the local press runs him out of town, and he spends the next half-decade as an All Star for someone else.

The Twins are doing the right thing by being careful with Mauer.

Asking Kendall to secretly play hurt didn't work out too well for the Pirates, even if he did end up looking pretty tough once the truth came out.

You know who hasn’t missed any games this year? Drew Butera. That’s what I’m looking for in a catcher: manly, strong, available…

Can we turn this thread into one bashing Drew Butera instead of bashing sportswriters, Mauer, or Cuddyer. He's hitting .160/.198/.241 in 200 PAs. He has two hits in the past 4 weeks, despite playing more often than not. I'm not one to harp on the worst part time player on the roster when the whole team is playing like crap, but Butera is the one guy who makes me turn the game off and do something else. Let him be manly, strong, and available to some other team.

Clint Courtney's career high in Games Caught was 128, and for that he got the nickname "Scrap Iron."

that was more for him being a redass and getting into fights

I wish I could be having the worst season of my career and be hitting .287. Oh, and I wish I could play 70 games with even half the stuff Mauer has had to deal with.

I blame this on Minneapolis being a football town disproportionately concerned with "toughness" and "grit".

You know how Mauer can prove he's football-player tough? By fulfilling his destiny as Weinke 2.0.

I blame this on Minneapolis being a football town disproportionately concerned with "toughness" and "grit".

Is that why they built a dome?

It seems odd, the relationship/dynamic between the Twin Cities and Mauer. What is it? The contract? Is the media really bored? Is Mauer really this aloof kind of guy? I don't know, anyone care to share?

When I think of Clint Courtney (which isn't very often, I have to admit) I think of the fact that he wore glasses. And according to Wikipedia,

"A natural left-hander, he taught himself to use his right arm, and he also was myopic, being widely considered as the first Major League catcher to wear eyeglasses.

Well, yes, the media has been after Mauer pretty good this year but there is nothing new about blaming a team's hard times on its best player(s). And then again, some of the media are after the Twins to unload Cuddyer, too. The Twin Cities sporting media (print division) thinks that the only way to serve the interest of the sports-loving public is this skeptics pose that they do--Sid Hartman to the contrary notwithstanding (whatever that means). They'll turn on everybody eventually.

But seriously with Thome and Young gone and probably Kubel and the pitching staff totally fubar, its back to Mauer and Morneau next year. 70 games out of 130 ain't gonna cut it.

Is Bill Smith in way the #### over his head?

It seems odd, the relationship/dynamic between the Twin Cities and Mauer. What is it? The contract? Is the media really bored? Is Mauer really this aloof kind of guy? I don't know, anyone care to share?

The fans all like him just fine. The media generally likes him too, but that doesn't sell ads. He's the star, and he's incredibly boring, even when he's great. The only notable thing about him is that he's well paid and has plenty of injury problems. So, that's the default story for sportswriters.

To use a (sad) political analogy, he's Tim Pawlenty, but the media would prefer him to be Michelle Bachmann, so they write about what he's not, rather than what he is.

There's no good story to write about this team: everyone is injured and the guys who are showing up have generally sucked. Perkins might be the lone bright spot this year. If you can't write another generic DL story then you can at least complain about the guy who is producing furthest from his potential, and that's Mauer (or possibly Morneau.) And the only difference between Morneau and Mauer is how much they complain about what's keeping them on the bench or DL. Why didn't anyone get in Morneau's face earlier this week when he sat after getting on owie on his foot? He fouled a ball off it, but on the Sansevere scale of perceived pain (where 0 is dismemberment and 9 is actually hurt) that's not too different from neck and back spasms. Joe's not always a good quote, no one finds out what's wrong with him until well after the fact, and where in the past it was a sign of stoic pride the team is now trying to get ahead of things and explain it all transparently. It's a lot of lazy sportswriting mostly.

I blame this on Minneapolis being a football town disproportionately concerned with "toughness" and "grit".

Replace football with hockey and you might be on to something. If there's a sport even more obsessed than football by toughness and grit it's hockey.

“As a manager, you go by what they say. If they say they’re hurting, I try to make adjustments,” Gardenhire said. “I don’t like to put people out there who tell me they’re really, really hurting."

Jesus H christ on a popsicle stick, no! Haven't you been around enough athletes to know that athletes will usually want to try to play through anything short of their arm actually falling off? How about going with the freakin' medical staff, instead of expecting a layman to know when he is too injured to play?!

Perkins might be the lone bright spot this year

Scott Baker looks like he's having a good season...grasping at straws here.

Also the Twins have had exactly 8 starts come from places other than their rotation of 5. Is it just me or have pitchers generally been remarkably healthy this year league-wide? It seems like way more teams than usual have rather robust top 5s on their baseball-reference pages.

He's hitting .160/.198/.241 in 200 PAs. He has two hits in the past 4 weeks, despite playing more often than not. I'm not one to harp on the worst part time player on the roster when the whole team is playing like crap, but Butera is the one guy who makes me turn the game off and do something else. Let him be manly, strong, and available to some other team.

He hasn't been as bad as Nishioka.

Twins with < -1 WAR, per baseball-reference (bear in mind that WAR is highly sensitive wrt choice of defensive metrics, this uses TZ which exacerbates the difference b/w these guys)

Can we turn this thread into one bashing Drew Butera instead of bashing sportswriters, Mauer, or Cuddyer. He's hitting .160/.198/.241 in 200 PAs.

Shoot, Jeff Mathis has over 1300 PA's of suck darn near that bad. .195/.258/.352 FTW! Career OPS+ of 50. Well, I guess 170 points of OPS is significant, but still.....

He hasn't been as bad as Nishioka.

Yeah, but with Nishioka, you can at least write it off as maybe being a function of his broken leg. Butera pretty much is what he is.

He hasn't been as bad as Nishioka.

There are many more reason to think Nishioka could become a useful MLB player. Butera has always sucked and his ceiling is "one of the worst hitters in MLB". Nishioka was a gold glover and batting champ in Japan and is a rookie and coming off an injury. He could still be an ok player if he pulls things together.


Swarzak has been a nice surprise too, even if he's 100% mirage.

I'm still floored that Mauer has only 1 homer at Target Field. Looking at his numbers since the contract, I think he certainly deserves the criticism he's getting.

remember when he hit like 10 homers in a month and everyone thought he was going to go Piazza

#19 My personal fave in this respect was Edwin Correa who pitched for two months with with proved to be on actual examination a broken (pitching) arm. OK, hairline fracture but:

a) he was a very talented, very young pitcher
b) he was absolutely terrible while pitching through the pain
c) he never pitched again

Is it just me or have pitchers generally been remarkably healthy this year league-wide? It seems like way more teams than usual have rather robust top 5s on their baseball-reference pages.

I wonder if that's a cause or a result of the "year of the pitcher (version 2.0)." One of the theories espoused in recent years about why pitchers are not able to go deeper into games is the threat of every hitter being able to go deep at any moment. If that is no longer as true but pitchers are still being asked to do less, it makes sense that pitchers can stay healthier because they are able to conserve themselves a bit in games.

Conversely, hitting could be down because fewer 7th/8th/9th starters are being employed. More starts by good pitchers is bad for offense.

An alternative argument is that for all the ######## about pitch counts and "babying" players the apporach has actually borne fruit. Teams are now able to manage their pitchers' health better and keep them healthier.

Or it could be that old standby \"#### happens."

Butera has always sucked and his ceiling is "one of the worst hitters in MLB".

Butera is interesting to me, and I've followed his career since he was a rumored target of the Mets in the draft. At the time, he was said to be a very good defensive catcher that couldn't hit. But they drafted him in the 5th round. And it turned out that the reports were right, he could not hit. And yet he flew through the minors like a top prospect. And so now he's in the majors, and he still can't hit at all, but he's playing. You would expect that he's a superhuman defender. I think he's just pretty good.

I'm copy and pasting my comments from another website:

I just don't understand what is happening.
-Justin Morneau played like garbage for a month in 2009 before admitting he was hurt and coming out of the lineup. Justin Morneau played like garbage for a month this year before admitting he was hurt and coming out of lineup.
-the training staff completely screwed up the diagoses and rehab times of Kubel, Span, Nishioka, Morneau, and Mauer in the past two seasons (I may be forgetting another 10 players they have screwed up)
-Joe Mauer has missed TWO games (including yesterday) since he was activated from the DL. He was on the DL in the first place because the doctors misdiagnosed the severity of his knee injury at the end of last season and he played like garbage while trying to ignore the pain. Even in his return, his play has been thoroughly mediocre. Joe Mauer has several season of showing that a healthy Joe Mauer does not play like garbage. Therefore, I'm pretty sure Joe is injured and playing through some serious pain. Yet, he's the #####?
-Michael Cuddyer missed a week's worth of games LAST WEEK because of a sore neck. Joe Mauer missed yesterday's game with a sore neck. Cuddyer is a gamer. Mauer is a #####. WTF?!

I wrote that before learning of this drivel from Sansevere and the other crap from the Vikings beat guy who miraculously wrote one non-Viking column at the Strib today to bad-mouth Mauer.

I'm still floored that Mauer has only 1 homer at Target Field. Looking at his numbers since the contract, I think he certainly deserves the criticism he's getting.

I was at that game last season. They interviewed over the PA immediately after the game ended and he apologized to the fans for taking so long to homer. It was all so cute and funny at the time before the knives came out.

I think 99% of the 'guy is a wuss' columns are by people who want to think they could've been great because they would've played through pain if given a chance. IE: sour grapes.

If I was Mauer and heard my manager give such a weak defense as he did (basically saying that Mauer wanted the time off, doesn't know if he is really hurt, but trusts him) I'd be annoyed. A manager should be saying something like 'Mauer is hurting and I won't risk injuring him further when he is hurt. He is core to our future and to risk him in a lost season would be idiotic.' That would make sense and not put the player on the spot like you do when you say "As a manager, you go by what they say." which suggests Mauer is asking out of the lineup.

I remember a mess here in Toronto back in 1992 (WS years) when Kelly Gruber was called every name in the book for not being in the lineup everyday. Years later a doctor finally found out he had fused bones in the neck which was causing the pain that ended his career and was amazed Gruber played at all with it (made turning his head impossible without tons of pain). Yet somehow I still hear people complain that Gruber was a wimp. Of course, Toronto is a hockey town where a guy once scored goals in the Stanley Cup with a broken leg iirc.

There are many more reason to think Nishioka could become a useful MLB player. Butera has always sucked and his ceiling is "one of the worst hitters in MLB". Nishioka was a gold glover and batting champ in Japan and is a rookie and coming off an injury. He could still be an ok player if he pulls things together.

Sure - I'm commenting on performance to date, not potential. (Having said that, the batting title looked fluky at the time.) I liked the signing but... whoo, has he been bad.

If I was Mauer and heard my manager give such a weak defense as he did (basically saying that Mauer wanted the time off, doesn't know if he is really hurt, but trusts him) I'd be annoyed.

Read the article. Mauer is getting annoyed:

"Oh, really. Well, who's saying that?" Mauer said. ...

His hackles were up, even with the soft-pedal approach.

"You ask anybody in here, anybody in this organization, and they'll tell you different," Mauer said. "People know in here how tough I am. I come to the park ready to play. And today I just physically couldn't get out there."

The trouble around MIN is that the messiah model really plays well (Garnett with the Woofs, Gaborick with the Wild, and of course we're coming off a rough breakup with ironman Viking Favre.) The Twins have a couple candidates, but Cuddy is the only one without an injury problem so he'll get the tiara while the guys with MVPs get looked at sideways for not being tough.

Is it just me or have pitchers generally been remarkably healthy this year league-wide?

Number of pitchers with 20+ starts, since 1998:



There are 21 pitchers with 15-19 starts, and ~6 times through the rotation left in each team's season. So there's a reasonable chance that we could have more starters with 20+ starts than in any season in history. So yeah, it looks as though starting pitchers at least have been remarkably healthy this season.