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2009 MN Twins Part 4: I Was Told There Would Be No Math

Re: 2009 MN Twins Part 4: I Was Told There Would Be No Math

ajoyce02 said:
Insane money, but worth every cent to this franchise.
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Worth every cent to any franchise. Look, it's harder than hell to find any quality catching in baseball as it is, never mind someone of Mauer's caliber. There's a reason Pudge Rodriguez is still getting contracts at age 38, about 5 years past his prime.

As a word of caution, I wouldn't go much further than 7 years on a contract for Mauer. He'll be 27 about 3 weeks into the 2010 season. Almost every catcher not named Bill Dickey has gone into a deep decline during or before the season that they turn 32. Go over to Baseball Reference and look at what Johnny Bench did after he turned 29 in 1977. You're not going to like what you see. Most of the rest of the greatest catchers of all time went downhill at 32, almost right on the money. If I had to guess, Mauer's got about 7-8 years left as a premier catcher, and even 8 might be a stretch.
 
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Re: 2009 MN Twins Part 4: I Was Told There Would Be No Math

Hammer said:
Worth every cent to any franchise. Look, it's harder than hell to find any quality catching in baseball as it is, never mind someone of Mauer's caliber. There's a reason Pudge Rodriguez is still getting contracts at age 38, about 5 years past his prime.

As a word of caution, I wouldn't go much further than 7 years on a contract for Mauer. He'll be 27 about 3 weeks into the 2010 season. Almost every catcher not named Bill Dickey has gone into a deep decline during or before the season that they turn 32. Go over to Baseball Reference and look at what Johnny Bench did after he turned 29 in 1977. You're not going to like what you see. Most of the rest of the greatest catchers of all time went downhill at 32, almost right in the money. If I had to guess, Mauer's got about 7-8 years left as a premier catcher, and even 8 might be a stretch.
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The speculation around here is that at some point he will move to 3rd base, but he has said that he doesn't want to do that, and supposedly they have Valencia coming up through the system who is supposed to be the 3B of the future. So who knows.
 
Re: 2009 MN Twins Part 4: I Was Told There Would Be No Math

Johnny Bench did the same thing in 1981. The problem was, at that point, at age 33, he was done. 10 years behind the plate took everything he had.

See for yourself

When catchers go, they usually go quickly, much like running backs in the NFL once they get past 31. The human body just can't take the pounding. And by the time they change positions, they don't have much left in the tank at all.

Look, Mauer is likely worth $20-22 mil per season at this point in time. If I were ownership I wouldn't bat an eye at that salary range. I'd do a 6 or even a 7 year deal that would put the total at $132-154 million. But if I'm Twins management, I'm extremely leery about an 8th year, and anything longer would be out of the question. It's not the dollars per year, it's the length of the contract, especially with any catcher.
 
Re: 2009 MN Twins Part 4: I Was Told There Would Be No Math

Hammer said:
Worth every cent to any franchise. Look, it's harder than hell to find any quality catching in baseball as it is, never mind someone of Mauer's caliber. There's a reason Pudge Rodriguez is still getting contracts at age 38, about 5 years past his prime.
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True it would be worth it to any franchise, but I think even with that said he still means more to the Twins than any other team in baseball.
 
Re: 2009 MN Twins Part 4: I Was Told There Would Be No Math

Fair enough. I was just speaking to the point about it being so difficult to find good quality catching at the major league level.
 
Re: 2009 MN Twins Part 4: I Was Told There Would Be No Math

Hammer said:
Johnny Bench did the same thing in 1981. The problem was, at that point, at age 33, he was done. 10 years behind the plate took everything he had.

See for yourself

When catchers go, they usually go quickly, much like running backs in the NFL once they get past 31. The human body just can't take the pounding. And by the time they change positions, they don't have much left in the tank at all.

Look, Mauer is likely worth $20-22 mil per season at this point in time. If I were ownership I wouldn't bat an eye at that salary range. I'd do a 6 or even a 7 year deal that would put the total at $132-154 million. But if I'm Twins management, I'm extremely leery about an 8th year, and anything longer would be out of the question. It's not the dollars per year, it's the length of the contract, especially with any catcher.
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When Mauer hits that wall, he'll just switch to football and be the QB for the Vikings. The local football team loves older quarterbacks.
 
Re: 2009 MN Twins Part 4: I Was Told There Would Be No Math

Hammer said:
Fair enough. I was just speaking to the point about it being so difficult to find good quality catching at the major league level.
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I agree with you 100%, Pudge as you said being the perfect example. It's not just that he is a catcher that can pretty much do it all, it's also that he is easily the most popular player to came along to this team since Kirby Puckett. Add in the home town kid angle (plays big here in Minnesota, we love a local angle)...you know.
 
If they can sign Mauer, bring in Orlando Hudson and/or Felipe Lopez and one more relief pitcher this might finally be a team that's not a 1st round playoff joke.
 
Re: 2009 MN Twins Part 4: I Was Told There Would Be No Math

Slap Shot said:
If they can sign Mauer, bring in Orlando Hudson and/or Felipe Lopez and one more relief pitcher this might finally be a team that's not a 1st round playoff joke.
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Only if they can get something out of their starting pitching. Out of Baker, Pavano, Liriano, Blackburn, Slowey, Perkins and Duensing 2 of them need to step up and be top-of-the-rotation type guys.
 
Re: 2009 MN Twins Part 4: I Was Told There Would Be No Math

bigblue_dl said:
Only if they can get something out of their starting pitching. Out of Baker, Pavano, Liriano, Blackburn, Slowey, Perkins and Duensing 2 of them need to step up and be top-of-the-rotation type guys.
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If you buy into the Liriano Winter League hype, maybe this will be his comback year.

Slowey was going along nicely last season until he got hurt. Moonshot Scott needs to get his stuff together.
 
Re: 2009 MN Twins Part 4: I Was Told There Would Be No Math

Blackburn has shown he can be lights-out, just not after the all-star break.
 
Re: 2009 MN Twins Part 4: I Was Told There Would Be No Math

state of hockey said:
Blackburn has shown he can be lights-out, just not after the all-star break.
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He's shown he can pitch in a big game in the past (see: Game 163 circa 2008) but just needs to be more consistent with it.
 
Re: 2009 MN Twins Part 4: I Was Told There Would Be No Math

Slap Shot said:
If they can sign Mauer, bring in Orlando Hudson and/or Felipe Lopez and one more relief pitcher this might finally be a team that's not a 1st round playoff joke.
Click to expand...

Well the rumors are that Hudson will sign with the Nats.

I think Perkins should go back to the pen, he was better in relief than he was as a starter and we have like 4 other starters just like him.
 
Re: 2009 MN Twins Part 4: I Was Told There Would Be No Math

Handyman said:
Well the rumors are that Hudson will sign with the Nats.
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It looks like the Nats and Hudson were too far apart on money. The Twins have his interest the most right now. 1 year/ 6 million floating around, according to numorous sources.
 
Re: 2009 MN Twins Part 4: I Was Told There Would Be No Math

pgrass01 said:
It looks like the Nats and Hudson were too far apart on money. The Twins have his interest the most right now. 1 year/ 6 million floating around, according to numorous sources.
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The article that I read earlier today said that the Nats actually offered more than the Twins, but Hudson was weighing more money vs. playing for a contender.
 
Re: 2009 MN Twins Part 4: I Was Told There Would Be No Math

ajoyce02 said:
He's shown he can pitch in a big game in the past (see: Game 163 circa 2008) but just needs to be more consistent with it.
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He seems to have a drop off in the second half of the season.
 
Re: 2009 MN Twins Part 4: I Was Told There Would Be No Math

Go4PuckFan said:
Looks like the Twins are one of only four teams scheduled for the maximum number of nine appearances on Fox's regional baseball coverage this year.

http://www.startribune.com/sports/twins/83559077.html?elr=KArksLckD8EQDUoaEyqyP4O:DW3ckUiD3aPc:_Yyc:aUUs

Won't that shiny new ballyard look nice....
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That definetly helped us. More than the Sox and Yanks!

I approve of how the :D face accidentally came through there and the link still worked.
 
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