Most expected Mauer’s power to increase as he got older, and I still expect that to be the case – heck, he does have 24 doubles so far this season after hitting 30 all of last season…but his 2009 season should probably not act as a barometer when discussing his future.

I would say that his 2006 season is probably closer to what one should expect from Mauer moving forward – assuming he remains healthy…which is still pretty damn good.

The casual fan is much more negative, perhaps even borderline racist-sy, in some of their comments of Beltre and Upton.

This site also does quite a bit of ridiculing the notion of “scrappy white player” such as Eckstein or any other player whgose most well-known attributes are [1] white, [2] undersized, [3] hustles.

I think there are some worthwhile things to complain about in regards to how MLB and the casual fan views latin players (and takes advantage of their impoverished situation), but I have to say that this site has a pretty good track record at defending the numbers, wherever they may lead, and regardless of what color the player may be.

LIke I said, the site in general seems to “oppose” the notion of the gritty, gutty, scrappy, white, veteran that the mainstream media worships, all the while defending the guys who are toolsy who may do things like defense, run bases well, and are often latin or “brown” descent, that the casual fan often ridicules for being lazy or “not as good as they should be”, etc.

If anything, to me, the situation represents either [1] how valuable the catcher position is, or [2] how we over-value offense at the catcher position.

If Mauer played LF, the situation would be drastically different.