Comments on: Joe Mauer: Catcher or Fetcher?

By: Hunter

Hunter — Tue, 20 Nov 2012 03:21:18 +0000

Switching catchers every other game negatively affects pitchers.

By: Greg

Greg — Mon, 19 Nov 2012 16:28:52 +0000

I agree that the primary concern with Mauer is getting him as many PAs as possible, especially now that Butera isn’t filling in when Mauer starts at 1B/DH. But I’m not sure the Twins feel that part-time catching for Mauer is especially dangerous – and they can point to his “terrific” (no argument here) 2012 as evidence. I think they really like Mauer/Morneau/Doumit sharing C/1B/DH. Unless they can somehow pull off a trade where they dump salary and pick up pitching by moving Morneau, that’s how I expect them to proceed.

Unless he can learn 3B, there is no reason to permanently move him as long as Morneau is on the roster – I expect it to happen in 2014.

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By: Tim

Tim — Sat, 17 Nov 2012 08:45:27 +0000

It’s kind of important that Mauer’s replacement at catcher is the worst hitter in the major leagues, and Fangraphs didn’t rate him as good defensively in 2012 either.

When you have Mauer, one guy who can’t catch three days in a week without exploding, one guy who’s below replacement level, and one prospect who aspires to be replacement level, your primary catcher is Mauer. Unless you’re just as bad at some other position, which admittedly might be true of the Twins.

By: Eminor3rd

Eminor3rd — Fri, 16 Nov 2012 22:09:52 +0000

I actually ended up using him at first almost all year because Berkman went down and I had Ruiz as my ‘backup’ C. I may end up doing the same thing this year.

By: Brandon Warne

Brandon Warne — Fri, 16 Nov 2012 20:51:16 +0000

From a position scarcity point I get that, but I thing catching also exponentially increases the likelihood and severity of his decline.

If you could make him a 4 win 1B for the rest of his deal, versus a 6-5-4-3-2-1 catcher, I think I’d prefer the former.

By: Brian

Brian — Fri, 16 Nov 2012 20:40:31 +0000

I’d agree that Mauer is past his catching prime, but still… as a slightly below average defensive catcher, he has more value there on a game-to-game basis than 1B or DH. I tend to think the Twins limited his games at catcher for a couple reasons. 1) Why tax his body in a lost season, and 2) the fact that they had a competently hitting backup in Doumit this year.

I’d say you limit him to every other game at catcher, then maybe step it up a bit in Aug/Sept if you find yourself contending (insert laugh track here).

He did for some reason hit much better as a catcher in 2012 than a 1B or DH, but I don’t know how much you’d want to read into that.

By: Persona non grata

Persona non grata — Fri, 16 Nov 2012 20:06:50 +0000

I’ll never forget the game last year where Mauer had to be an emergency fill-in in RF because of the perfect storm of injuries and missed flights. He looked kinda awkward out there at first, but by the end of the game, I could see him roaming RF, and with the grass field now for Minnesota, that might not be such a bad idea.

Heck, if Doumit can kinda pull it off, I’m sure Mauer, being the better athlete, can pull it off too.