This One Means More To Mauer

Entering today, Joe Mauer (.323) trails Detroit's Miguel Cabrera (.326) by three points in the race for the American League batting title. Cabrera is also in the hunt for the AL's triple crown award (42 HR-2nd to Hamilton with 43, and 133 RBI-1st in AL), which has not been won since Carl Yaztremski did it in 1967. Adding fuel to this fight is the fact the Twins and Tigers open up a three game series at Target Field tonight, before beginning their teams respective final series of the season on Monday.

If Mauer were to overtake Cabrera and win the batting title, it would be the fourth time in his career he finishes leading the AL in batting (A ridiculous number for any catcher). But yet, he still takes heavy scrutiny from an angry fan base (Probably due in larger part to consecutive 90+ loss seasons). And that is why, this batting title, would mean much more to Mauer, than his previous three.

Looking at each of his titles respectively, there are several cases to make for each of them as why they are the best. In 2006, Mauer hit .347, giving him his first title, helping lead the Twins on a miraculous 4 month surge to a 96 win season and the Central division championship. 2008, he hit .328 and was a part of a resurgent Twins team, that was expected to finish last, that went to a game 163 against Chicago. Then came his finest season as a pro, in 2009. Mauer missed all of April with an injury, then came back and lead the AL in average (.365), OBP (.444), slugging percentage (.587), and OPS (1.031), while hitting a career high 28 home runs and 96 RBI. Mauer received 27 out of 28 first place votes in the MVP voting, giving him the award easily.

After a decent 2010, Mauer saw injuries destroy his 2011 season (just 82 games played, only hit .287). 2011 was also the first year of his new 8 year, $184 million contract, and most fans came down hard on Mauer. He was viewed as soft, and some believed he wasn't really hurt at all and that he just wanted to sit on the bench. Even when he tried playing late in 2011, he received jeers from the home crowd whenever he would get out, instead of getting on base. Not exactly how a fan base should be treating the face of the franchise.

Then came 2012. Mauer set out to stay in the lineup as constantly as possible, and hit what he should be hitting. But early on in the year, Mauer still received the same jeers he was getting in 2011, when he would ground into a double play, or would have an 0 for 4 night. But as the year went on, he silence those jeers by playing everyday and staying near the top of the AL batting charts. And now, he finds himself in a position to set a career high in games played (146-2008, he has played in 141 games in 2012 with 6 games left), and win his 4th batting title.

And should Mauer win the title this year, it would mean more to him, than his previous three. He will have silenced his critics once again. He will prove to the fans he is worth what the Twins are paying him, while setting himself as one of the best players in team history. And, he will prove his status as one of the best hitting catchers in baseball history.

Win this one for yourself, Joe. You've earned it. And, you most definitely deserve it.

Podcast Time

Yesterday, I had the pleasure of being on the Talk To Contact Podcast with Eric (Knuckleballs blog), and Paul (Puckett's Pond blog). We talked about how good Joe Mauer has been this year and the Twins ranking in ESPN's ultimate standings.

(You may find my segment beginning at the 30:00 minute mark, but I encourage you to listen to the entire podcast)

Twins Rank 83rd In Ultimate Standings

Yesterday, ESPN released its annual ultimate standings for 2012. The "Ultimate Standings", are an in depth ranking of all 122 professional sports teams between the four major sports (MLB, NBA, NFL, and NHL).

The rankings take into account the following factors: Bang for the Buck, Fan Relations, Ownership, Affordability, Stadium Experience, Players, Coaching, and Title Track.

The Twins came in 83rd (2nd out of the 4 Minnesota professional sports teams. Timberwolves-71st, Wild-87th, and Vikings-100th) out of the 122 teams. In the 2011 rankings, the Twins ranked 39th out of all 122 teams. And unless the on field product can get better, they may be here for another year or two.

The team factors were rated as follows (They too are ranked out of all 122 teams):

Bang for the Buck: 106

Fan Relations: 69

Ownership: 82

Affordability: 69

Stadium Experience: 13

Players: 94

Coaching: 76

Title Track: 56

On ESPN.com, you can view each team individually, and it gives you their rankings, and a explanation about their ranking. Ross Marrinson of ESPN offered the following on the Twins ranking: "After a dreadful 63-99 season in 2011 that saw local media stations cheering on the Minnesota Twins' "Hunt for a Hundred" (losses), our poll told the same tale: an average drop of 193 percent across the nine categories, including six drops of 30 spots or more. Watching a Triple-A lineup of Delmon Young, Alexi Casilla, Tsuyoshi Nishioka and Drew Butera only fueled fans' frustration with Justin Morneau, who was still suffering the lingering effects of his July 2010 concussion, and Joe Mauer, who, after signing his eight-year, $184 million deal, was sidelined with what the organization famously called "bi-lateral leg weakness." After a ranking of 15th overall in 2011, the Twins' players category fell 79 spots to 94th, ranking 26th in baseball. With an average ticket price of $33.04 -- more than 20 percent higher than MLB's mean -- the Twins' bang for the buck, already poor in 2011 (91), fell to 106th. Target Field is gorgeous, and fans seem to enjoy the game experience -- the Twins' stadium rating is 13th overall -- but it's a case of putting lipstick on a pig."

I do agree with the rankings and his explanation. The Twins do have some very cheap ticket options, but if you wish to have good seats at Target Field, you have to pay a rather steep price. I was surprised that they ranked the Twins title track at 56. It would seem that 2013 would be tabbed as a rebuilding year, in the hopes that the ship can be righted in 2014. But that is a big IF because not many key players are under contract through 2014 (Joe Mauer, Josh Willingham, Denard Span, and Glen Perkins are the only players locked in for the 2014 season).

The Twins are pretty well summed up here in these rankings. What does the rest of Twins Territory think?

Twins To Host 2014 MLB All Star Game

Today, MLB commissioner Bud Selig announced that the Minnesota Twins and the city of Minneapolis will be hosting the 2014 Major League Baseball All Star Game. At a press conference at Target Field, Selig was joined by Twins owner Jim Pohlad, Twins President Dave St. Peter, Minneapolis Mayor RT Rybak, Twins legends Rod Carew and Tony Oliva, and a few other dignitaries as well.

Selig made the following statement, “It is my great honor to name the Minnesota Twins as the hosts of the 2014 All-Star Game. This is especially meaningful to me because of my close personal and professional relationship with Carl Pohlad, who was one of the finest owners in professional sports. The Midsummer Classic will be a celebration of Carl’s legacy, one of our game’s model franchises and the spectacular Target Field, which deserves to be showcased on this global stage.”

The Twins previously hosted the All Star Game in 1965 at Metropolitan Stadium and in 1985 at the Metrodome.

Of course the Twins are not just hosting the All Star Game. With the game comes the MLB fanfest, which starts a week before the game. Then on the Sunday before the game, the futures game (Which always has so few people! WHY?!?!) and the celebrity softball game (But it doesn't air until Monday following the HR Derby). Then on Monday its the all star workout day, followed by the always entertaining Home Run Derby (Unless you like listening to Chris Berman). Then finally on the Tuesday, the game itself is played with the winner getting home field advantage for the World Series that fall.

So for a week in 2014, Minnesota will be the center of the baseball universe. Man, that will be nice. Lets start the countdown to 2014!! (Countdown is on the right side!)

Twins outright Blackburn, Nishioka

Today, the Twins announced they outrighted two players from their 40 man roster. Tsuyoshi Nishioka, who was not a surprise at all, was one of them. The other, was Nick Blackburn. His move was almost stunning.

Blackburn had compiled a 4-9 record, in 19 starts this year, with a 7.39 ERA. Even with another year left on his deal, the Twins simply felt he could be no longer of any use to the team, at least for the remainder of this year. Blackburn is owed $5.5 million in 2013, and was making $4.75 million this year.

Nishioka was almost a no brainer. He had spent almost all of the season at AAA-Rochester (Only hitting .252), before getting a week with the Twins and he went hitless in his 12 at bats. Couple this year and last year (.226 in 68 games with the Twins in 2011), and you can see that Nishioka was simply outmatched after coming over from Japan.

But perhaps the thing that sticks out the most here, is that behind the Joe Mauer contract extension, Nishioka and Blackburn were probably the next two significant deals under the Bill Smith era. Nishioka signed a 3 year, $9 million deal prior to 2011, and Blackburn signed a 4 year, $14 million extension prior to the 2010 season. Obviously, much like the Smith era, they never panned out the way we hoped.

Both moves needed to be done. The Twins need to continue to rebuild the team, and they freed up two spots on the 40 man roster to help with the rebuild. Neither Blackburn and Nishioka had much future past 2013 with the Twins, so why not let them go in 2012?

Even despite the fact the Twins will have to pay the remainder of both their contracts, the moves could greatly benefit the Twins in 2013.

Lets hope they do...

Denard Span On Intentional Talk

Yesterday, Twins CF Denard Span paid a visit on the MLB Network show "Intentional Talk" with hosts Chris Rose and Kevin Millar. If you have 8 minutes I'd encourage you to watch this video as we see a more humorous side of Span. For whatever reason I can not put the video up on the page yet, but for now click here.

A Few Thoughts From Beloit

This past weekend, me and Zach were able to take a trip on Territory Train, down to see the Beloit Snappers play two games. One game was played in the Quad Cities and the other was played at Pohlman Field in Beloit. The Snappers showed great offensive skills scoring a combined 20 runs in the two games. As we watched the games, I was able to collect the following thoughts on some of the Snappers notable prospects (But keep in mind the small sample size I saw them play):

Jason Wheeler-RHP:

In the 10 prior starts Wheeler made this year, he posted an impressive 6-1 mark with a 2.74 ERA while striking out 41 and only walking 11 in 59 innings pitched. Wheeler showed dominance early by blanking Quad Cities through two innings. But in the third the River Bandits took advantage of some control issues by Wheeler and put a three spot on the board. The Bandits also got a two run homer off of Wheeler in the fifth, and once the inning was over, Jason's night was done. He finished with 4 walks, 5 strikeouts, and 5 earned runs in his 5 innings.

This poor outing aside, Wheeler (A 8th round pick by the Twins in the 2011 draft), has been the best pitcher for Beloit so far this year. He fits the Twins bill and pitches more to contact, thus the low amount of walks, but has been able to show outstanding command, making it for hitters to put runs on the board against him. If he can continue to pitch like he has this year, he could advance through the ranks very quickly.

Eddie Rosario-2B: 

Rosario has been one of the hottest hitters in the Twins system in the past few weeks. Over his last 10, Rosario has hit .356 with 3 HR and 13 RBI while posting an OPS of 1.004. In the two games we saw, Rosario went 3-9 with a walk and two runs scored. Its safe to say, he is one of the better offensive threats the Twins have in their system.

Defensively, Rosario is not as dazzling as his offensive skills are. The Twins are in the midst of converting him to a second baseman from an outfielder (Solid second baseman the Twins system sorely needs). He didn't commit any errors in the two games, but he did boot a few groundballs and was able to recover to make outs. He is still a work in progress at second, but he did not look all that bad at fielding his position.

Miguel Sano-3B:

Sano has been in more of a slump in the past couple of weeks, just hitting .237 with 2 HR. He does have 13 HR and a .517 slugging percentage on the year so far, both of which are in the top 5 of the Midwest League. But, he has watched his average slip to .244 (.292 average last year with Elizabethton) on the year and has 65 strikeouts in 201 at bats on the season. In the two games, Sano went 2-7 with 2 walks, 2 strikeouts, and 3 runs scored. A few weeks ago, many fans were calling for Sano to be promoted as he was in the midst of a very hot streak, but it has been clear since that the Twins made the right call by keeping him in Beloit, and it would be foolish to promote him anytime this year. 

Sano, originally a shortstop, is now playing third for Beloit. He has been very shaky defensively, committing 20 errors on the season and posting a fielding percentage below the .900 mark. Sano booted a routine pop up in Saturday's game in which he simply just did not catch the ball behind the third base bag. He also booted a grounder in the two games that went past him into the outfield, but both times the scorer decided to award base hits, not errors (I'm convinced the official scorer was Santa Claus). So clearly, Sano has far to go defensively. 

Sano has a big body, which is one of the reasons he was moved from shortstop. But it also could be the same reason he gets moved from third, at some point in the future. I know the Twins want Sano to get every effort in to establishing himself as a third baseman. But, if that experiment continues to go at the rate he is playing at, that simply won't be in the question. 

Over the weekend, I had the opportunity to chat with the legendary Twins blogger Seth Stohs from Twins Daily. And in one of our talks, we both talked about how likely it is that the Twins move Sano to first base if he can not pan out as a third baseman. And it would also make sense to move him to first, given the fact that by the time Sano gets up to the big leagues (late 2014, early 2015), there will be a vacant spot at first left by Justin Morneau (His contract is up after 2013). Again, that is something that could very well happen, but the Twins want to give him his chance at third. 

Also, on Saturday afternoon, we got to have lunch with some Snapper players (AJ Pettersen, Kyle Knudson, Tim Shibuya, Wang-Wei Lin, Ryan O'Rourke, and Drew Leachman) and former Twin and current Snapper hitting coach Tommy Watkins. I got to talk with Tommy for a bit and it was an awesome experience to listen to some of the baseball stories he had. (Below picture is me with Mr. Watkins)

Much thanks to Territory Train for putting this weekend on. We didn't really know what to expect from this weekend and it ended up being a blast. If you haven't checked out Territory Train before, I encourage you to do so now by clicking the link on the right side of the page or simply just click here. They have a few seats left for their trip to Kansas City in mid July so sign up today!