Mauer

[B. Amish]

In what way is Joe Mauer "above Mattingly"?

he's about 6" taller.

[Big Dave2]

If it's fire you want, the Twins should have kept A.J. and drafted a firey pitcher instead of a catcher.

[Ybone]

That pitcher would have been Mark Prior, he hasn't pitched in the majors since 2006.

[JBMasterAngler]

With how paranoid Gardy is about pitch counts, Prior would have never been able to throw enough pitches to become injury prone like he was with the cubs.

[Cicada]

If you take 152 games divided by a five man rotation, you should get about 32 starts per year. Mark Prior had 19, 30, 21, 27, and 9 in his five year career averaging about 6.2 innings per outing. With a 3.51 ERA, 3.1 walks per nine innings, and 10.4 strikeouts per nine innings, he might have averaged around 100 pitches per outing by my best guess. Isn't that about what Gardenhire shoots for? I'd say his health track record was, at best, about the same as Mauer.

Same complaints, different number (bullseye) on the back.

[Big Dave2]

That pitcher would have been Mark Prior, he hasn't pitched in the majors since 2006.

But at least he helped his team get past the 1st round of the playoffs.

[eyebenband]

Don Mattingly

Career: 222 HR, .307 BA, 1099 RBI, 1B/OF, 1985 AL MVP, 6xAllStar, 9xGG, Yankees 1982-1995

Mauer

Career .323 HR 105 RBI 634

Joe has a couple of years left...looks close to me.

[Big Dave2]

Don Mattingly

Career: 222 HR, .307 BA, 1099 RBI, 1B/OF, 1985 AL MVP, 6xAllStar, 9xGG, Yankees 1982-1995

Mauer

Career .323 HR 105 RBI 634

Joe has a couple of years left...looks close to me.

Ummmmmmmm..........I don't think so. Unless Joe is going to double his last 10 years of stats in 4 years. Mattingly put up his numbers while only playing 14 years. Mauer has already played 10 years, but nice try.

[greebs]

Gladden had some good post game comments today concerning the state of the team. Mentioned that as he looks at every player on the roster, there's not a single one of them that he sees as the "alpha male" type personality that a team needs.

Mauer probably can't help that he isn't that type so not necessarily a knock on him from that end other than the 20/20 hindsight of realizing that the contract they gave him has very good chance to go down in history as a bad one for the team, especially if he becomes a position player other than catcher. That seemed to be the draw to him that catchers don't typically don't provide those type of stats. Move him anywhere else other than middle infield and his power and rbi numbers are such that he's not likely even close to the best player in the league at any of those other positions.

[B. Amish]

wish i could find the stats that show the run differential with mauer in the lineup this year compared to him out of the lineup. saw them on the twitter and they were amazing.

thing about mattingly is if he were playing here today, you'd be screaming the same thins about him as you are about mauer. he put up his best numbers by far in his mid and early 20's - the rest of his career was very average.