If You’re Gonna Rip Joe Mauer, Don’t Rip His Power
“He’s a good middle-of-the-order hitter, but he can’t hit the ball over the fence. His reputation is so strong because of his many accomplishments, and he was a great player for a long time, but when you lose your power and you play a position that requires power, it diminishes you.”
That’s a real quote, from a real legitimate publication’s ‘scout’ on whom the most overrated player for the Minnesota Twins is. That publication is Sports Illustrated. The ‘scout’, of course, is unnamed. The overrated player is Joe Mauer.
Without going down the whole Joe Mauer is not as bad as he was last season, but let’s focus on one thing: power. This scout assumes that Mauer once had power and he never has.
One year he had power. One. Mauer hit 28 home runs in 2009 in the Metrodome. Other than that he’s never hit more than 13 in a season.
At least the scout stayed anonymous. The same can’t be said for the writer of the Twins’ preview on Sports Illustrated, Jay Jaffe.
The ‘Number To Know’ segment of the preview is Mauer’s batting line from last season. The segment is a Mauer rip-fest.
I keep looking into the sky waiting for a plane to skywrite ‘Mauer is a horrible baseball player and the Minnesota Twins are crazy for employing him.’ The pilot is really talented.
There are many things to rip about Joe Mauer, but his lack of power is such a weak thing to rip. It’s been done before. A lot. Search the word ‘Mauer’ on Twitter and you’ll see plenty examples of it by people who aren’t exactly the same intellect as a ‘scout’ or professional baseball writer.
A professional baseball writer is smarter than that. Right?
The following is another quote from Jaffe in the preview.
“It remains to be seen whether he can be more than a league-average first baseman over the final four years and $92 million of his contract.”
Uncle.
One bad season and Mauer goes from the Hall of Fame to questionably above league-average. I know the Twins have lost 90-plus games the last four seasons, but does anyone outside of Minnesota actually watch this team.
Maybe everyone is just so lazy that they’re not creative in ripping Joe Mauer. They’re rips aren’t going over the fence just like Joe Mauer’s because he doesn’t have power, he never has and he never will.
Next: Six Reasons To Head To Target Field