Article: CWS 5, MIN 1: Twins Drop Ugly Game, Series to White Sox

[S.]

 

I'm disappointed that Mauer wasn't in the lineup last night too, but it's unreasonable to me to rip Mauer alone.  Molitor could simply have gone to Mauer and said, "hey, we need you today."  He may have, but we don't know.  In the end, Molitor is the one that filled out the lineup card.

I feel like some other people on here are acting like Mauer calls the shots, which seems like a very unreasonable assumption. As you said, Molitor makes the lineup card. If Molitor says Mauer is playing, then Mauer is playing. If Mauer says "No, I'm healthy but I'm taking the day off," and Molitor allows this, then thats yet another reason to fire Molitor. If Molitor said, "Joe, you're taking the day off," and Joe said he'd like to play, it's still Molitor's call at the end of the day.

 

Blame for any lineup issue should be placed directly on Molitor (or the FO for the players they provided him with). In this case, this one is entirely on Molitor unless we hear otherwise. If someone comes out and tells us, "Mauer makes the decisions over Molitor," then Molitor should be fired today for not understanding that the manager is in charge. But, we have no reason to believe this to be the case and its foolish to act like it is.

[Hosken Bombo Disco]

No one remembers the conversations Mauer and Gardy used to have about this very situation?

 

Edited August 25, 2017 by Hosken Bombo Disco

[Dantes929]

Ok, the error was costly but on offense Garver had about the only solid hit on the day aside from Buxton's and on average that is about what Mauer would provide especially against a lefty.     It was just as likely that the error wouldn't matter and the hit would be key.  That's baseball.  I have read for a long time that Mauer should be platooned at first base and get his rest days against lefties.   I also remember a season where Morneau played every game because it was deemed crucial for him to do so and batted about .150 down the stretch and we lost in game 163.   Maybe a couple days off would have made all the difference.   Yes, we are in the thick of things but 35 is still a pretty fair number of games to go.  

[70charger]

 

 

 

But I guess players are off-limits to criticism on this forum. 

 

I have never known that to be the case. Then again, if you criticize any player (and I do mean any player; even Gibson still has apologists lurking about), you should expect pushback. Not to mention that some criticisms are more valid than others.