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  • Mauer's Renaissance Season

    Cody Christie

    By Cody Christie

    Flashback

    During the 2013 season, Joe Mauer was in the middle of his sixth All-Star season. He was hitting .324/.404/.476 with 46 extra-base hits. The Twins had signed him to an eight-year, $184 million deal following his 2009 MVP and it was looking like he was going to be worth every penny.

    Things took an unfortunate turn in August as he absorbed at least two significant blows from foul-tips. He was diagnosed with a concussion and his days as a catcher had come to an end.

    Things would get darker from there but Mauer's career seems have found a renaissance in his age-34 season.

    Image courtesy of Bruce Kluckhohn-USA TODAY Sports

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    The Dark Ages

    Mauer moved to first base but his offense didn't follow him to his new position. His poor play corresponded with some of the worst seasons in Twins history. This made him an easy target for fans looking for someone to blame for the team's poor results on the field. While many would consider this unfair, he was considered the face of the franchise and the hometown star. His large contract also made it hard to ignore his performance.

    First baseman has typically been a position for power hitting batters and Mauer didn't fit this mold. From 2014-2016, he hit .267/.353/.380 while averaging eight home runs and 28 doubles. This was a far cry from his .323/.405/.468 line from his first 10 seasons. Mauer just wasn't the same Mauer and there might have been more than concussions to blame.

    As the 2016 season approached, Mauer told the Pioneer Press "bright sunshine sometimes triggered blurred vision" that he linked to the concussion with which he was diagnosed in August 2013. Picking up the spin of pitches is one of the toughest things for a hitter. Blurred vision might have been one of the reasons Mauer has averaged 100 strikeouts over the last three seasons.

    The Renaissance

    Mauer didn't exactly light the world on fire to start the 2017 campaign. He had a .546 OPS in April while only managing a .225 batting average. All four of his extra-base hits were doubles and he had more strikeouts (six) than walks (five). The Twins were only one game over .500 but something would soon click for both Mauer and the Twins.

    Since the calendar turned to May, Mauer morphed back into the Mauer of old. Since May, he has hit .319/.405/.447 with 34 extra-base hits and a 61/50 strikeout to walk ratio. Those numbers are nearly identical to his totals from his first ten seasons in the league. Minnesota has also found a way to continue to win games as the club finds itself in the middle of the hunt for the final wild card spot.

    Along with Mauer's offensive turnaround, he has also developed into one of the best defensive first basement in the American League. Mauer is one of a group of Twins players who could be in line for a Gold Glove. In SABR's most recent SDI rankings, Mauer has fallen further back in the rankings but Twins fans know how valuable his glove has been this season especially with a young left side of the infield.

    Mauer is signed through the 2018 season and he has been one of the best players in team history. His renaissance this season has been something to appreciate. His days as the punching bag of fans' jokes might be over and one can only hope that a return to the Dark Ages isn't in store for the Twins franchise.

    Cody Christie is a Twins writer and content contributor. His writing can be found exclusively at Twins Daily and his voice can be heard on radio stations throughout the Upper Midwest. Outside of the Twins, he is a father, high school teacher, and avid runner.
    Follow Cody Christie on Twitter: nodaktwinsfan

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    Featured Comments

    ThejacKmp

    ThejacKmp 2,978

  • Provisional Member

    • Posted

     

    David Ortiz played 1 year here, as did Thome? But I get your general point....

     

    Yeah I think you have to look at them during the period they were here, for better or for worse. Carew had a remarkable career - but 1/3 of it took place for another team.

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    Mike Sixel

    Mike Sixel 41,021

  • Old-Timey Member

    • Posted (edited)

     

    Yeah I think you have to look at them during the period they were here, for better or for worse. Carew had a remarkable career - but 1/3 of it took place for another team.

     

    and yet, look at his fWAR just as a Twin compared to Mauer's.....

    Edited by Mike Sixel
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    ThejacKmp

    ThejacKmp 2,978

  • Provisional Member

    • Posted

     

    and yet, look at his fWAR just as a Twin compared to Mauer's.....

     

    And again, that's a stat that is going to be advantageous to players who didn't spend the downside of their career with the Twins since it's an overall stat and down years cut into it. Or am I missing something?

     

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    Brock Beauchamp

    Brock Beauchamp 39,328

  • Administrator

    • Posted

     

    And again, that's a stat that is going to be advantageous to players who didn't spend the downside of their career with the Twins since it's an overall stat and down years cut into it. Or am I missing something?

    Neither Carew nor Mauer have/had a negative season of fWAR so it's a moot point.

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    Doomtints

    Doomtints 2,816

  • Verified Member

    • Posted (edited)

    When we're talking greatest Twins should we penalize guys for sticking around to the end? That hardly seems fair,

     

    Yes, in fact this comes up often in "Is this player HOF-worthy?" conversations.

     

    Even below average players can have a positive WAR.  If a guy sticks around at the end of his career for 7 years with 1-2 WAR each year, he has padded his WAR 7-14 points along with all of his other stats.

     

    Take a look at Pete Rose's WAR v. WAA. Rose lost 14 WAA over his last 6 years, but only about 1 point of WAR. Nevertheless he padded his other stats a lot over those last 6 years, in spite of being useless.

     

    Or look at it this way.  If a serviceable infielder puts up 2 WAR a year but is very popular and plays for 20 years, he has 40 WAR.  Kirby Puckett had 50 WAR. Switch to WAA.  Puckett drops to 25 WAA but the "serviceable infielder" drops to the single digits.

     

    But if you don't want an uberstat and only want to go by peak WAR years, JAWS exists for you.  JAWS looks at the best 7 years of WAR and then compares it to players at the same position.  However, we can ignore the "same position player" part and just look at 7-year peak WAR.

     

    WAR in peak 7 years:

     

    Carew:  49.7

    Oliva:  38.6

    Mauer:  38.5

    Killebrew:  38.1

    Puckett:  37.5

     

    If we want to go full-on JAWS, here are the numbers:

     

    Carew:  65.4

    Killebrew:  49.2

    Mauer:  45.8

    Puckett: 44.2

    Oliva:  40.8

     

    Killebrew was great, the first Twins player in the HOF and it was well deserved, but it's really hard to find a way to slice the data that says that he was better than Carew.

    Edited by Doomtints
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