Scheherezade

Mauer has a good chance to surpass Puckett this year in career WAR: http://www.fangraphs.com/leaders.aspx?pos=all&stats=bat&lg=all&qual=y&type=8&season=2014&month=0&season1=1901&ind=0&team=8&rost=&age=&filter=&players= Assuming he ends the year at around 45 WAR, he would be 21.3 WAR behind Harmon for the all-time leader. If Mauer plays out his 4 remaining contract years and 3 twilight DH years (retiring as a 38 year old), he would have to average around 3 WAR per season to surpass Harmon Killabrew. Those numbers are well below his WAR average from 2006-2013, but an aging DH/1B may struggle to continue that kind of production. My guess is that he ends his career with around 60 WAR, second all-time for the Twins behind Harmon and ahead of Rod Carew. Cheers, Tyler

If the Angels want to give us Mike Trout straight up for Dozier, I'd take that deal.

Nunez with the triple deke around Beltre and Santana's error to end the game are the icing on that bizarre walk-off finish.

[TABLE=width: 850, align: center] [/TD] C 8 Kurt Suzuki $2,750,000 FA 3B 24 Trevor Plouffe $2,350,000 ARB2 ARB3 ARB4 OF 13 Jason Kubel $2,000,000 FA 2B 2 Brian Dozier $540,000 INF 5 Eduardo Escobar $507,500 SUPER2 ARB2 ARB3 ARB4 1B 55 Chris Colabello $505,000 C 43 Josmil Pinto $500,000 C 12 Chris Herrmann $478,142 SS 39 Danny Santana $409,836 [TD] [/TABLE] Total: $10,040,478 Correia and Pelfrey's combined 2014 salary: $11,000,000 Oofta.

Two walks for Pinto... in the inning.

More ribbies

Has that ever happened before, three runs scored on three wild pitches in consecutive at bats?

Offensive machine.

Suzuki in center?

Here are some comps from this year around the 30 mark for qualified pitchers: 30. Jorge de la Rosa: 2.6 WAR 30. Hiroki Kuroda: 3.53 xFIP 30. Ervin Santana: 3.25 ERA Is anyone concerned about his performance this year? He's definitely had enough minor league innings. I think a combination of nerves and season fatigue are definitely holding his rookie season back. I don't really buy the 1 ace per team. The Twins don't have anyone close to the top 30 this year; the Tigers have 4 in the top 15.

Somebody threw another punch when Hermann hit a home run over the bull pen tonight. I didn't catch who it was.

Just for add to the conversation, I love my MLB.TV subscription. I currently live in Sox/Cubs territory, so I get to watch about 140 Twins games live. It's also nice to have radio/video on my phone if I want to check it out. The MLB player on my macbook is pretty horrid; it runs beautifully in 1080p on my PS3 and HDTV. I very much enjoy spending $28 a month to watch baseball and anything on netflix, as opposed to $60 or more for extended cable or satellite.

Good for him. Good for the Twins for understanding that a couple of games lost without pay isn't a big deal for a first time father, even if he's an MVP ball player.

Arcia's current AAA stint has only been 5 games. I'd rather see him crush AAA pitching for 10-20 games in a block and bring him up based on development. You shouldn't be ping-ponging your real prospects back and forth from AAA-MLB: that's what Butera's are for.

Woah...

Mauer, Molina, and Posey are all within .4 WAR of each other on Fangraphs. I didn't run the numbers through any statistical programs, but, I would wager those are not statistically significant variations. Statistically, here is how they break down: Offensive value- 1. Posey 2. Mauer 3. Molina Defensive value- 1. Molina 2. Mauer 3. Posey (keeping in mind that defensive metrics have subjective elements) Baserunning value- 1. Mauer 2. Posey 3. Molina The Giants have played two more games than the Twins; the Cardinals have one more than the Twins. A couple good or bad games by a catcher can move the WAR a few tenths of a digit: why else would Chris Herrmann be the Twins' 5th most valuable hitter in 16 PAs?

Nick Blackburn Liam Hendriks Vance Worley Alex Meyer This is of course assuming that one or more of Pelfrey/Diamond/Walters will get the boot.

Marquis' current xFIP in 2013 is 4.78 compared to 4.03 in 2012.

Joe's just trying to work up the pitch count; Davis is only at 62.

I'm glad Mauer and Dozier didn't bump into each other on the base paths

If Mauer keeps on pace to play about 150 games with his current slash line and defensive value, he'll end up around 7.3-7.7 WAR. That would put his 2013 season right beside his 2009 in terms of value and instantly make him another MVP candidate (although, Miggy would have to have a pretty big meltdown to lose his lead right now). That's worth way more than $23 million a year.

If Joe Mauer sustained his .405 BABIP for the season, it would rank as the 2nd highest single season BABIP since 1945 (only to Rod Carew's 1977 season): The Ten Highest BABIPs Since 1945 | Community ? FanGraphs Baseball I'm guessing it's headed down a bit. I do like that he tends to strikeout now where he used to ground into a 4-6-3 double play.

20.8% is quite a bit higher than his 9.9% career average. He's walking just as much, so he's replacing ground/line/fly outs with strike outs. Is it possible that these first two months will even out over the next four? Or, has something changed in his game? He's obviously still a tremendously valuable hitter.

I'd say Mauer has his vision at the plate back.

He's unbelievable; I miss watching him. Trevor May better be damn good.