Odds & Ends: D'Backs, Mauer, Options

As a Sox fan but a baseball fan in general I hope the Twins lock up Mauer. He's from Minnesota and is the face of that franchise.

I like how Mauer is a year and a half away from hitting the Free Agent market and most Sox fans are already penciling him into the 2011 opening day lineup. It's the same way they treated Teixeira and look how that turned out.

Red Sox? Fiscally sound?

hahaha

I'm tired of the Yankees and Red Sox assuming that just because they have the most money that they can sign everyone and that everyone will want to play for them.

Well a really good catcher is hitting the free agent market so obviously he will sign with us because who doesnt want to play in front of the biggest group of bandwagon fans in all sports?

No one in their right mind would sign a catcher to a 10 year deal. That is, besides the Yankees and the Red Sox.

the 'Everyone wants to play in Boston' mentality does not apply outside of Boston and the ESPN studio

Boston sports analysis at its finest.

I honestly dont care if Mauer comes to boston or not, you dont always need to fill the position with the best player to pretty much play the position, I just hate when Twin fans automatically assume he is going to stay in Minnesota because he said he would. If Mauer is in the cards, yay, if not, who honestly cares? There are so many other catchers out there, just not as good of course

I too am a Sox fan but as the first poster commented, I do not want Mauer to leave the Twins. He is an old-school player playing for his hometown team. The Twins are building a new stadium and he is the face of their franchise. He deserves to be their Chipper Jones and play his entire career for Minnesota. I too am tired of so called 'journalists' speculating on being able to sign someone else's stars. We have great homegrown talent in Boston (Pedroia, Youkilis, Ellsbury, Lester, Papelbon etc)...let's appreciate them and follow our young prospects like Lars Andersen as they become stars in their own right.

That $14MM is a bit misleading given that the annual outlay for Matsuzaka is more (the fact that its going 2 places doesn't change the total expense) and he wanted to give more than that to Teix(eira).

"You do not give a catcher a 10 year contract ending at age 37."

Seriously. Can we go back and see if Cafardo mocked the Yankees deal with Teixeira?

I don't know why some Boston fans like to believe the Soxs are so much different from the Yankees. Didn't they offer a bunch of money for Tex as well. So it wasn't they haven't sing anyone for more than 14M, its that the player didn't want.

And the way Bay is hitting be ready to have to pay at least 15M for him when Drew is making 14M

"6. Reese Havens 2b (1st round pick tearing uo minors)"

Metsfan - They have this site now called milb.com. May want to check it out before declaring that guys hitting .229 are "tearing uo minors".

"The Twins have not been afraid to part ways with Jeff Reardon, Tom Brunansky, Gary Gaetti, Rick Aguilera, and Frank Viola when the price got high."

Fire up the time machine and lets revisit some irrelevant information.

Hunter and Santana are fair game, the team parted with them because of money, but the other guys were sent packing because the team was rebuilding, particularly in the late 1980's.

Jeff Reardon was not retained because he just finished a season as the closer where his ERA was 4.07 and his strikeout rate plummeted.

The Twins used Tom Brunanski because they desperately needed infield help. He was shipped off to acquire clubhouse cancer Tommy Herr. This move was not money related, and it happened to be a terrible trade.

Gary Gaetti did not get offered a decent contract by the Twins becuase he just finished the 1990 season batting below .230 with just 16 homeruns. At 31 he was seen as broken down and over the hill.

Rick Aguilera was traded (for the first time) at the trade deadline to the Red Sox who just happened to be playing at the dome when the deal was finalized. The Twins did it because they were out of contention and Rick said he was going to re-sign with the Twins after the season anyway. His second trade was to the Cubs and occured when the Twins were rebuilding. They ended up getting Kyle Lohse in that deal. The real shame is they parted with Scott Downs who ten years later has become a great bullpen arm.

The Twins traded Frank Viola in 1989 to rebuild pure and simple. He still had three years left on his contract and was in no danger of leaving anytime soon. In the trade with the Mets the Twins acquired Rick Aguilera and Kevin Tapani who were keys of the 1991 world championship team. David West was supposed to be the key prospect in the package for Viola, unfortunately he never panned out.

Baseless speculation and lazy assumptions are two obvious signs of poor journalism.

"And TwinsVet, there's nothing disgusting about assuming that a guy with 6 years service time will be a free agent. Its sort of the way baseball works."

NotJoeMorgan, we're talking about a kid who currently has 4.5 years service. He's under contract for another full season - after the current (still early) season. There's no telling whether or not he will actually hit the free agent market, so speculation does indeed strike me as premature. Maybe we should start talking about the going rate for David Price when he hits free agency as well?

I'm just sayin', it seems like a guy should at least be within sight of FA before we start the feeding frenzy...

Cheap shots and quibbling aside, as a Sox fan I hope Boston doesn't sign Mauer. Not because he isn't an excellent player but because his value to the team probably wouldn't be worth the longterm commitment and truckload of money he'd cost, especially given his recent health questions. There are better values available for that amount of investment. Not many better catchers, but better values.

I think it is so funny that RedSox, Mets, Cubs and Yankees fans feel every top FA wants too sign with them. Its a joke!!!! What are you guys going too do at the next collective bargaining agreement comes up and the owners set a salary cap???? Its happening the way the economy is going and I'm going too laugh at you a-holes....I hope Mauer stays in Minnesota for his whole career. That is what is wrong with sports, guys don't play for championships, they play for the $$. It was great growing up watching teams like the Dodgers, Phillies, Reds have the same INF for a decade; Gwynn playing for the Padres his whole career. Thats what I like!!

If he does leave via FA, I hope he signs with someone like the Royals or Reds, just too piss you off!!!

this is not about the Red Sox and Yanks fan just attempting to get every good player. there has been speculation that the yanks and sox due to the sox horrid catcher situations and posada done that they would both make a big play for Mauer if he becomes a free agent. with the twins opening a new stadium and him being from their i could see them mustering up the money to keep him the twin cities.

The Red Sox actually are a pretty fiscally sound team. The only dog contracts they have are Julio Lugo's and David Ortiz's and both of those only run through next year. Theo has no problem with letting guys walk and hasn't signed any player to more than $14 million per. If you want truly messed up team salary structures, take a look at the Yankees, Dodgers and Tigers.

Posted by: midtown | May 27, 2009 at 02:43 PM
---------------

A teams sa;ary structure is only out of whack if they can't afford to retain their players or make additional moves as needed to improve their team. If you want to see a team that's made poor financial decisions that have hurt them I would say they're are much better examples than the Yanks or Dodgers. Think about it...has either team been unable to sign a player they truly wanted? Has either team had to cut back on scouting or international signings?

Better examples:

Giants: Barry Zito signing; couldn't add the big bat or CC last year.

Detroit: Nate Robertson, Bonderman, Ordonez, Dontrelle.

Houston: Lee, Tejada; had to release Worthington to cut payroll.

Rockies: Helton's $16 mil this year is almost 25% of the total payroll and at age 35 is owed another $40 mil (assuming they decline his 2012 option).

"speculation that the yanks and sox due to the sox horrid catcher situations "

The Sox catcher Varitek is currently doing very nice. They will need a catcher in acouple of years due to age.

Tek is currently at 8HR, 20RBI, .492SLG, .313OBP which is amongst the best in the game and his game calling is priceless. Horrid situation? Not hardly in Beantown...

Posted by: johns | May 27, 2009 at 07:59 PM
-------------------

C'mon john...the Sox would replace Tek in a heartbeat if they could get their hands on one of the young Texas catchers w/p gicing up Bucholtz or Bard.

As for the Yanks, I don't see the Yanks being big bidders for Mauer. I think it's natural to assume that we'll sign every major FA but I seriously feel that our replacement for Posada will be filled in-house with either Montero (A+, 19 yrs, .327/.384/.909 ops) or Austin Romine (A+, 19 yrs, .282/.301 agter a slow start). And I think Cervelli will at minimum be the back up next year and might start if the other two aren't ready by the time Posada's deal runs out in 2011.

Btw, Montero might be the best C prospect not named Posey or Weiters if he doesn't grow out of the position (already 6'4 and 225 lb at 19).

I think it is so funny that RedSox, Mets, Cubs and Yankees fans feel every top FA wants too sign with them. Its a joke!!!! What are you guys going too do at the next collective bargaining agreement comes up and the owners set a salary cap???? Its happening the way the economy is going and I'm going too laugh at you a-holes....I hope Mauer stays in Minnesota for his whole career. That is what is wrong with sports, guys don't play for championships, they play for the $$. It was great growing up watching teams like the Dodgers, Phillies, Reds have the same INF for a decade; Gwynn playing for the Padres his whole career. Thats what I like!!

If he does leave via FA, I hope he signs with someone like the Royals or Reds, just too piss you off!!!

Posted by: sfgiantsfan | May 27, 2009 at 05:33 PM
------------------

Ok, this is the dumbest thing I've read.

1-Players are more than happy to go to FA because it can set them for the life and gives them a chance to get the most money. You speak of it like it's some sort of curse.

2- I too, love to see players stay with one team, but let's not act as if the player is going unwillingly.

3- The Twins haven't won a Pennant or WS title in 17 years, so excluding the big bad major market teams like the Yanks and Sox, there are probably 6 or 7 other teams that might have a better chance than the Twins. And please understand that I was a big fan of Puckett and pulled for the Twins and the "beer crew" of Brunansky, Gagne, etc back in 1991 so this is not a biased statement. Twins have done a great job of replacing their departing FA with young and cheep talent but Mauer has to wonder if they can afford to pay him his worth AND keep Morneau and others around as well.

I mean teams like Giants, Angels, White Sox, Mets, Phillies and Nationals all have money and a need for a star catcher as well.

Could a team be interested in him as a 1B? a 6'5 catcher is a risk, and a 10 yr deal for a catcher that ends at 37 is a no-no. But if a team like the Dodgers get sick of Loney's lack of power and trade him for pitching, having Mauer at 1st COULD be an option

My mistake. I just checked, Mike Napoli is only 27. Oops. Sorry about that.