Soren wrote:Joe Mauer 2004-2009: .327/.408/.483

Since Target field opened: .312/.392/.430

He was awful/hurt last year, good so far this year.

8 years/$184M (2011-18)
signed extension with Minnesota 3/22/10 (largest-ever deal for a catcher and fourth-largest contract in history at signing)
11-18: $23 million annually

potential dick punch. This is the first year he's had positive home/road splits

The Joe Mauer contract must make Minnesota fans cringe. I was looking at Longoria's deal again today. Man, what a contract for Tampa.

Mr. Science stopped by and informed me that:

Chris Capuano is 7-1 with an ERA of 2.14. Who knew? No wonder the Dodgers are 32-18. Even without Kemp.

The Cards were touted as the best NL team not long ago and have a Pythag record of 32-19. But they are only 27-24 and are getting spanked by the NL East. 13-16 in May. (Whoina hell is) Lance Lynn is 8-1 with a 2.54 ERA for them though.

The Marlins were 21-8 in May. Sheesh.

Finally Melky Cabrera is hitting .373 /.417 /.550 = .967. WTF???

I would trade Howard or Lee and their contracts for Mauer and his right now. Guy is a stud. His worst season by far was last year and he was hurt and STILL put up a 103 OPS+. Even if he only plays half of his games behind the plate, the dude is ridiculously valuable.

the russell martin/laz diaz thing has to be the best baseball story of 2012 so far

FTN wrote:the russell martin/laz diaz thing has to be the best baseball story of 2012 so far

Is it a power trip for Diaz? I don't get it. What an asshat.

Cubs will eat all but $3m of Soriano's deal just to dump him, reportedly

Once a Phils target, always a Phils target?

GrizzledVeteran wrote:

FTN wrote:the russell martin/laz diaz thing has to be the best baseball story of 2012 so far

Is it a power trip for Diaz? I don't get it. What an asshat.

apparently martin was jawing with him early in the game about balls and strikes. so laz made it a point to not let martin throw the ball back to the pitcher the rest of the game.

which is cool, because fans pay their hard earned money to see the umpires, not the players

I understand what you're saying, but are there are real people who pay to see Redass Martin play, other than his mom?

At Bat with a sleek new update. Cool swiping now for schedule. Also I think they fixed some bugs. Bout time.

The Nightman Cometh wrote:I would trade Howard or Lee and their contracts for Mauer and his right now. Guy is a stud. His worst season by far was last year and he was hurt and STILL put up a 103 OPS+. Even if he only plays half of his games behind the plate, the dude is ridiculously valuable.

well maybe Howard's because Mauer would have to play first base. trading Lee's wouldn't make any sense

Barry Jive wrote:

The Nightman Cometh wrote:I would trade Howard or Lee and their contracts for Mauer and his right now. Guy is a stud. His worst season by far was last year and he was hurt and STILL put up a 103 OPS+. Even if he only plays half of his games behind the plate, the dude is ridiculously valuable.

well maybe Howard's because Mauer would have to play first base. trading Lee's wouldn't make any sense

Well yeah, I didn't mean it like that. All things equal though, I think there is a good chance the Twins get really value out of that contract.

depends how long he can play catcher. as a full-time 1b/dh/corner of he doesn't have enough value to cover that contract unless he becomes a plus defender

Billingsley is donating $100 for every strikeout and $1000 for every win to the Berks County Animal Rescue League.

ReadingPhilly wrote:Billingsley is donating $100 for every strikeout and $1000 for every win to the Berks County Animal Rescue League.

need buster's thoughts

FTN wrote:

GrizzledVeteran wrote:

FTN wrote:the russell martin/laz diaz thing has to be the best baseball story of 2012 so far

Is it a power trip for Diaz? I don't get it. What an asshat.

apparently martin was jawing with him early in the game about balls and strikes. so laz made it a point to not let martin throw the ball back to the pitcher the rest of the game.

which is cool, because fans pay their hard earned money to see the umpires, not the players

where can i read about this?

Bucky wrote:

FTN wrote:

GrizzledVeteran wrote:

FTN wrote:the russell martin/laz diaz thing has to be the best baseball story of 2012 so far

Is it a power trip for Diaz? I don't get it. What an asshat.

apparently martin was jawing with him early in the game about balls and strikes. so laz made it a point to not let martin throw the ball back to the pitcher the rest of the game.

which is cool, because fans pay their hard earned money to see the umpires, not the players

where can i read about this?

the basic story

apparently laz insisted on handling putting new balls in play himself. Man's full of quirks, in addition to all the other stuff he's full of

Martin said that he likes to throw the ball to keep his arm loose

Talk about quirks. Between pitches and warmups between innings he must throw the ball close to 200 times per game.

Anything to maintain that .250 CS%

anything to embarrass the shit out of j. russell m. artin is A-OK in the book of mose

I'm with Laz. If he wants to throw out the balls let him throw out the balls. I imagine it's one of the few pleasures of being an ump.

Plus he has to stay limber too. You don't want to toss someone and end up tearing a labrum.