Saturday Morning Baseball & Breakfast: Mauer, Butera's Catching, and Oswalt Rumors
by Karlee Kanz on Jul 24, 2010 10:00 AM EDT
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- If you haven't heard about what is known around here as "The Bunt" you either have lived under a rock for the past week, don't like baseball, or you just truly don't care. Either way I'm going to talk more about it. So, SB Nation if you were Joe Mauer would you have bunted? I sat here and thought to myself "By golly, W.W.B.J.D?" (what would baby jesus do?). Yes, Joe Mauer has a .375 avg against Rafael Perez but he also knows he's been hitting into a gaggle ton of double plays as of late. He was thinking about the team because he isn't sure of himself. So in his mind he thinks if he puts down the bunt he'd have bases loaded for Kubel who has a .400 avg against Rafael Perez. His logic was sound but I think people are more worried about his mental state because the '09 Joe Mauer would of smacked a line drive over the pitcher's head to teach him a lesson. You do not mess with the 'Lawn Mauer'.
- Random Fact of the Day: Drew Butera is a good catcher. Carl Pavano is 2-2 with a 3.13 ERA when Drew Butera is behind the plate. I'd like to see him catch Kevin Slowey. It seems like Kevin Slowey and Joe Mauer are having issues agreeing on pitches. I think they just need to hug it out and share some Kemps ice cream together.
- It seems like the Twins haven't even contacted the Astros about Roy Oswalt, says Ken Rosenthal on his Twitter
- What do you think is worse? The Security at Camden Yards or Citizens Bank Park? Would you rather want asthmatic puff pastry filled security guards attempting to 'wrangle' a drunken male whilst the players just watch and laugh, or see security guards with the thirst of sending 2000 volts through a drunken idiots body run them down and teach them a lesson? Either way, still highly entertaining.
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Random fact of the year
Drew Butera can’t hit. I’d like to see him in Rochester with the Twins acquiring a veteran backup catcher at the trade deadline.
hmmmm....nope
not going to happen.
i rather see morales as a callup later on, but who try to split the staches?
by twinscrazy_german on Jul 24, 2010 10:37 AM EDT up reply actions
Can they DH for Butera then?
And let the pitcher hit instead?
Not piling on, clarifying
I don’t support any move that gets Drew Butera more playing time, especially one justified by junk stats. Did you bother to mention that 2-2 with a 3.13 ERA for Pavano (which by looking at Baseball Reference isn’t accurate it’s a 2.21 ERA) isn’t that much different than the 3.79 ERA he has pitching to Mauer? There’s a slight difference in BABIP by catcher, that’s it.
I would vote for the taser.
100 times out of 100 times.
That was such a patetic excuse for security, and I imagine someone will get fired/deserves to get fired for the overall lack of response to that kid.
I always loved that one.
A taser would've been overkill
It would have been more entertaining in the Roman Colosseum /Gladiator sense though.
"Don't take life for granted, because tomorrow isn't promised to any one of us." -Kirby Puckett
Minnesota Twins 2010: GAME 163 OR BUST!!!
by less cowbell, more 'neau on Jul 24, 2010 4:04 PM EDT up reply actions
Kniowing that it was a kid who just wanted to meander, I agree..
but security is supposed to assume everyone who does something like this has really bad intentions, so that they can appropriatly safeguard the players, umps, and everyone else. That’s why I like the taser.
I always loved that one.
Ponderings on ERA, FIP and UZR
The month of July hasn’t exactly gone as well as the Twins have hoped.
Currently, the Twins are in 3rd Place in the AL Central.
A lot of this has seemingly been due to bad pitching. Well here is some data for July from fangraphs.com about that:
Twins Pitching Staff:
FIP: 3.95 (8th) – the Whitesox are leading the category with 3.23
So in theory the Twins staff hasnt pitched all that bad, but over that timespan the Staff ERA actually stands at 4.90 or almost one Run over FIP.
The Whitesox, however, in fact sport an ERA of 2.37, almost 1 run lower than their FIP!
So is this a case of bad defense from the Twins? Fangraphs thinks not. Although there is only data on the full season, the Twins actually rank 5th with an UZR/150 of 5.9, while the Whitesox are in the bottom third with -3.2
I think the past performance is actually more of a case of bad luck for Twins pitchers (or good luck for opposing hitters) as the BABIP of .332 ranks them dead last in the entire MLB. The Whitesox – no surprise here – are in the top ten with a BABIP of .282 or 50 points lower than the Twins!
So what do I want to say with this?
It seems to me that the Twins staff has hit a rough patch of bad luck in July (with the exception of Pavano) and I can’t imagine their performance to stay at the same level it is at right now – and the same certainly goes for the Whitesox.
by twinscrazy_german on Jul 24, 2010 11:31 AM EDT reply actions
Luck and line drives
I’m sure a bit of bad luck has something to do with it, but our starters (esp Slowey, Baker and Blackburn) have given up a ton of line drives lately. And those wouldn’t affect FIP and would drive up the BABIP. When you’re putting the ball on a tee, the best defense can’t save you.
by Adam Peterson on Jul 24, 2010 11:52 AM EDT up reply actions
true
i kind of forgot about that part. probably because i didnt see those numbers when i looked at fangraphs..
by twinscrazy_german on Jul 24, 2010 12:40 PM EDT up reply actions
Okay.....
So you not only have to find playing time for Thome and Kubel, but now you want to add Joe Mauer to the DH mix 2 out of every five games. Hummm. Bring up Ramos if you are going to catch Butera instead.
Visit www.TwinsCards.com and check out "rosters" to see my collection!
If Butera could help Slowey pitch better (I'm not syaing he could)...
If Slowey gives up one less XBH/start that would make up for the offensive downgrade from Thome to Butera, assuming Mauer is the DH.
I like how Butera can show a bit of emotion out there as a catcher...
Joe’s cool temper is great, but its nice to see Butera get himself fired up after big outs. As a fan seeing his expression also makes me feel “YEAH!” instead of just “whew”…I have a feeling it could have a similar effect on a slumping pitcher.
Every fan who runs on the field should get tazed
"You're thinking too much. Just have fun." -- Bennie "The Jet" Rodriguez in Sandlot
by cmathewson on Jul 24, 2010 2:33 PM EDT reply actions 1 recs
in the genital region
now that would be funny
by twinscrazy_german on Jul 24, 2010 2:36 PM EDT up reply actions
He's Germanian though.
"Don't take life for granted, because tomorrow isn't promised to any one of us." -Kirby Puckett
Minnesota Twins 2010: GAME 163 OR BUST!!!
by less cowbell, more 'neau on Jul 24, 2010 4:08 PM EDT up reply actions
hey now
just because i am deutsch?
by twinscrazy_german on Jul 24, 2010 5:52 PM EDT up reply actions
I was gonna go to the game today...
but I got sick (fun, fun, fun)…so I guess I’ll be heading there tomorrow. Either way, let’s take this series like we should…
I'm still a Minnesotan at heart...
and today's espn game of the day is:
royals against nyy
or:
every yankees game is the game of the night, until roidriguez hits another homerun and we can celebrate him and give him a one hour show….puke
by twinscrazy_german on Jul 24, 2010 3:31 PM EDT reply actions
KC wins! 7-4
Let’s go Roy-als * clap clap clapclapclap *
"Don't take life for granted, because tomorrow isn't promised to any one of us." -Kirby Puckett
Minnesota Twins 2010: GAME 163 OR BUST!!!
by less cowbell, more 'neau on Jul 24, 2010 4:07 PM EDT up reply actions
ha
I am not saying that Drew Butera is a good hitter, I am just surprised that he’s been catching amazing games as of late. He has caught more than 20 innings of shut out baseball (I don’t know the exact stat because I’m not really a stat person) all I know is that for the rest of the year I am guessing he’ll be catching for Pavano. He is his little rabbits foot, minus the loss of limb.
ps: Thanks FoulJack! Hope you all will enjoy :D
DJL44: I totally know you want Redmond back, right? ;)
Redmond of 3 years ago, sure
Redmond of today is toast
Butera
He is just sitting there until Ramos or Morales come around. Once one of them cones around. Butera will go down to AAA with the other. If they both start hitting, then we have good trade bait.
Ramos is hitting the snot out of the ball in AAA
Still, I don’t think we’ll see a change until September.
"You're thinking too much. Just have fun." -- Bennie "The Jet" Rodriguez in Sandlot
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