Jeff Passan and I have gone rounds before. During the Olympics. He seems like a nice enough guy, but a little misguided.

Mitch Albom-ish gets my skin crawling. This felt Mitch Albom-ish. Not because its some sappy (probably not true) story, but because of the teddy bear feelings he tried to bring about.

this is why i visit sites on sbnation because the sports “journalism” elsewhere is absolute crap.

I have no problem with the column. It’s written for a national audience to explain why Mauer’s production is down. And though the contract was probably necessary for all sorts of reasons….it could look ugly in 5-6 years.

There’s certainly worse expamples of bad writing out there (see Souhan, Jim).

There are no obvious factual errors. So, as a column, it’s fine to me. The only problem I would have with it is if it was a news article, which carries a lot of expectations of quotes from sources. In a column, you don’t have space to quote people, so all that stuff ends up in the background. You still get the info from sources (and clearly he did). But you don’t cite them.

His mission was to get at just how hurt Mauer is. That’s tough if the player and the organization doesn’t want it to be public knowledge. But if you watch him play and you see him grimace his way through a game and lumber around the bases, what Passan says does not seem too sensational to me.

I read that Passan piece yesterday, and felt dumber for having done so. Not to pile on but if you read enough Passan you are going to get 25% of his articles that just leave you wishing he would be more selective about what stories he actually submits (e.g. The Omar Vizquel is a hall-of-famer piece that FJM used to write one of the funniest posts ever written)

Everybody already knows he’s playing through assorted bruises, aches, pains and some level of discomfort, but hell let’s just come out and tell everyone he’s hurt. Nobody says he’s hurt: not the manager or the trainers or the organization or the player, but Passan knows. Does he hurt more than any other catcher in the league?

I’d say he’s clearly been hurting a bit more than usual, and perhaps more than average. His batting average and low homerun numbers support that hypothesis. Yes he’s getting more doubles, but that’s because he’s not muscling balls out to left field like he was last year (or pulling them for power very much at all). He’s also struggled throwing people out on the bases more than usual, though a fair amount of that blame should go to the pitchers.

And to be fair, Mauer is generally very quiet in public and is a Minnesotan. That means, yes, he wouldn’t ever state publicly if he was hurt, nor would he want the Twins to make it public. So while it appears that it is an assumption, it’s not as much of a reach as you’re suggesting.

That said, I do agree with what you said about Joe’s numbers lately. I think that it’s entirely possible Joe was struggling with an injury or two, but his hitting of late suggests that he may be coming out of it since the All Star break. Let’s hope he can keep this up and maybe get his power back up again.

First, the injuries Passan sites are public knowledge.

• The heel resulted in extended time on the bench. But the broadcasters brought it up several times that he never fully healed from it. They claim it was inded a bone bruise and not just soft tissue. Think of how much SL time Hardy had for a bone bruise in the wrist. THe heal is even more painful, and it affects everything.
• The shoulder is another one often cited by broadcasters. It forced him to miss several games around the All-Star break. Basically the foul tip hit off the bone that juts out from the shoulder. There’s a pad there, but it was a hard foul tip, probably a bone bruise also.
• The back and hip is the same injury that kept him on the DL last April. Sacroiliac injuries tend to recur. Regular treatment makes them bearable, but they never really go away without rest.

Second, I’ve noticed several things:

1. When he makes solid contact and swings as hard as he can on a fastball, it gets caught on the warning track. Last year those were HRs. Joe hit two of the longest homers of any Twin to straight away center last year. Now, when he hits it as hard as he can, it dies on the warning track.
2. His throws have been unusually erratic this year. The All-Star game throw is the most dramatic example. But he had several of those in late June and early July. That was when the shoulder was acting up the most.
3. He’s at least two steps slower going down to first than he was last year.
4. His body language is one of a guy in severe pain a lot of the time, especially when he takes his mask off.

But I’m not sure that poor dead horse can take another beating…