Yardbarker: Joe Mauer

Rogers On Yankees, Cubs, Mauer, Padilla

Sun, 08 Nov 2009 13:43:45 -0500

Phil Rogers of the Chicago Tribune has written a pair of new articles. One focuses on the New York Yankees, while the other explores news from around the majors. Here are some of his points: Pitching depth is the Yankees' main priority this offseason. Having Chien-Ming Wang, Joba Chamberlain, and Phil Hughes all healthy and effective would be ideal, but Rogers doesn't think GM Brian Cashman will be able to resist looking hard at free agent veteran starting pitching. Rogers...

Comfort Level

Mon, 26 Oct 2009 11:39:25 -0500

Nick’s Twins Blog dissects an answer by the Twins general manager about Joe Mauer’s contract status: And so, John rerouted. “Well, let me ask one question that’s not really about the contract,” he said. “If an extension doesn’t get done by spring training, do you feel comfortable going into next year with Mauer as a walk-away [...]

BDD: AL and NL MVP

Sat, 24 Oct 2009 11:27:25 -0500

At Baseball Daily Digest, I cast my twenty ballots for the ten Most Valuable Players in each league. Oh, you thought I was going to pick Joe Mauer. He’s a justifiable candidate, of course, but there’s a more deserving player out there who will be overshadowed […]

Offseason Twins Power Rankings

Fri, 23 Oct 2009 13:07:48 -0500

Joe Mauer's contract extension/lack of same. You need something to stress about over the winter, right? Joe Nathan's elbow chips. Keep telling yourself this is the only reason Game 2 turned out the way it did, and that it's all going to be better now. O-Cab or C-Pav? Both? Neither? The five blissful months where you won't hear John Gordon screw up even the most basic of calls. The slowly dawning realization that Phil Cuzzi didn't e...

Mauer Hurting Heading Into Game 3

Sun, 11 Oct 2009 08:15:00 -0500

Twins catcher, and this year's likely AL MVP is suffering from a hip flexor injury that he suffered when he fell rounding first base in the tie-breaker game against the Tigers last week. He told Ron Gardenhire "I am a catcher, no matter what you say.", but he also had these quotes via Jack Curry of the Times:“I’m not feeling too well right now,” Mauer said. “I slowed up a little bit. We had our chances to win. We had the bases loaded.”“Just not feeling great,” he said. “We got a...

Phil Cuzzi Was Once Fired As Minor League Ump!

Sun, 11 Oct 2009 03:40:51 -0500

Ed Price at AOL Fanhouse reports this weekend that Phil Cuzzi, the umpire who botched the Joe Mauer fly ball call that may have caused the Twins a win in Game 2 of the ALDS, was previously fired from professional umpiring after he failed to impress supervisors during call-ups from the minor leagues. (And you thought [...]

Not-so-happy anniversary

Sat, 10 Oct 2009 11:04:17 -0500

I'll have to throw a shout out to DJ for pointing out that the terrible foul call on Joe Mauer's ground-rule double last night happened on the 13th anniversary of the Jeffrey Maier incident at Yankee Stadium. Umpire Phil Cuzzi whiffed on Mauer's soft fly ball, which fell about a foot inside the foul line in left field and bounced out of play. It should have been a leadoff double, and Major League Baseball should extend the replay system to fix something that egregious, but i...

Mauer's "Foul" Ball

Sat, 10 Oct 2009 07:37:24 -0500

Let me preface by saying that last night's 4-3 comeback win was epic. Like CYC said, it had all the makings of a classic Yankees' comeback win of Octobers past. However, as great as it was, I felt the need to talk about the blown call in the top-half of the inning. What should've been a double for Joe Mauer was called a foul ball by Phil Cuzzi, who was standing right on the line. I understand that human error is part of the game, but there are blown c...

Phil Cuzzi Blew It

Sat, 10 Oct 2009 07:13:20 -0500

(Photo by Reuters Pictures. Makes you wonder what Phil Cuzzi was looking at. Joe Mauer's no-doubt ground rule double in the 11th was ruled a foul ball by umpire Phil Cuzzi, despite the fact that the ball landed at least a foot fair before bouncing into the stands. Ignore the fact that Mauer eventually singled and the Twins loaded the bases with no outs, but failed to score.) "I wasn't the only one that blew one tonight." (Joe Nathan, via ML...

Umpire Phil Cuzzi’s Blown Call on Joe Mauer Fly Ball Helped Give Yankees Win

Fri, 09 Oct 2009 22:03:41 -0500

Friday’s ALDS Game 2 had to be excruciating to watch for a Twins fan. They had opportunity after opportunity to put the Yankees away and couldn’t do it. Even with all their blown chances, a bad call by the umpire down the left field line in the top of the 11th cost them [...]

Mauer lands in New York, greeted by early Yankee speculation

Thu, 08 Oct 2009 10:10:10 -0500

You knew this was coming. Joe Mauer(notes) arrives in New York on Wednesday and — despite an ALDS to be played and another legally-binding year with the Twins — is greeted by questions about his contract situation and if he'd like to ever play for the Yankees?OK, so it was just a few questions the Big Apple media threw his way — they do it to almost every soon-to-be free agent — but I'm sure if there were a Cerebro for Yankees fans, the collective brainwave wou...

Joe Mauer Allegedly Stealing Signs: 'That video’s a joke' According to Justin Morneau

Thu, 01 Oct 2009 13:15:09 -0500

Joe Mauer hasn’t responded to the youtube video that alleges he was stealing signs from the Tigers Tuesday night in Detroit. But his teammates have. Justin Morneau: “That video’s a joke!” Manager Ron Gardenhire: “That’s why we’re three games back — we’re stealing signs. We scored two runs last night, we stole a lot of signs.” Gerald [...]

JOE MAUER TIPS PITCHES

Thu, 01 Oct 2009 07:00:00 -0500

Thanks to reader Tom for sending this over to me. I've always thought both the Twins and White Sox did this. Especially to pitchers like Verlander who they have no chance against. But with Joe Mauer doing it...Well, that's gotta sting to all the Twins fans that built him up to be the greatest player in their franchises history. And its not like its subtle. Its about as obvious as it comes, although, the person making the video does a fantastic job of pointing out every si...

Is Joe Mauer The AL MVP?

Wed, 19 Aug 2009 13:35:13 -0500

Over at one of my favorite sports blogs, Souvenir City, an argument was posted for Joe Mauer not being the AL MVP. SC makes the argument that the MVP should be taken in team context, not an individual award. I think this is pretty shortsighted. To punish Joe Mauer for his teammates is irresponsible. It [...]

Joe Mauer for MVP

Wed, 19 Aug 2009 11:07:00 -0500

A few weeks ago, some of you will no doubt be aware that I did a guest post on River Ave Blues arguing that Derek Jeter should walk away with the MVP. No disrespect to Jeter, who is still having an amazing season and an even more amazing road trip, but I need to change my vote. I have seen the light, and the light is Joe Mauer. How have I seen the light? Mauer's average, .383, is higher than Mark Teixeira's on-base-percentage. That means that Joe Mauer is getting a greater percentage ...