Baseball Musings
Baseball Musings
February 11, 2007
Mauer Money

The Twins locked up Joe Mauer today (Sunday) through the opening season of their new stadium:

AL batting champion Joe Mauer and the Minnesota Twins agreed Sunday to a four-year contract worth at least $33 million, avoiding salary arbitration and ensuring one of the team's young stars will be in uniform for the long term.

The team buys out his first year of free agency. In my opinion it's exactly right to give the long term deal to Mauer now and just the one year deal to Morneau. Justin, after all, played extremely well for four months, but the previous eight were nothing to write home about. Mauer's been consistently good throughout his career at a tough defensive position, and that's more than worth the money he earned today. An excellent deal by the Twins. They continue to be one of the best run operations in baseball.


Posted by David Pinto at 02:27 PM | Transactions | TrackBack (0)
Comments

What a great deal for the Twins.

Joe Mauer, at Age 23, had an OBP of .429 OBP. Only Mickey Cochrane (Age 30 and 32 seasons) and Mike Piazza (Age 27 season) have ever posted better OBP's as catchers, and they were both a whole older than Mauer.

Joe Mauer in 2006 might've had the best single season by a catcher in AL history, especially if one counts defensive contributions. His June line of .452/.528/.624 might've been the greatest single month by any catcher ever.

Posted by: dave at February 11, 2007 06:45 PM
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