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#1
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I think Mauer is deserving. Maybe not first ballot, though. I mean, he's not a closer.
Come on, the guy was the best pure hitter in baseball for eight years. Except for his injury-riddled 2011 when he hit .287, and a .293 season in 2007, he hit .300 every year between 2006 and 2013, hitting .328 for those 1,012 games. In those seasons, he hit .347, .328, .365, .327, .319, .324. Again, this is a catcher doing this. And he wasn't a bad defender, winning three Gold Gloves. So he didn't hit a lot of home runs. You had a catcher, the premium position in baseball, the hardest one to produce offense at a high level, hitting .328 in his prime. Why is he not a Hall of Famer, yet Tony Gwynn, widely considered one of the best pure hitters of the modern era, if not the best, is? Gwynn hit .338. Didn't hit for power. Stole bases early, but that stopped when he hit 30. Compare their career slash lines Mauer .306 AVG/.388 OBP/.439 SLG/.827 OPS 124 OPS+ Gwynn .338 AVG/.388 OBP/.459 SLG/.847 OPS 132 OPS+ Gwynn's average for his career is much higher. Yet their on base percentage is identical. Now, look at Mauer's prime. '04-'13 .323 AVG/.405 OBP/.468 SLG/.873 OPS 135 OPS+ That's across 5,006 PAs. A catcher with 35% above league average OPS. Why is there any question as to his worthiness?
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#2
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What's a pure hitter anyhow? I would take Miggy and ARod over the same stretch 100 times out of 100. I have to think about who else.
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#3
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Quote:
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#4
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The Tony to compare Mauer's stats to is Oliva. Both lifetime Twins, 15 year careers, batting titles, gold gloves, 5 times Sporting News All Stars, injuries. Mauer was a catcher, but Oliva hit for more power while often protecting Killebrew in the lineup.
Of the two I would take Oliva, the best pure hitter of his day. Not saying Oliva is therefore a HOFer, just saying, if one goes in, so should the other as they are about equally deserving or undeserving. … Oliva Mauer AB 6301 6930 R 870 1018 H 1917 2123 2B 329 428 3B 48 30 HR 220 143 RBI 947 923 AVG .304 .306 OBP .353 .388 SLG .476 .439 |
#5
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He got better as he studied more.
__________________
My avatar is a sketch by my son who is an art school graduate. Some of his sketches and paintings are at https://www.jamesspaethartwork.com/ He is available to do custom drawings in graphite, charcoal and other media. He also sells some of his works as note cards/greeting cards on Etsy under JamesSpaethArt. |
#6
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Mr Bonds must have studied a lot too.
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#7
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Personally I think Mauer gets in eventually, and is deserving. But just curious on everyone's thoughts on Mauer's career versus the likes of Ted Simmons, Lance Parrish, and Victor Martinez.
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#8
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How about Bill Freehan? 11x All-Star and 5x Gold Glove winner plus a World Series Ring. Never understood how little he is appreciated by the voters.
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#9
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Mauer was a 5-time all-star, MVP winner in 2009, 3 time batting champ: 2006/2008/2009, led league in OBP/SLG/OPS/OPS+ in 2009, led league in OBP in 2012. Had 5 seasons over 5 WAR (55.1 total BWAR). https://www.baseball-reference.com/leaders/jaws_C.shtml This table at BBreference lists Mauer as the 7th best catcher ever regarding WAR and JAWS as performance measuring metrics. Admittedly Ted Simmons is 10th best ever per the chart, but as stated above, he lacks the league-leading stats/MVP that Mauer accumulated. I'm not sure I would even vote for Mauer for HOF due to his relatively low counting stats in areas ("only" 2123 hits) but his .306/.388/.439 career slash line is impressive. Combine that with his stellar MVP season, 3 batting titles and 7th place position in WAR/JAWS all-time among catchers and I think he's a sure-fire HOFer at some point. Sent from my SM-N950U using Tapatalk |
#10
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I'm not a huge Mauer fan but I would rate him ahead of those guys. As for Freehan he definitely was the best catcher in the AL for a long stretch but his absolute numbers aren't that great IMO.
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My avatar is a sketch by my son who is an art school graduate. Some of his sketches and paintings are at https://www.jamesspaethartwork.com/ He is available to do custom drawings in graphite, charcoal and other media. He also sells some of his works as note cards/greeting cards on Etsy under JamesSpaethArt. |
#11
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Mauer wasn't good enough for long enough. I really don't see how he can be looked at any differently than Nomar, who I think had a much better career and isn't talked about at all. Mauer played catcher briefly and he was briefly very good at what he did. But so are a lot of people. His catching record for batting titles doesn't mean much to me at all. Winning three titles at any position isn't a HOF-worthy stat (ask Bill Madlock, who won 4 or Larry Walker and Tony Oliva who won 3 and are still out).
Last edited by packs; 02-26-2019 at 09:37 AM. |
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