Comments on: TCTOD: MVT — Mauer or Morneau?

By: Stu

Stu — Thu, 25 Sep 2008 02:05:06 +0000

FARRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRT

By: Wood

Wood — Thu, 25 Sep 2008 01:28:47 +0000

I’d give a slight edge in this one to Mauer based on the way he’s worked this young pitching staff into all 10+ winners. NOBODY saw this staff doing anything at the beginning of the year. Morneau had the year we all expected from a previous MVP.

By: Sassbottom

Sassbottom — Wed, 24 Sep 2008 23:05:08 +0000

I’m going to de-nard the next person who uses “M&M boys” to refer to Mauer and Morneau–ERRRR, Morneau and Mauer. It’s just so … geigh.

By: Clarence Swamptown

Clarence Swamptown — Wed, 24 Sep 2008 21:49:15 +0000

Ok, Jon, I can see that.

By: Jon

Jon — Wed, 24 Sep 2008 21:45:41 +0000

That should read that Redmond is a “somewhat above-average defensive catcher.” Didn’t mean to slight the Red Dog there.

By: Jon

Jon — Wed, 24 Sep 2008 21:44:20 +0000

CS - It seems to me fair to use offensive arguments to compare the two, given that this is what the Morneau backers base their decisions on.

But: Mauer is an above-average defensive catcher, while Morneau is an average defensive first baseman. Redmond is an average defensive catcher, while any of the guys I mentioned would likely be somewhat below average at first base. I don’t know that the dropoff is necessarily greater from Morneau to, say, Buscher than the drop-off from Mauer to Redmond.

By: Clarence Swamptown

Clarence Swamptown — Wed, 24 Sep 2008 21:39:26 +0000

Shapoopy.

By: Clarence Swamptown

Clarence Swamptown — Wed, 24 Sep 2008 21:34:48 +0000

You can’t use Mauer’s defense to justify his increased value and then only use offensive numbers to define Redmond’s value. The dropoff defensively from Mauer to Redmond is less than the dropoff from Morneau to Buscher/Ruiz.

And if Redmond had more at bats (like last year), his numbers would progress closer to his career average, which are not far from Buscher’s and Ruiz’ numbers. Isn’t that the theory that most baseball stat heads subscribe to?

By: ramon

ramon — Wed, 24 Sep 2008 21:23:17 +0000

Ssshhh… hear that?

That’s me opening a bottle of Tylenol.

By: Jon

Jon — Wed, 24 Sep 2008 21:17:01 +0000

Mike -

Okay, let’s look at positions within the team. Mauer has created 6.91 runs per 27 outs. Mike Redmond, his backup, has created 3.51.

Over at first base, Moneau has created 6.86 runs per 27 outs. If they replaced him, they could perhaps put Brian Buscher (4.71 RC/27) over there, or Randy Ruiz (4.39), or - heck - even Nick Punto (4.50). If Michael Cuddyer hadn’t gotten hurt, his numbers (4.23) might have looked okay over there. Brendan Harris (4.14) could have filled in, in a pinch.

But not only would all of those replacements been more valuable than Redmond for Mauer, here’s the kicker - not one of those guys could play catcher every day. All of them could have been passable at first base.

THAT’S why Mauer is more valuable than Morneau.