July 19, 2004
This is what I come back to?
I leave for a few days to go to a baseball convention and I return to find my beloved Twins have dropped three out of four to the Royals and are without Joe Mauer, who has re-injured his surgically repaired knee.
I can't begin to describe to you how much crap I took from all the Royals fans at the SABR convention when we were at the Reds/Cardinals game on Friday night and the out of town scoreboard kept flashing the Twins score: 7-1 Kansas City, 9-1 Kansas City, 11-1 Kansas City. It was horrible.
And now Joe Mauer is out for at least a couple weeks, potentially longer. I've even heard some people say stuff like, "He may never be able to catch on a regular basis again." I'd say, from what little I've heard about the situation, that's going a little overboard, but I'm still worried.
Before the season, Joe Sheehan of Baseball Prospectus suggested that, because of his height, Mauer would never be able to catch for his entire career. I suggested that that was silly, and I think it still is, but the part about Mauer being a career-long, full-time catcher is certainly in doubt.
I'm worried that in 20 years, when Mauer is a first baseman with 3,000 hits and 400 homers, everyone will wonder what could have been if only his damn shin guard hadn't caught on the new turf at the Metrodome way back in 2004.
The other big thing that I came back to find is rumors about the Twins trading Justin Morneau. The loudest one I've heard is that he is headed to Toronto. John "Twins Geek" Bonnes, who blogs for the Star Tribune now, even posted on a Twins message board, saying, "I have it on pretty good authority that the Twins are very close to trading Morneau to the Blue Jays."
Well, that got me all hot and bothered, so I got in contact with a source or two of my own and I feel confident in saying that there is absolutely no way Justin Morneau is on the verge of being traded to Toronto. That's not to say he won't be traded, just that the Twins and Blue Jays are certainly not in anything even resembling serious discussions about him right now.
That's all on the Twins for today. It's going to take me another day or two to get caught up with what has happened around baseball. In the meantime, I wrote up a massive recap of my experiences at the SABR convention, so please check that out ...
The Hardball Times: Aaron's Really Long SABR Convention Recap
Today's picks:
Montreal (Hernandez) +140 over Pittsburgh (Burnett)
Philadelphia (Milton) +140 over Atlanta (Wright)
Chicago (Garland) -100 over Texas (Wasdin)
Total to date: -$3,175
W/L record: 121-166 (0-2 last Thursday for -200.)
*****Comments? Questions? Email me!*****
