August 11, 2005

This Mauer Kid

Sorry for how tardy today's entry is. I stayed up late to watch last night's 14-inning win over the Mariners and then had to get up bright and early this morning to do my ever-increasing number of writing gigs. So today's entry, in addition to being late, will be short and sweet.

  • This Joe Mauer kid might turn into a pretty good player someday. Four hits in five at-bats last night, plus two intentional walks, his ninth stolen base of the year, and a laser to second base to throw out Yuniesky Betancourt in the 13th inning. Mauer is now hitting .299/.374/.432 as a 22-year-old catcher in his first full big-league season. Oh, and he's thrown out 40% of attempted base stealers, too.

    Combined with what he did when not on the disabled list last season, Mauer now has 496 career plate appearances in the majors, spread over 125 games. That's about a full-season's worth of playing time for a starting catcher, so it's a good time to take a look at what Mauer has done:

      G      AVG      OBP      SLG     2B     HR     BB     SO     SB
    125     .301     .373     .466     28     14     52     63     10

    Not a bad first "year." Mauer has a very modest 62 RBIs, but that's not really his fault, as he's batted .314/.411/.453 with runners on base and .349/.433/.523 with runners in scoring position. He is also 10-for-11 stealing bases (91%, although I'd rather he was 0-for-0) and has thrown out 39.7% of stolen-base attempts against him.

  • One quick note for those of you who care about such things: I've started writing a new daily baseball column this week, which will be posted on both Rotoworld.com and FoxSports.com each afternoon. It's very similar to the "Channel Surfing" columns I've been writing each Friday this season, except I'll be writing it six days a week. You can read yesterday's column on FoxSports.com by clicking here.

    And yes, for those of you keeping track (hi mom!), you can now find my writing at AaronGleeman.com, The Hardball Times, Insider Baseball, Rotoworld, and Fox Sports. By my count that adds up to around 15-16 columns per week, plus MLB and NFL news blurbs each morning. As I've heard said about playing poker many times, it's a hard way to make an easy living.

    • Today at The Hardball Times:
    - The Fall and Rise of Jason Giambi, Part One (by Larry Mahnken)
    - Circle the Wagons: Running the Bases Part III (by Dan Fox)

    Today's Picks (86-72, +$1,310):
    Detroit (Bonderman) -130 over Toronto (Downs)


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