Doug Whitfield Sports Account at
Baseball has returned to us after its long slumber, and like most of you, I’ve spent the last six months doing the 21st century equivalent of “staring out the window and waiting for spring,” namely, refreshing baseball news sites all winter long until the paint started to wear off the F5 key on my keyboard. I’ve meditated over 40-man roster moves and lost sleep considering the ramifications of non-roster invites to spring training. With the hot stove now long since cooled and the dawn of the 2015 season finally at hand, we can put speculation aside and get down to the serious business of watching some baseball. Thank you Jesus.
With that in mind, every year I like to pick one or two players on my hometown Minnesota Twins roster, just to be “my guys.” It’s almost never a star, and often it’s not even someone I’d actually bet money on (see below), it’s just the guy I want to succeed, the guy I’m sticking with, at least this year. My record has been mixed: In 2006, to much derision, I picked Justin Morneau, who barely hit .220 in April but went on to win the American League MVP for the AL Central champion Twins. In 2011, I picked Tsuyoshi Nishioka. We all remember how that went.
Now that your opinion of my prognosticative powers has been suitably tempered, here are my two picks for the 2015 Twins, tentatively subtitled “The Hater-Proof Edition.”
The Safety Pick: Joe Mauer returns to drink milk and kick ass
The last couple years have been cruel to the Twins in general, but probably no one has been as disappointed, and as much of a disappointment, as the face of the franchise, Joe Mauer. After a 2013 season shortened by concussion, Mauer moved out from behind the plate he’d guarded for ten seasons to take over the first base job from the departing Justin Morneau. Hopes that freeing Joe from the daily grind of catching would hasten his recovery and lead to an immediate offensive resurgence were dashed last year, when Mauer, still working through the linger effects of his concussion, had the worst year of his career, batting .277 with only a .371 slugging percentage in 120 games.
Naturally, this has led to calls from the talk radio crowd to have Joe traded, fired, and/or burned at the stake, and certainly his production last year wasn’t what the team had in mind when they signed him in 2010 to an eight year, $184 million contract. But I don’t think I’m going on too much of a limb to suggest that perhaps the reports of Joe Mauer’s death have been somewhat exaggerated.
In 2013, before he was shelved late in the year with concussion symptoms, Mauer was an All Star and was having one of the better years of his career, hitting .324 with a .476 slugging percentage, the latter of which ranks quite highly alongside his career numbers. It’s impossible to say how much the concussion, the move to first base, the bad press, the fourth straight losing season for the only team he’s ever played for, and the events leading up to the departure of the only manager he’s ever played for in the majors, affected Mauer’s 2014 slide. But to look at last year in a vacuum and declare Joe Mauer’s career over is ridiculous.
Joe turns 32 this month, which has further fueled speculation regarding his decline. But although the early thirties are an age where athleticism begins to ebb and the old bastard Time begins to take his toll, it’s also an age where the truly great hitters of history have had their renaissance years. Tony Gwynn, whose batting numbers actually track very closely with Mauer’s through their respective twenties, hit .317 when he was 32, and that was the lowest average he would record for the rest of his career, which lasted for another decade.
It’s still a bit premature to be calling Joe Mauer the next Tony Gwynn, but seriously, Mauer’s one of the greatest pure contact hitters of our generation. Before the concussion and the move to first base, people were already talking about his possible Hall of Fame credentials. Have no doubt, Joe Mauer will be back. If the Twins can succeed in surrounding him with capable bats in the lineup, there’s no reason to believe he wouldn’t be in the thick of the batting title race well into the back half of the year. And if you think I’m crazy, at least I’m in good company.
The Long Shot: Mike Pelfrey gets good and pissed
Mike Pelfrey has been nothing short of a train wreck in his two calendar years with the club, going a combined 5-13 in one full season in 2013 and 0-3 in five disastrous starts in 2014 before being sent to the disabled list with a laundry list of injuries to his groin, shoulder, and elbow (when the Twins signed him prior to 2013, Pelfrey was just coming back from Tommy John surgery).
Pelfrey has been a lightning rod for criticism and probably the most reviled man on the Twins roster. He was considered among the top pitching prospects in the 2005 draft, but the last time he put together a solid season was in 2010, when he went 15-9 with the Mets. It must be hard for Mike, who from everything I’ve ever seen of him seems to be a real gamer and from all reports is the nicest guy in the Twins clubhouse.
Pelfrey reported to spring training this year healthy and ready to pitch for the first time since he signed with the Twins, and pitched well in Fort Myers, only giving up 2 earned runs in 14.2 innings, although he got roughed up in his last outing of the spring, giving up 4 home runs . But it wasn’t enough to overcome his previous track record of futility, and the Twins announced near the end of spring training that Pelfrey would start the season in the bullpen.
Mike was pissed. Mike doesn’t really get pissed, at least not in front of reporters, but Mike was pissed.
In the end, it was all for naught, as new Twins acquisition Ervin Santana was suspended for half the year for a drug violation and Pelfrey was returned to the rotation, if on a short leash.
After watching him get kicked around Target Field for the last years, I couldn’t bring myself to put money on a miraculous turnaround for Mike Pelfrey, but dammit, I really want it to happen. He pitched his ass off in spring training, and I think he’s earned a chance to try and come back and show that he’s a better pitcher than we’ve seen in his two ineffective, injury-ridden seasons. The Twins don’t exactly have a horde of candidates beating down the door for the fifth slot in the rotation, although hopefully that’ll change as the season shapes up, but for the moment, I don’t think it hurts the team to give Pelfrey one more shot.
Week one update because I can’t get articles out in time
As of April 15, in eight games the Twins are a dismal 2-6. Mauer leads the team in average (.286) and on base percentage (.375), but has yet to record an extra base hit. Pelfrey got hit hard in his first start, giving up four runs and two homers in five innings on April 11. About the best that can be said for the outing is that he left the game tied (although the Twins would lose it in the 8th anyway).
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