a season of Mauer

[MARCPELLETIER]

Well, my Mauer teams played altogether 162 games, most in Oakland stadium, some in Coors.

Somewhat, I feel I have been unlucky. Mauer missed 27 games (I would expect around 10); slugging and rbi productions were low (although, it should be mentionned, Mauer is mostly a second-hitter on my teams). Still, on the most important stat, my teams went 91-71, not too bad. If Mauer were getting paid too much, and considering the somewhat sub-par production, I imagine I would have had a much worse record.


[list:2ac20befb3]G 135
AB 520
R 96
H 173
2B 19
3B 2
HR 25
RBI 60
BB 79
SO 71
SB 3
CS 1
BA 0.333
OBP 0.424
SLG 0.521
OPS 0.945
[/list:u:2ac20befb3]

I still believe that Mauer is worth his salary. His card can be used anywhere between 2nd to 4th spot in the lineup, depending on the needs of the team. His defense is so good that you can build a team around, choosing for example a centerfielder with a weaker arm or pitchers with higher holds or with tons of gbA, knowing that runners will sit on first base. I certainly believe that his card has more impact than Pujols's card, despite the injury factor.

[Jerlins]

Definately a ballpark choice situation, preferably of the Oakland/PNC slant. If you were playing in a league with unique stadiums and you had the misfortune of missing out on those two parks, I'd prefer a more balanced team. Let's say same players, two spots left, Catcher and SS. Mauer and Wilson (or Furcal), or Y. Molina and H. Ramirez? In Oakland, yes, I'd take the Mauer/Wilson combo (though I'd spend less and take Furcal, just for the injury factor), but in Coors I'm going the other direction and the 2nd option.

If it were Coors and those 4 players were available post draft, give me the reasons you would still choose the Mauer option. I'm not questioning you, just trying to get your take on why it's the better option.

[Assmeriten]

To me Mauer isn't worth the money. He can be injured for 15 games each time his injury comes up.

[MARCPELLETIER]

Jerlins,

I feel very confortable with using Mauer in Coors, because:
1) I don't want to have 9 right-handed hitters and expose my team to extreme hard right-handed pitchers;
2) Considering that Coors has good slugging numbers for right-handed, the most logical combination, it seems to me, is to have 1 or 2 left-handed hitters that set up the table for the hard-hitting right-handed hitters that I put in the middle of the line-up.
3) Of course, Coors still have good slugging numbers for left-handed hitters, so I want to avoid a weak left-handed hitter.

So Mauer perfectly fits the bill as my #2 hitter in Coors.

Moreover, Coors allow so much singles that I want to make sure I increase my chances to turn double-plays. So Mauer's arm is a nice bonus.

Of course, spending high money on Mauer forces me to buy cheaper right-handed hitters. So there is real challenge to spend less money on right-handed and still find hitters that have the maximum of BP diamonds. The challenge is real, but I think it can be met in a 80M league.

In my 60M league, I'm having Weeks as a dh, Kinsler as second-baseman, Crede is some sort of platoon at 3rd, so I'm loaded in BP homeruns over there with cheap players (well, not so cheap in case of Kinsler). However, I failed the challenge in cf and rf. But in a 80M, I could fill those spots with real sluggers and be loaded in slugging despite paying 13M on Mauer to open the gates.

Conclusion: Mauer does cost me a bit in Coors in a 60M league, because it left my team with too few options in the outfield. But in a 80M league, I feel I would have succesfully fill all the spots with players fit for Coors.

[AeroDave10]

I'm not sure Mauer is a "perfect" #2 hitter with 18 DPs vs. righties and 21 DPs vs. lefties. That's an awful lot for me. I prefer single digit DPs in my #2 hitters.

[MARCPELLETIER]

Well, I used to think this way and avoid someone with lots of gbA batting #2, but I changed my mind after seeing the numbers in "The book".

[url]http://www.amazon.com/dp/1597971294?tag=tangotiger-20&camp=14573&creative=327641&linkCode=as1&creativeASIN=1597971294&adid=0ZQ08X1RM7ZGRGQW1K6F&[/url]

Far and away, the lineup slot with the most DP situations is the #3 slot, and #5 is the least likely to be in a DP situation among the first six slots. #2 is second in that ranking, but only slightly over #4, but far from being on the same scale than #3, especially in NL.


So the rule of thumb of the authors of "The Book" is to decide your 3 best hitters (to be placed #1, #2, #4) without gbA consideration.

Therefore, in a Strat context, I would consider gbA only when deciding who should be #3, #5, or #6, with players with huge DP-risk being put #5 or #6 (depending on the clutch).

I should add that 18 gbA isn't very scary to me. The average among all non-0.5M hitters for this year is 16.65 gbA vs rhp. So Mauer is only slightly above average. 30 gbA is more my idea of "high-risk" dp.

[AeroDave10]

I am definitely going to buy that book :)

[Jerlins]

Actually, I wouldn't consider your $60 team a failure. It's playing .560 ball. We just have an insane team in front of us, which makes the both of us nothing but also-rans. :cry: