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2009 AL Central Thread


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QUOTE (witesoxfan @ Jun 13, 2009 -> 06:53 AM)
Joe Mauer is clean. I'd bet my reputation, heart, and soul on that. He's just that good of a hitter. Other than Juan Rincon, I honestly can't think of another Twins player that has been busted for PED abuse. I'm sure I'm wrong, so bust me right now.

 

Mauer won't stick at catcher his entire career (I hope not), because some franchise (hopefully Minnesota, probably someone else) would like to prolong his career somewhere. I still think Joe Mauer has a very, very long career waiting for him at 3B. If so, I don't think it's entirely unreasonably that Joe Mauer could reach 3000 hits, and perhaps even go to 3500 hits. I have not watched baseball very closely until about the past 3 years, but I have never seen a better hitter, other than maybe Pujols (who walks to much to get to 3500, and perhaps 3000 period). Mauer is an absolute monster.

 

If the proposal came up, to trade all of the Sox minor leagues for Joe Mauer, yes, I would trade all of it for Joe Mauer.

 

It's a travesty that no matter how clean a player appears to be you have to always wonder. I agree with pretty much everything you've said here. A lot of scouts seem to believe that Matt Wieters will be better than Joe Mauer. I hope I'm around to see that.

 

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It's obvious Mauer and Theriot are juicers...

 

The Twins are gonna be scary for a long time as long as they have Mauer and Morenau in that lineup. They really need to move Mauer to 3B or even LF. With his recent back injury, it might be wisest to do it sooner rather than later.

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QUOTE (Jordan4life @ Jun 13, 2009 -> 12:58 PM)
It's a travesty that no matter how clean a player appears to be you have to always wonder. I agree with pretty much everything you've said here. A lot of scouts seem to believe that Matt Wieters will be better than Joe Mauer. I hope I'm around to see that.

 

From what I've read and heard from Gardenhire and the Twins Front Office, Mauer will be a catcher for quite a while before the move him. They like the way he handles the pitching staff, and they like his cannon arm behind the plate. Then what I've picked up from blogs and whatnot, having Mauer behind the plate putting up the kind of number he does is an advatage for the Twins because well, catcher aren't supposed to hit .375

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QUOTE (Benchwarmerjim @ Jun 13, 2009 -> 05:52 PM)
From what I've read and heard from Gardenhire and the Twins Front Office, Mauer will be a catcher for quite a while before the move him. They like the way he handles the pitching staff, and they like his cannon arm behind the plate. Then what I've picked up from blogs and whatnot, having Mauer behind the plate putting up the kind of number he does is an advatage for the Twins because well, catcher aren't supposed to hit .375

If he has another catching related injury to his knees or back, he'll be a 3rd baseman by 2012.

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Man, the Royals dust off the Reds, win all three.

In KC, they are hoping they are going to now return to the way they played real early on.

Any hope for KC? Like the Sox they are only a handful of games out in the loss column.

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Every single team in the AL Central has a shot at winning the division still. The Sox just had a 4-8 homestand, won 2 of 3 against Milwaukee, and they are only 4.5 out. Cleveland has been absolutely devastated by injuries so far, and they are 6 out. It's anybody's race still.

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Man, the Royals dust off the Reds, win all three.

In KC, they are hoping they are going to now return to the way they played real early on.

Any hope for KC? Like the Sox they are only a handful of games out in the loss column.

KC f***ing sucks. Aviles looks like a JUCO player and Tony Pena Jr. Is worse than Wise. Juan Cruz isn't looking very good this year. Remember how much people want him or didn't want the Twins to land him?

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QUOTE (witesoxfan @ Jun 15, 2009 -> 03:40 AM)
Every single team in the AL Central has a shot at winning the division still. The Sox just had a 4-8 homestand, won 2 of 3 against Milwaukee, and they are only 4.5 out. Cleveland has been absolutely devastated by injuries so far, and they are 6 out. It's anybody's race still.

 

I wouldn't go that far. The Royals have a putrid offense. I know statistically ours isn't much better. But I think we've underachieved to this point (although we have no problem scoring runs on the road). The Indians have zero starting pitching outside of Cliff Lee (who after a pretty bad initial 3 starts has been one of the best pitchers in baseball). Pavano had been pitching well before getting torched for 9 ER in his last start. Besides that? You're not winning anything with Sowers, Huff, Ohka and the other trash they have in their rotation. The division race should pretty much come down to the Tigers and Twins. With the Sox being the x-factor, I guess. If this is the real Jose Contreras, and when I say that I don't mean the guy that's thrown 16 consecutive scoreless innings, but if he can be at least 80% of what he was in '05 and the first half of '06, then that really changes the complexion of this division race. Then you're talking a 4-man rotation as good or better than that of the Tigers/Twins. Then it would come down to getting a healthy CQ back (something I'm not counting on) and this offense to start performing up to their capabilities.

Edited by Jordan4life
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I don't really see anyone pulling way out in front of this division all year, the winner will probably be in the high-80's. Granted I don't think KC or Cleveland have a real shot at the division (offense for the former, pitching for the latter), but I don't think they'll end up 15+ games back either.

 

The Tigers look great on paper, but they're not exactly out-hitting the Sox by much, and Galarraga and Dontrelle have sucked. They appear to be the most talented, but I still have a hard time seeing them blow everyone away.

 

I know it's board policy to fellate the Twins, but even with Mauer doing his Albert Pujols impersonation and Kubel putting up a .912 OPS they're 32-33. I don't get why anyone is worried about their rotation either, 3 of their starters have an ERA over 5 and their team ERA is 3 tenths higher than that of the Sox. As has been stated before, they're also 11-21 away from the dome.

 

Though I don't think the Sox will do more than match their 87 from last year barring a major jolt to the offense from either a healthy Quentin or someone like Beckham stepping up, they've got enough talent to hang around, especially on the pitching side.

 

 

 

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QUOTE (greg775 @ Jun 15, 2009 -> 01:15 AM)
Man, the Royals dust off the Reds, win all three.

In KC, they are hoping they are going to now return to the way they played real early on.

Any hope for KC? Like the Sox they are only a handful of games out in the loss column.

We kicked ass in inter-league last year. We just swept the Reds with our 3/4/5 pitchers, now we get the last place Arizona for 3 at home, the Cards for 3 at home, then 3 at last place Pittsburgh and 3 at last place Houston. There is hope, but just a little...

QUOTE (santo=dorf @ Jun 15, 2009 -> 05:14 AM)
KC f***ing sucks. Aviles looks like a JUCO player and Tony Pena Jr. Is worse than Wise. Juan Cruz isn't looking very good this year. Remember how much people want him or didn't want the Twins to land him?

1 game behind the White Sox. Aviles has been hurt since Spring Training, now he's on the DL. TPJ is the worst hitter in baseball, pitchers included. Cruz has been spotty, when he's on, he's great, when he's not, he blows. There's been no middle ground with him. Same goes for Farnsworth.

 

QUOTE (Jordan4life @ Jun 15, 2009 -> 08:21 AM)
I wouldn't go that far. The Royals have a putrid offense. I know statistically ours isn't much better.

We've been without Alex Gordon and a shortstop. At least you guys have the longball...

 

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That Indians v. Brewers game last night was some crazy stuff.

 

Ryan Braun and Prince Fielder are absolute beasts. It makes me wonder how we pretty much shut them down this past weekend. Or maybe the Indians pitching just sucks complete balls. Because it totally does. Rafael Perez has a ERA in the 11s. Oh, how the might have fallen.

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Carlos Guillen is going to likely miss the rest of the year for Detroit. Per Foxsports

 

Thats a big blow to their team, they are going to need all the offense they can get. Esspecially with the way Willis and Galarraga have been struggling. According to The Detroit Free Press , the Tigers will be buyers. I'm guessing they will try to add another starting pitcher and a left fielder with offensive pop. My question is, will Detroit be the only buyer in the AL Central division? I'm thinking the Twins will likely stick with what they have and hope to compete with that. The Royals are closer than last season, but still need to address many possitions, they'll likely be sellers in hope to address those positions for next season. Cleveland is a big mess, injuries, lack of pitching depth and so on. They need to sell DeRosa now while his stock is super high.

The Sox are in a weird position, they have potentially 4 experering contracts that will shed about 40 million from their payroll next season, do they sell those players now? Or do they sit back and wait alittle longer to determine if they can be in this thing the rest of the way? If they can get to .500 by July 1st and be about 2-3 games back, i garuntee you KW will be a buyer. He won't be a significant buyer (meaning he won't trade away his farm depth) but he could easily add another bat in the lineup to add pop to the top of the order.

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