A List of Nicknames For Joe Mauer

First, if you haven't heard, Joe Mauer probably won't make opening day due to inflammation of his right sacroiliac joint (see right for an illustration of the approximate area).

Now a lot of Twins fans are probably rolling their eyes or shaking their heads or experiencing some sort of apoplexy about Joe's injury, but I'm not worrying too much right now. And all the criticism that's flying around isn't called for; give the kid a break. He's got two batting titles for us in the last two years, and he's a great defensive catcher. There isn't much more one could ask for than that. (Well, I suppose one could ask for jetpacks. You can always ask for jetpacks.)

As a sidenote: I did happen to notice that the Wikipedia page for the sacroiliac joint did mention this tantalizing tidbit: As would be expected, the more pregnancies a woman has, the higher her chances of SI joint problems. During the pregnancy micro tears and small gas pocket can appear within the joint.

So apparently that these injuries are common in pregnant moms. So it's possible Joe is on his third kid. I'll leave that for you to figure out.



In the meantime, I've been kicking around a few new nicknames for Joe; my girlfriend's undying love for Mauer (like that of most women in the five or six state region) is the reason this subject is being bandied about at my house. I've only got a couple of suggestions, but here they are:

The Wunderkind
The Wall (Mauer's last name means "wall" in German.)

and finally, my girlfriend's contribution: Husband. (Sidenote: Her father even calls him "son-in-law." Yes, she wears the pants. I don't even own pants. Sigh.)

Finally, I whole-heartedly reject "the Chairman" as Mauer's nickname. That's the name you give to a cat who says "Mao" instead of "meow." Clearly.

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In Defense of Nick Punto

Now I don’t know about the rest of you, but the end of the regular baseball season is a pretty depressing time in Minnesota. This is usually true for one of two main reasons. One, the Twins’ season usually meets an untimely end after the first week of the playoffs, but the real cause for concern is the weather. When baseball’s over in Minnesota, summer’s over. And soon after that it suddenly begins to snow and then all there is to do is drink and swear and huddle around the Hot Stove Report and think about the upcoming trip to Fort Myers.

Well, for Twins fans, this was a slow off-season. Before the Twinkies picked up Crede, they hadn’t done all that much. Then, they re-signed Nick Punto. This caused the peanut gallery on every Twins blog to go wild, and soon there were anti-Punto diatribes all over the place. Of course, there were perpetual references to his 2007 season, and all sorts of hand-wringing about Punto’s ability as an everyday player.

But I’m a Punto fan, and I’m here to set the record straight.

Batting

First off, let’s take up the argument with the most credibility—criticism about Punto at the plate. Yeah, 2007 was a bad year for Nick. He had more strikeouts than in any other year of his career, his batting average flirted with the Mendoza Line like the cheap date she is. In many respects, it was similar to his 2005 year, which was nasty too. Those are the two marks against him. But a pair of bad seasons doesn’t make a bad player; a whole career full of them does. And during 2006 and 2008, Punto’s batting average wasn’t just average, it was good. So I’d expect this kind of criticism after his 2007 season, but it was a surprise to read all the negative comments after Punto’s 2008, when his batting was productive by any measure. Here are the stats from MLB.com:

2005 Minnesota Twins
112 394 45 94 18 4 4 26 132 36 86 13 8 .301 .335 .239

2006 Minnesota Twins
135 459 73 133 21 7 1 45 171 47 68 17 5 .352 .373 .290

2007 Minnesota Twins
150 472 53 99 18 4 1 25 128 55 90 16 6 .291 .271 .210

2008 Minnesota Twins
99 338 43 96 19 4 2 28 129 32 57 15 6 .344 .382 .284


Fears of a Relapse

Fears of a relapse to 2007 seem unfounded. First, he’s demonstrated twice (not once) that he’s capable of putting up good numbers. That’s no fluke. (If it is, that’s a pretty consistent fluke.) Second, even if he does relapse, it’s just as easy for the Twins to go shopping next season. But let’s be clear about something, the Twins aren’t big spenders, and that was especially true this season. We were lucky to get Crede at the bargain basement price we did. So it was pretty clear from the get-go that we weren’t going to come up with a replacement at short stop. And as I suggest above, we don’t need a replacement. Punto’s not our big bat. Everyone knows this. Hell, even he probably knows this.

Fielding

As for fielding, let’s just consider 2008 for now. First, his fielding percentage was good. Of all the shortstops with over 50 games, he was eighth. Another Twin, Brendan Harris, also makes the list.


N Punto* MIN SS
61 60 530.2 298 103 187 8 46 --- --- --- 4.92 .973
Mark Azarius LAA SS
52 50 448.0 218 69 147 2 31 --- --- --- 4.34 .991

M Young* TEX SS
151 150 1289.0 669 193 465 11 113 --- --- --- 4.59 .984

D Jeter* NYY SS
148 147 1258.2 579 220 347 12 69 --- --- --- 4.05 .979

J Peralta* CLE SS
146 143 1271.1 658 217 427 14 104 --- --- --- 4.56 .979

M Scutaro* TOR SS
56 53 472.1 241 71 165 5 30 --- --- --- 4.50 .979

B Harris* MIN SS
55 51 464.1 249 84 159 6 42 --- --- --- 4.71 .976

M Aviles* KC SS
91 89 747.2 389 141 238 10 65 --- --- --- 4.56 .974


But the statistic that’s really telling is his Range Factor. Punto’s tops out at 4.92 in 2008, which is higher than any shortstop in the league that played at least 50 games. The all-time record for a shortstop is 6.73. And Punto’s RF is consistently high, though it’s a little more difficult to parse across his career as he played many different positions. (RFs at third base are generally lower.)
His fielding ability is undeniable. That brings a lot to the game. Punto may not being knocking runs in, but he sure does prevent them. And it’s the way in which he does that which is most impressive. This brings me to the vague land of intangibles.


The Intangibles

His style of play is persistent, smart, and swift. And it’s his tempo that most impresses me, and this style of play rubs off. If he beats out a one-hopper with a headfirst slide, the crowd goes nuts and gives that much more energy to the rest of the team. So far, it’s been working.

In this respect, Punto’s a good stand-in for what Twins ball really means. He is small ball. (He’s 5’9 or so.) And small ball is the Twins trademark. Let’s be honest, we’re not the Mets or the Yankees or even the White Sox (thank God). We should admit it: We’re David and everybody else is Goliath. There’s nobody better than Punto to carry that banner.