Dan Barreiro in, Top Jimmy out

I'm tired of picking on Top Jimmy.  His columns are a little better, and he wrote an excellent piece on Jason Bartlett.  Unless he writes something completely inane, I'll only reference him with positive or neutral pieces for a while.  There's another fish to fry in this town.

Dan Barreiro.  What a tool.

All last year, DB harped on Mauer's lack of RBIs despite the fact that Mauer had excellent numbers with runners in scoring position, he just didn't get many chances (consider who was hitting in front of him).  Now, he's starting a comparison between Joe Mauer's performance and Doug Mientkiewicz's performance this year in an effort, I guess, to make Mauer look bad.  Yesterday, he announced that Mauer has only 5 RBIs to Mientkiewicz's three.  Well, there you have it.  They are about the same player.

Mauer:  .306/.395/.361/.756 (36 AB), with RISP: .250/.500/.375/.875 (8 AB)
Minky:   .222/.275/.306/.581 (36 AB), with RISP: .200/.286/.400/.686 (5 AB)

First of all, these are small sample sizes.  Secondly, I'm pretty sure that any baseball guy would laugh at the idea that Barreiro is promoting -- that there's not much different between a 22 year old catcher with tremendous skills and a washed up first baseman who could never hit enough to justify being played at his position.  Thirdly, using RBIs as his metric shows his ignorance.  As if RBIs are the only way to measure a player's run producing value.  Mauer got no RBIs in the ninth inning on Saturday night, but he played a huge hand in making sure two runs scored.

Oh, he did measure one other metric, runs scored.  Mauer has 6, Minky 5.  Never mind that the guy hitting behind Mauer is hitting .085/.100/.106/.206.

Let's look at last year:

Mauer:  .276 EqA 6.2 WARP 26 Batted Runs above Replacement 30 Fielding Runs Above Replacement
Minky:   .254 EqA 0.9 WARP  8 Batted Runs above Replacement   0 Fielding Runs Above Replacement

And Mauer was 22.  Minky was 31.  No comparison. Mauer had the second highest VORP among AL catchers.  Dougie was last in the NL among first basemen.  No comparison.

Let's compare careers:

Mauer:  .280 EqA 8.4  WARP 36 BRAR 39 FRAR   158 Games, total
Minky:  .261 EqA 17.7 WARP 92 BRAR 67 FRAR   789 Games, total

And Mauer isn't even close to his prime yet.  No comparison.

Let's not forget that Mauer plays a defensive position, the one position that is more physically demanding (other than the strain on the pitcher's arm) than any other player.  He's got a cannon of an arm and he's hitting quite well, and the power will come.  Minky has made a living convincing people that first base is somehow an important defensive position.  It may very well be the least important defensive position on the field.  In other words, a first baseman had better hit.

It's early, but if Mauer can develop some power and stay healthy, he's certainly an All-Star caliber catcher and maybe an outside shot some day at making the Hall of Fame.  And yet, DB continues to denigrate Mauer (and Morneau).  Face it, Dan.  You are completely off-base with this schtick.