This has been one busy week. Between finishing up outside projects, hosting friends this weekend and fiscal year responsibilities at work it has left little time for cards. My hope is Saturday to take a couple hours to package up some cards and ship to some of my blog friends. I've purposefully been holding back on some trades as I knew I would be hard pressed for time. Rest assured that I'm stocked and ready to go. Hopefully many of you will be getting something from me very soon!
I found a new Bay!
2007 Finest Jason Bay/Justin Morneau Auto /74
I actually paid more to ship this card than I did for the card itself. For about $6.50 I was able to add a card that for some reason eluded me for around 8 years. I found the numbering on the card to be odd. I'll just assume 74 has some secret Canadian meaning.
Thanks for reading!
Great dual sig of Terrance Bay and Phillip Morneau! I bet Doug will be drooling over this one as soon as he sees it.
ReplyDeleteHa! I should probably feed Doug some of my double Bay's.
DeleteIf the #74 has a secret meaning in Canada, I was never told about it...
ReplyDeleteNice pickup!
We must get to the bottom of this!
DeleteCool card eh. If you ever find out what 74 is aboot let us know.
ReplyDeleteYou see, it only cost me 6 greenbacks eh
DeleteMaybe 74 is the number of intact signed stickers they got back from Morneau and Bay...
ReplyDeleteI'm nostalgic for the good old days when Mauer and Morneau used to hit back to back in the Twins' lineup.
I just remember that 2009 season where Mauer was impossible to get out.
DeleteHe had Gwynn-like bat control plus home run power- it was pretty special to watch.
DeleteThen his brain got scrambled (not unlike Morneau) a couple times, and his timing has been off and his power is all but gone since then. There are still flashes of his old self here and there, so there's hope he can regain his mojo, but it doesn't look good.
The thing is he is still a pretty good player, but no longer that hall of fame type of talent. Plus that contract is pretty rough as it was paying as if he were a hall of fame talent.
DeleteThe contract, in my opinion, is a non-issue. He earned that money for the Twins in those seasons leading up to it when he was making the league minimum (or close to it) and winning batting titles. If it was a free agent contract (like Pujols, for instance), it might sting a bit more to pay a guy for being successful on a different team. The thing is that Mauer's contract doesn't prevent the Twins from signing other players, so it shouldn't really be considered a "bad" contract in the way that a lot of other long high $ contracts are viewed. Nolasco's contract is much worse. Pelfrey's contract was terrible up until this year.
DeleteI see Mauer's compensation as fair payment for work already provided.
I guess that is a larger issue in general. Usually big extensions pay in terms of what the player did in the past rather than what he will do in the future. That is why you see so many small market teams try to sign guys early and lock up the arbitration years and at least 2 free agent years. This has been very successful for the Pirates as they have both Marte and Cutch locked up.
DeleteMaurer is kind of a special case. The Twins didn't anticipate him getting hurt which seemed to zap his power. Plus having to move him from catcher to first probably hurt his value too. If Mauer was still catching and putting up the numbers he is now he would still be considered top end offensive catcher. Playing first with those numbers makes it rather pedestrian compared to many of the other first baseman in the league.
Like you said, it is a mute point. That contract is a sunk cost. The Nolasco deal is much worse. He is terrible.
The other thing is that the Twins have a big marketing draw with Mauer, even if he's not as good as he used to be. Hometown hero, and all that. When that contract was signed, Mauer was the reigning MVP. I'm not saying that the Twins had no choice, but I can't imagine the Minnesota fans being super excited to see Mauer in Yankee pinstripes or Red Socks. They had already allowed Johan and Torii to go elsewhere... and what else were they going to spend that money on?
DeleteSigning guys early is a great way to go, though the Twins have had mixed results with that strategy, too (Nick Blackburn, Joe Mays for instance) . I expect they will try to start extending Buxton and Sano as soon as they make their debuts.
The Pirates ended up getting hurt by Jose Tabata when they signed him too early. He is still with the team, but has minimal impact as a fifth outfielder and pinch hitter. So each way does have its own risk.
DeleteI forgot about Mauer being from that area. That plays a huge part as well.
The Pirates will have an interesting test once McCutchen's current contract is up in 2019. By that time he will be at the tail end of his prime.
You might be pleasantly surprised (or amused) by how many Twins fans wanted to trade for Tabata - he probably would have been the regular left fielder last year and/or this year. More amusing to me is that the player most likely for the Twins to trade away in those message board rants was lefty reliever Brian Duensing... I'm sure Pirates fans have a favorite player to throw in to any proposed trade.
DeleteI think most people finally accepted that Tabata has no trade value. The new guys are probably Pedro Alvarez and Jeff Locke.
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