Lee on Twitter suggested he would read any letters we published from fans, particularly those with a far-reaching point of view.
We will see if we truly acquire enough material to post more of these. For now, we're going to kick things off with a letter about Joe Mauer. We do this with the knowledge that we are begging people to advance the discussion on Mauer because we're bored with it. We assure you this letter is 100 percent real. We will only tend to the inaccuracies afterwards.
From: [redacted]@aol.com
Subject: Twins and Joe Maurer
Body: How many more rallies will the Twins allow Maurer to kill before they admit he is an average hitter at best (when you consider the content of his hits and number of strikeouts) and well below average with runners in scoring position? His career batting average with runners in scoring position was shown at .179 a couple of weeks ago and it has done nothing but go down since then.
Do the math even with Maurer at his career average his total bases, ( 1 for a single, 2 for a double, etc.), in a season will result in only a handful more, if any, than Brian Dozier hitting .250 with his mix of power hits. Another way to look at it is for the extra 20 million a year Maurer is paid over Dozier you get nothing, maybe less, on offense and far less on defense.
Put Maurer where he deserves to be in the batting order 7, 8, or 9. Have him catch where he might be worth having on the field and, so what, if he goes on the disabled list for his customary 50-70 games a season as we have a far better catcher and hitter in Kurt Suzuki to replace him.
Do this and it would of been worth 8-15 more wins this season.
