The Army We Have Part IV: the Catchers

This is the final installment in this series, since I've already covered the starting rotation, the infield, the outfield, and the bullpen.  The Twins are very lucky in that they have a lot of depth at catcher.  Most baseball teams struggle to find one decent backstop and the Twins have three:  an All-Star in Joe Mauer, a very good backup in Mike Redmond, and a top prospect in Wilson Ramos.  Here is a look at all three:

• Joe Mauer:  Mauer obviously handles most of the catching duties for the Twins.  I have already written about Mauer and how remarkable he is here.  Last season he won his second batting title, and if he's healthy will probably be contending for a third.  And I do think he'll be healthy this year even though he had minor kidney surgery during the offseason. His doctors recently cleared him to resume running and lifting, so he might not be in game shape just yet but should be ready by Opening Day.

According to this article on the Twins' homepage, owner Jim Pohlad is willing to pony up the cash to sign Mauer to a contract extension.   While this is good news in a way, I'm not sure about Pohlad's reasoning behind this decision.  Apparently he is willing to give Mauer a legacy contract, meaning he would shell out big bucks for a guy simply because he's a fan favorite and a Minnesota native.  It's no secret that I adore Joe, but he's going to command a deal somewhere in the ten-year, $150 million range.  That is a large chunk of payroll to devote to one player simply because the fans like him.  I would like to see the Twins keep Joe, but only if they don't think his health will be an issue.  Mauer is athletic enough to move to third if he has to, but a third baseman who hits .328/.413/.451 with a mere 7 home runs certainly isn't worth $150 million.
  

• Mike Redmond: Red Dog is the other half of the Twins' amazing backstop duo.  He pretty much only sees any playing time when Gardy decides to give Mauer the day off, and that makes his offensive production even more incredible. Redmond batted .287/.321/.333 in 129 plate appearances last year, and is a career .292/.348/.365 hitter. He's no slouch defensively either, and did a great job helping to handle the young pitching staff last year.  Red Dog is in the final year of his contract with the Twins, and whether or not he'll re-sign with the team is unclear at this point.  Since he will be 38 this year he might decide to retire once the season is over.  Considering that he always gets clunked in the head with either a bat or a foul ball whenever he starts, I wouldn't blame him one bit.  
  

 

• Wilson Ramos:  Wilson Ramos is the heir apparent to the backstop throne should the Twins decide that Joe Mauer is expendable.   Ramos is currently a top prospect for the Twins' FSL affiliate, the Ft. Myers Miracle, and is slated to start the season in AA New Britain.  He batted .288/.346/.434 with 13 homers for the Miracle last season, which is very respectable when you consider that the entire Florida State League only hit .256/.329/.376.  More recently, he played a crucial role in Venezuela's Caribbean Series championship, where he batted .385 and drew four walks, reaching base four times during the clinching game against Mexico last Friday.  Baseball America currently has Ramos as the third-ranked prospect in the Twins' farm system, and it will be very interesting to see how he develops in the next few seasons. No doubt the front office will be keeping a very close eye on him to determine if they can get by without Mauer after all (and save themselves several hundreds of millions in guaranteed money over the next ten years).

So that's the entire projected roster for the 2009 season.  It looks exactly like the 2008 roster, only without the dead weight known as Mike Lamb and Adam Everett.  I think the Twins will win at least 85 games this year since Cuddyer should be healthy and most of the young talent should show improvement offensively.  Whether or not this will be good enough to win the division remains to be seen. 

PS: I know it's Valentine's Day, but I don't care.  I don't celebrate holidays invented by marketers to get you to buy things.   It does, however, give me an excuse to post a Lemonheads video:



Oh, what the heck. Here's Pete Townsend and Eddie Vedder singing "Heart to Hang Onto", too.  Happy Valentine's Day everybody!