It all started like this. Aaron writes a fabulous baseball blog. He slices and dices major league players, and sometimes minor league coverage of major leaguers by the fifth estate. He rates prospects. And he loves Joe Mauer, not in a Jessica Alba kind of way, but just the same. And me, I'm a casual observer of baseball, with a special interest in the Jay minor league system.

So, we have an e-mail discussion in 2003 about catchers, the usual stuff, who is better and whom, can a 6'4" catcher avoid injury.... Aaron likes Joe Mauer and Jeff Mathis. I like Guillermo Quiroz and Dioner Navarro. I propose a bet and Aaron accepts. The bet is: who will have the most runs created during the period 2005-2008, Mauer and Mathis or Quiroz and Navarro?

We'll be following our bet next year, but now seems like a good time to see how they're doing. Remember 2004 does not count for our bet (phew!).


Joe Mauer, Minnesota Twins

.308/.369/.570, 22 runs created


Jeff Mathis-AA Arkansas Travelers

.235/.321/.411


Guillermo Quiroz-AAA Syracuse Sky Chiefs

.228/.319/.411

Dioner Navarro-AA Trenton Thunder

.271/.354/.369

Navarro was recently promoted to Triple A Columbus, where he's hitting .263/.318/.381 in 129 plate appearances.

After great years last year, all four catchers have not produced quite what we had hoped. Joe Mauer has been great when he has been in the lineup. If he can stay healthy, he has a good chance to be one of the top 5 players in the game in 3-4 years. Quiroz has battled injury. Navarro and Mathis have taken a step backward, perhaps due to small injuries as well. Watching a catcher develop can be a painful process. Our bet has started out as if it was meant to bring this point home.