IF Mauer stays at C, he should definitely be more valuable than Wright but since there is a very good chance that he can move to another position, I'd say they are about equal.

i'll address your points in order:

1. i completely agree that mauer has taken a huge step forward but just because hes at a position that is particularly weak right now doesn't mean anything about him, its more of an indictment on catchers today...yes it makes him a more valuable commodity but its not like hes the only great SS in the AL like arod once was, its like i said earlier and you agreed, a catcher just can't approach the overall value of the other position players...especially a player like mauer who already has serious knee concerns at a position where knees are shredded annually against a guy like david wright who has played the most overall innings since he became a major league regular (look it up)...and conversely, just because there are 2 incredible 3B in the NL, it doesn't mean either of them are less valuable or less talented because of the existence of the other one like you're supposing...as for mauer's growth, its like you said, his 2006 #'s tell it all; hes batting for average but not power, how can you explain that without deferring back to projection and speculation? because if you do, you lose since wright no longer has to rely on projection, hes already putting up superstar #'s...bottomline, how can mauer be more valuable than wright, whether hes the top catcher or not, when hes on the field significantly less over the course of his career?
2. the age old cabrera vs. wright debate...i've looked at this here before and you seem to be under the same misconception that many are; that cabrera and wright are @ the same point in their careers when they actually are not...while they were born within a few months of one another, cabrera is actually 1 full season ahead of wright as he reached the majors mid-way through '03 while wright came up mid-way through '04, which is important to take into account for the first 4-5 years of a hitter's career while he is learning the league and developing his swing...so when you say cabrera's #'s have been better every year, you're looking at it all wrong...you have to look at wright's current year compared against cabrera's previous year to accurately compare them...and when you do that, the results are strikingly similar...really look at these numbers and honestly tell me that cabrera is "simply better":

cabrera '04: 603ab .294/.366/.512  33hr/112rbi/68bb/148k  5sb
wright   '05: 575ab .306/.388/.523  27hr/102rbi/72bb/113k  17sb

cabrera '05: 290ab* .345/.398/.585  16hr/48rbi/27bb/56k  1sb
wright   '06: 224ab   .335/.408/.563  10hr/40rbi/28bb/44k  9sb

*those #'s represent cabrera's april-june in '05 since wright's '06 is obviously not yet completed

**defensive #'s obviously cannot be compared as cabrera moved all over but let me point out that to this point in '06, cabrera has 10 errors to wright's 9

so what can we take away from those #'s?

-wright leads in just about every BA, OBP or SLG ratio in every year
-he wins out in every k/bb comparison, an important indicator of a hitter's development
-balances his game with excellent speed which cabrera obviously cannot (or won't) do
-wright even catches cabrera in many of the aggregate #'s (except for k's obviously) even though miguel has higher ab totals in every year
-throw on top that cabrera's D at third looks even worse than wright's so far
-through these 2.5 years, cabrera also had a MUCH stronger lineup as he had delgado protecting him as opposed to wright, who regularly had either victor diaz or kaz matsui backing him up
-oh yeah then theres that whole "lack of effort" issue that cabrera has, stating that he doesn't have to listen to veterans and that he doesn't need bp or infield practice before games...then theres wright who is always the first one at the park and works harder than just about anyone i've ever seen

overall, you CANNOT still think cabrera is "simply better"...and at this point its almost ridiculous to suppose cabrera is even the better player...

3) to expand on wright's defense, his only real problem is sometimes he muffs the easy throws to first inexplicably but he has improved on that front and they only account for about 1/2 of his errors...and he gets so unnecessarily killed by pretty much anyone who doesn't see him on a regular basis for his error total, which is above average...because they only see the "E5" in the boxscore...but watching him every night you see a player who moves laterally quicker than nearly any 3B in baseball and consequently gets to a lot of the "ungettable" balls that require wright to make highlight reel quality efforts just to make the outs and if he can't make those circus plays, its an error...about half the time he makes the plays, explaining for the flat out ridiculous plays you commonly see him making on BBTN like the "over-the-shoulder barehander" last year in san diego which was once-in-a-decade quality or the foul ball where he dove parallel to the ground, ankles deep into the stands and made the catch, making jeter's in the stands catch look like childs play...the other half of the time it just proves to be too difficult but hes tagged with an error that another 3B wouldn't get because he wouldn't have even reached the ball and it would be a hit down the left field line...thats where the other half of his errors come from and for those who actually know that, we know his D should not be criticized for them...and there are no defensive metrics that can fully take that fact into account

your move, either we agree to disagree or you can feel free to keep this crazy thing going...