I remember in 2001 right before the MLB Draft, I was sitting
at my friend’s house looking up Joe Mauer’s high school statistics online and
completely geeking out. He was hitting over well over .600 in his senior year,
hit 7 home runs in 7 consecutive games (which was a record), only struck out once in high school;
just gaudy numbers. He also played for the Team USA Junior National team from
1998-2000 to add fuel to that fire. Paul
Molitor, his present coach and former 4 time silver slugger award winner even said of his swing in high school as “the best swing
he had ever seen.” He looked to be a remarkable baseball talent and best of all
he was home grown. And the Twins had
the #1 pick.
(Getty Images: Tom Dahlin)
Side Note: I had such a love for Mauer at the time that I
wanted him to play for the Vikings as well.
That’s right. Bo Jackson, where you at? In high school he
played quarterback and was pretty wonderful.
And by wonderful, I mean he was the Gatorade National Player of the
Year, USA Today’s Player of the Year, Reebok/ESPN High School All-American, and
Player of the Year for the U.S. Army All-American Bowl. I was tickled poopless he decided to play in
the MLB knowing the Twins would select him #1 overall.
The rest is now history, but I remember how incredible it
felt when we first drafted him and how uplifting the first 5 years felt as he played
for the Twins. He still had that gusto
of being one of the greats because of his batting and catching prowess so no one really cared much about his lack of
power at the time. He was just so damn good at commanding the plate with his
bat. Any open area on the field was fair
game and he would use all of it like a painter using all of the canvas. He had it.
(USA TODAY Sports: Jesse Johnson)
From the years 2006-2009 reporters and analysts a-like were
all on the small but hopeful boat of Mauer pulling off the golden bar of
hitting over .400. I too was on that boat, sink
or swim.
After all in 2009 which Mauer had 28 homeruns, 30 doubles,
96 RBIs, 1.21 walk/SO ratio, and a .365 AVG it looked as if we were getting to
see the true potential we all dreamed of.
Mauer was 25 and one of the best catchers in the league and was
beginning to get the Hall of Fame talk.
Why wouldn’t he? His future was astoundingly bright. No question that he had a legitimate shot at
.400. Then that boat sprung a leak.
(USA TODAY Sports: Jesse Johnson)
The next 4 years he had 33 homeruns. Not the next year of 2010. 2010-2013
he had a total of 33 homeruns. His “Mauer
Power” completely disappeared. His average dropped to (a still impressive) .314
over those years (.050 drop from the 2009 campaign), but wasn’t what Twins fans
were expecting. He didn’t improve much
on his doubles or triples. He didn’t become
the clutch hitter they wanted. He
averaged an single RBI every 7.61 at bats in that time while hitting in a mix between
the 2-4 spots in the line up. That’s
pretty atrocious for a spot in the lineup that’s purpose is production. He was widely known within the circle of Twins
fans as a fluff AVG hitter, only getting squeak singles and the occasional
double. That boat of people thinking he could hit over .400 is at the bottom of the ocean next to the Titanic. I luckily found a small door frame to float to which I was later saved. Sorry Jack, I did let go.
However, amazingly he has quickly became a champion in a way:
the Double Play Champion. And I know that might be a little much, and his
average at the department isn’t dreadful, but when you drop off immensely at
all your other positive categories that one sticks out a lot more.
The last two years hasn’t changed much and it’s time I said
it loud and proud: Get rid of Joe Mauer.
(Associated Press: Ann Heisenfelt)
I know many people love their hometown boy, but I feel like
after he got his 8 year, 184 million dollar contract, his production has all
but disappeared. It’s as if he almost
settled down and gave up his on passion after he got his contract, which obviously
happens to a lot athletes after they get paid.
I really didn’t want it to happen to Mauer, but it obviously did. No more hard work equals no more production, folks. As of now, all he is just a hometown boy we
are paying 23 million this year. So ask
your self, till 2019 is he worth that much each year?
Pick me! Pick me! I know! I’ll answer the question, teach! No! Hell no!
Unless he starts proving he is worth that much extremely soon, why waste the money for the next coming years on a
player who is about to turn 33 and not showing any signs of his 2009 season? That’s what we paid for. Not $44,401 per at bat for a .265 AVG. Not $191,666 per game with 59.2 at bats per
homerun. Not $5,750,000 per homerun like
last season. Just read those numbers
again. It’s painful. Last year that was 25.79% of the team’s
payroll for 8.4% of the team’s on field performance.
I don’t know how the Twins are going to go about this, but
he needs to be removed from the team, and fast. We
could get a player who has decent potential or even the same stats as Mauer for
a fraction of his price. Sano could play
first as well as Park, Plouffe; anyone else really. I’m just sick of seeing 23 million stuck in a
person who isn’t worth 5 million right now.
Do you have and ideas or thoughts on this subject? Let me
know and we can have a civil discussion on why Joe Mauer is a disease for this
team and why we haven’t used the cure to get rid of it completely is beyond me.
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