Mauer flourishes with Twins

[Lynch]

By DAVE CAMPBELL, AP Sports Writer
June 12, 2006



MINNEAPOLIS (AP) -- Joe Mauer is leading the majors in hitting, and makes it sound all so simple.

Patience.

The 23-year-old catcher for the Minnesota Twins with the smooth left-handed swing is hitting .386 in just his second full season.

"I've played with Joe a long time, and I've never seen him hit like this," outfielder Jason Kubel said. "I've never seen anyone hit like this."

Mauer, honored as the AL's Player of the Week on Monday, is a fixture in the No. 3 spot in the Twins' lineup. He has hit in 19 of his last 20 games and is batting .506 with 18 runs, three homers, 13 RBIs and 11 walks during that span. He has struck out only once in June, and he reached base four times in five straight games.

"He seems to be on just about anything they throw up there," manager Ron Gardenhire said.

From the day he was chosen with the first pick in the 2001 draft, Mauer has been praised for his maturity and poise. After a knee injury limited him to 35 games his rookie year, Mauer hit .294 with nine homers, 55 RBIs and 13 steals last season. This season he elevated his game.

"Just trying to be patient," Mauer said in his soft, shrug-it-off tone. "Just trying to get something I want to hit, instead of the pitcher's pitch."

A multisport standout in high school in St. Paul, less than 8 miles from the Metrodome, Mauer caught Minnesota's eye long before the draft. The Twins also were highly interested in Mark Prior, a right-hander from the University of Southern California who went No. 2 to the Chicago Cubs. The debate over whom to take was intense.

Mauer's signing bonus was $5.15 million and Prior's was $10.5 million. College pitchers always command more money because they're much closer to being big-league ready.

"We were going to sign Prior. That's the one misconception," scouting director Mike Radcliff said.

The Twins at the time were one of baseball's targets in the failed plan to get an economic boost by eliminating two franchises.

"Mauer wanted to be here," Radcliff said. "He was ready, willing and able. The other guy had no interest. Would he have signed at the end? Yeah, because of the money we were offering him.

"It was a bad situation. We didn't even know if we were going to be around. ... You couldn't blame him for balking and not being that interested."

Mauer wasn't a consolation prize, though. Minnesota was more than satisfied with a position player projected to be a middle-of-the-order hitter with a strong arm and excellent defensive skills.

"It's rare for our kind of market to get a premium anything," Radcliff said.

"The only way you're going to get that is through the draft."

Last week was the five-year anniversary of this decision. Mauer was having the road trip of his life, and Prior was still stuck on the disabled list -- where he's been all season and for a time in each of the past four. Prior has been superb when healthy, so the Twins can't exactly gloat. But Mauer's performance is an obvious source of pride for the scouting department.

"You're never quite sure," Radcliff said. "They're no-brainers in the scouting world, but in the real world you never know. You've seen the skeletons when they hit the bone pile and don't make it."

Mauer has little chance to be voted into the All-Star game, but he's a strong candidate to be selected as a reserve. If he stays hot, he'll also have the chance to become the first catcher in more than 60 years to win a batting title. Ernie Lombardi did that in 1942 with the Boston Braves.

The wear and tear from crouching behind the plate, absorbing foul tips and scrambling after wild pitches can slow a catcher as the season progresses. But if Mauer can maintain his average, it wouldn't surprise his teammates. "Even his outs are hard-hit balls," Kubel said. "It makes me want to do the same thing."

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[Lynch]

It's been damn tough not saying much about Mauer through his rise in the batting races this year. I've tried to keep pretty quiet about it as I'm superstitious as anyone when it comes to baseball.

I'll say this (for now).... I'm enjoying the hell out of it.


As for not taking Prior, I'll be the first to admit that I absolutely hated the Twins for not taking Prior. And in some ways, it's tough to swallow that still as Prior is dominant as hell .. when he's healthy. That's the problem though. Dude can't stay healthy.

If Prior falls by the wayside and Mauer continues his surge at the plate, it'll make the Twins scouting department look like rocket scientists when they really weren't. Mauer was a known quanity around town here in Mpls. Dude could cover the plate both when batting and when catching. He was a hitting machine. We knew that. We weren't the only ones that knew it either. It was still a homer pick and I'll stick with that forever. Hopefully the homer pick works out. As of right now, it looks like it.

Unfortunately, he may never be the catcher we were hoping for, thanks to that injury he stustained right after being called up.

We'll see how it goes. As of right now, Joe has been one of the few bright spots on this club.