Joe Mauer is the face of the Minnesota Twins. The primitive rock is a local hero and still uses the same approach even after many years in the MLB. SPOX introduces the famous team mate of Max Kepler and ventures a look into the future.
On Sunday you can watch the home game of the Minnesota Twins against the Tampa Bay Rays live from 8.10 pm. SPOX shows the game in LIVESTREAM FOR FREE.
The story of the Minnesota Twins and their franchise face Joe Mauer began in 2001 like in a fairy tale. The star of the Cretin-Derham Hall High School in St. Paul/Minnesota was drawn as the first pick altogether in the draft. Three years later he made his debut and quickly became the star catcher – of the entire league.
Meanwhile Mauer denies the last year of his eight-year contract, which earned him the record Twins sum of 184 million dollars. What happens after that is uncertain. It is also unclear whether Mauer will actually stay until the end of the season – out of respect for the player’s performance for the franchise…
Long-time observers of the scene and confirmed Twins fans anyway will remember Mauer’s great time with joy. Three times he won the Gold Glove Award for Best Catcher of the American League, five times the Silver Slugger for Best Offensive Catcher. They lost three batting titles and in 2009 they even voted him MVP.
2009, however, also represented a kind of turning point in Mauer’s career. He hit 28 home runs (Career High) and had a 1,031 OPS (171 OPS+). Numbers that he never got anywhere near again.
One reason for this was the fact that 2009 represented the last season in the venerable – and meanwhile demolished – Hubert H. Humphrey Metrodome. 2010 opened Target Field. If one looks at the figures of Mauer in comparison, one recognizes a clear drop in performance between the old and new ball park in all important offensive statistics.
With its inviting right field, the Metrodome was much easier for left-handed players to act than the new, larger ball park. In trivial terms: For home runs in this direction, you only had to hit the ball fairly high against the wall. In the target field, however, the distance to the wall is greater and the home run line is even higher.
Another reason, of course, was Mauer’s health. 2013 was his last year behind the record, from then on the Twins only used him as First Baseman and Designated Hitter. The reason was to protect him from himself. Ongoing knee problems, back problems and, last but not least, the consequences of numerous concussions led the Twins to relieve their star and order him to a less prized position.
2013 was also the last year in which Mauer had an on-base percentage of over.400, since then it has usually been well below this level. Also his average stroke – in his career with a strong.307 – was only over.300 since then!
What has remained is its clear tendency on the plate. Mauer has always been a single hitter. Only 582 of his 2049 career hits went to Extra-Bases. Even only 139 were home runs. Mauer has always stood for strong defense and the ability to constantly get on base. These abilities earned him six All-Star nominations – his last one, however, came as little surprise in 2013.
Mauer has always remained true to itself. “He has not been influenced by the new era of baseball. And I think that’s really good, because he knows what works for him and he’s always stuck to it,” Second Baseman Brian Dozier, his own Free Agent at the end of the year, told Sporting News.
Dozier alluded to today’s generation’s tendency to deal with things like Exit Velocity and Hit Angle and change their swings for more home runs, usually at the expense of the punch average and more outs.
“He’s not one to step on the plate and then every time all he does is hack. His approach is to let pitcher work, taking many first pitches, sometimes second pitches, to get a better understanding of what the pitcher is trying to do. This is Joe. It’s always been Joe,” continued Dozier.
In this respect, when they signed the contract in March 2010, the Twins knew who they were getting involved with. “Justin Morneau, a former Mauers team-mate in Minnesota, recalls: “His knowledge of the strike zone is one of the best in baseball.”
He in turn continues to apply this knowledge to his advantage: Mauer’s production may have generally declined, but he is still a master of the strike zone. This can be seen from the statistics Walk-quota, Strikeout-quota and the ratio Walks per Strikeouts.
All these values are close to the career average. Mauer truly stands for great consistency. And he continues to be quite competent on base.
An insight that might even make him interesting for other teams this year. The Twins are far away from good and evil in mid-July and will most likely miss the playoffs. And Wall’s contract expires.
Mauer himself had announced before the season that he wanted to play as long as he could be productive. At 35, that doesn’t have to be the case for too long. And even if he himself does not officially waste any thoughts on a club change – especially since he has a full No-Trade clause – the Twins are aware of their sporting situation and the importance of Mauer for their franchise.
And that alone is why they would not put any obstacles in the way of their franchise legend – number 7 will certainly no longer carry anyone to Mauer in Minnesota – should a title aspirant knock. “Ideally, we would give him a chance to play the playoffs,” said Thad Levine, general manager of the Twins. “But knowing his devotion to society – but also his will to win – we would allow him to make all these decisions himself instead of deciding anything in advance for him and his family.”
Whether Mauer would then actually be interested in a trade and departure is the big question. But the thirst for success, especially in the playoffs, should still be there. After all, Mauer has not yet won a playoff game. He competed ten times, ten times he and his colleagues left the field as losers. There were three sweeps in three ALDS series – two against the Yankees, one against Oakland, and last year they lost the wildcard game in New York.
Given his age and health – early this season Mauer missed another three weeks with a concussion after an actually harmless play on first base – the window for Mauer is not long open. If he wants to make the big hit again and play for a World Series, then maybe all that remains is a change.
Or the boy from St. Paul makes a loop around his great career and ends it where it began. He’s already a legend there anyway.
This article was published without previous view by the Major League Baseball.