Joe Mauer's Summer of Dreams - MLN SportsZone.com - A Minor League Sports News Magazine

Joe Mauer's Summer of Dreams
Will 2004 be the year that Joe Mauer, who traded in a career in football for a ringside seat and a glove at home plate, to take his place in Twins history? The scouts Magic 8® ball says "It is certain."

Will Kimmey
Minor League News

A lot of college-aged kids fire up their video game system to be armchair virtual quarterbacks in college football games. When you think about sports gamer fanatics, Joe Mauer, 20, may be the exception to the rule.

He plays Minnesota because he’s from St. Paul. He plays Notre Dame because one of his best friends is a tailback for the fighting Irish. He plays Florida State because the lure of major league baseball was all that kept him from really being their quarterback.

“Who knows what could have happened if I went there?” Mauer wonders aloud. “I’m kind of happy things have worked out like they have.”

Mauer was the Gatorade High School Football Player of the Year in 2000, the fall of his senior year at Cretin-Derham Hall High School.

A quarterback, he chose Florida State after a hot recruiting battle. He liked Bobby Bowden, the school’s offense and the recommendation of former QB Chris Weinke, another Cretin-Derham alumnus.

His hometown Minnesota Twins drafted the catcher first overall back in 2001. Cubs all-star Mark Prior was the draft’s second pick.

Wondering about the Twins’ choices? They aren’t. Mauer hit .339 in 2003, leading all minor league catchers in batting average. He threw out more than 50 percent of base stealers while leading his pitching staff to 18 straight quality starts at one point.

Numbers like that only helped to justify the Twins’ selection three drafts ago. They didn’t have much hope for Prior anyway: He wanted a larger signing bonus than the small market Twins could afford. Many thought they settled on Mauer, the hometown kid who signed for a franchise-record $5.15 million bonus.

The Twins are now so confident in his abilities that, in November, they traded all-star catcher A.J. Pierzynski to the Giants for Joe Nathan, a major league reliever, and pitching prospects Boof Bonser and Francisco Liriano.

“He doesn’t have to improve any of his tools or skills to jump in an impact the game at the major league level,” Twins scouting director Mike Radcliff says. “He’s not a normal prospect. Improvement is a different word with a guy like that. He’s good enough with his present abilities. He fits into a category with (Cubs righthander Mark) Prior and guys like that who make an impact as soon as they get there.”

Mauer’s impact was immediate in 2003. He began the season with high Class A Fort Myers, leading the team to a first-half title and franchise record for victories in a half in the Florida State League. That earned him a promotion to a Double-A New Britain team that was 12 games under .500 when he showed up.

When Mauer, along with pitchers J.D. Durbin and Jim Abbott, arrived in New Britain the impact was immediate, sparking a five-game winning streak that begat other spurts of 15 wins in 18 games, a streak that went 11 of 13 and another run of nine in a row. The RockCats went 48-31 the rest of the way to earn a playoff berth.

Former Twins manager Tom Kelly, who now works with the organization as a roving instructor, called RockCats skipper Stan Cliburn and said, “Hey Stan, you just got smarter.”

Kelly was right.

“It’s unbelievable,” Cliburn said. “You don’t like to give the credit to one man, but he deserves the credit. They built around him [They won] just because of his presence behind the plate giving them the confidence that was missing."

Cliburn checks himself, remembering that the mound is not entirely cooled off from Rob Bowen’s minor league stint: “Not taking anything away from Rob Bowen. Rob Bowen is a major leaguer now. Joe just found a way to get it out of them.”
“At 20 years old, what he’s doing… There is something special. And he’s going to do it for a long time where ever he goes.”

There aren’t many questions from the Twins staff about how Mauer will perform when he heads home to begin the 2004 season as Minnesota’s catcher.

Mauer himself is not taking it for granted that he’ll be the team’s everyday catcher. Front office personnel maintain he’ll have to win that job in spring training. For all intents and purposes, Mauer’s got it locked up.

“I’m real excited, I know that,” he says. “I think I’m ready. I definitely welcome the challenge; I’m not going to say no I’m not ready.”

Scouts won’t question his readiness, or abilities to hit, to manage a pitching staff, to develop into a leader, to throw out baserunners.

Mauer was named the best player on USA Baseball’s team of prospects that took a tough-luck loss at the Americas Olympic qualifier in Panama, an honor in spite of the U.S. failing to qualify for Greece next summer.

Managers in both the Florida State and Eastern leagues named him their circuit’s best prospect last season. Baseball America named Mauer their Minor League Player of the Year.

Amid all the kind words and accolades, there’s only one knock on Mauer: He’s light in the homerun box.. Ask any scout, front office executive or baseball talent evaluator and the refrain’s the same: The power’s in there. It’s the last thing to come with young hitters.

The Twins don’t want him to get too pull-conscious yet. He’s been through their power conditioning drills in instructional league, where they teach players how to get backspin, and more carry on balls.

“The home runs will come I think,” Mauer says. I’m still learning what pitches to turn on and drive out of the park.”

Ah, the park.

Playing in the Metrodome for a kid from the twin cities, has special significance. He has been to the Metrodome before. He played there in high school and took batting practice there with the team after he signed his pro contract. Yet his strongest memory of the Dome remains a time that he didn’t even get in the door.

During the 1991 World Series, during which the Twins rallied from a three games to two deficit to defeat the Braves in seven games,

Mauer’s aunt and uncle owned four tickets to Game Six—the one in which Joe’s hero, Kirby Puckett, robbed a home run and then hit a walk-one shot in the 11th.

“They had four tickets,” says Mauer, who was seven or eight at the time. “Two for them and two for my parents, but they couldn’t go because they had to watch the kids. That was me. [My brothers,] Jake and Bill, got to go to the game, and I got to watch it at home. I missed the first couple innings because I was pouting. I’m still kind of bitter about that. They got to go to Game Six, and I had to watch it at home. That sucked.”

These days, Mauer says he’d just as soon watch a game on TV, but that memory still lingers, in part, possibly, because his brothers often remind him of the event. Joe figures his best revenge will be beating them both back home, to put on that Twins uniform and squat down behind the plate in the Metrodome.

“That’s been the plan,” he says, “to make it up there. I’ve got a lot of family and friends that want to see me play. I kind of put more pressure on myself than others. It’s always been a dream of mine to play in the major leagues, and to play at home would be pretty special.”

If Mauer’s spring goes as predicted, 2004 will be his summer of dreams.