Mauer’s health may be good, but is that a good thing for the Twins? And doesn’t he have an iPhone?
After a far-too-long hiatus* from posting things here, I’ve got an update about Mauer and his health here that I’d like to talk about briefly.
“He’s doing very well,” Smith said. “We’ve gotten all good reports. I think he’s pleased and looking forward to a fairly normal offseason and normal preparation for spring training.”
Mauer apparently was in Baltimore to see a doctor for an examination — why do so many of the Twins’ players seem to see doctors in Baltimore? Can’t they go to local doctors, or the Mayo clinic? — and the doctors gave him a clean bill of health. Great, right?
* I’ve had a lot of work-related work to do over the last few months. We just hit our deadline, though, so I’ll hopefully have time to get back to Twins stuff for much of the offseason.
Well, I think we’ve all made the joke that Mauer’s (lack of) preparation for the 2009 season may have led to his offensive explosion; he wasn’t tired from working out all winter, and that extra energy may have been converted into fly balls to left carrying an extra 8 feet or so. Impossible to say, really, but Mauer’s power output declined as the season progressed and dwindled back to normal levels by the time September rolled around.
A “normal” offseason of weight training and expending his apparently-much-needed energy may well be the last thing the Twins want. Unless, of course, they want to wait a year to extend his contract and are hoping he doesn’t have another career year, driving his price tag way up.* I hope that’s not what they’re thinking, because that’s exactly what they did with Morneau a few years back, and waiting a year added probably $30M to his price tag.
* Also, I seriously doubt that the Yankees and Red Sox will sour on Mauer if he has another “pedestrian” Mauer-year, dropping to something like .290/.380/.420 like he did in 2005 and 2007 … it’s worth pointing out that that still makes him the best offensive catcher in the game, and also that those teams are too smart to make a long-term judgement about a player based on a small sample. His value isn’t going to go down no matter what he does in 2010, short of a career-threatening injury which I’m certain the Twins aren’t hoping for, and can only go up. If he wins the Modern Triple Crown again and manages to top 30 HR and 100 RBI, and the Twins don’t have him under contract, we can kiss him good bye.
Joe C got Mauer’s input on the health update:
Mauer confirmed via text, writing, “Things r looking good.”
And I have exactly one thing to say about that: Is it even remotely possible that Joe Mauer doesn’t have an iPhone? It’s time to give up that old-school text-spelling, Joe.
Oh, and speaking of Mauer’s contract, his agent is in Baltimore too, and they’re expected to discuss his next deal. So in case you didn’t have anything to worry about right now, at least there’s this.
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I can see Mauer having one of those really crappy go-phones and getting really confused and staring at it for a long time when he gets a call or text. Much like an old person.
My guess is that that’s why old-timey baseball people like him so much.
Why, old Joe there can’t even use one of those newfangled celllear* phones! What a man! A man’s man, just like back in the good old days when men were men and you went home to make a phone call.
Et cetera.
* See what I did there? It’s like when people say “nucular,” except literally the exact opposite. I’m proud of that.
But I agree. I can totally see him not only using crappy prepaid phones, but also losing them frequently. It’s probably why he found it too difficult to tweet and quickly abandoned his Twitter account.
Hey, lay off him. those iPhones are expensive.
Yeah, we need to get him a bigger contract, so he can afford it.