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Baseball quite literally is not making ballplayers like Joe Mauer anymore. In fact, he’s potentially the last of a bygone era, during which striking out was still frowned upon by coaches and downright despised by some players. Joe Mauer hates striking out — so much so he struck out just once in high school. Even as Major League Baseball evolved into a game with more pitchers throwing harder and nastier pitches than ever before, Mauer refused to change his approach and was good enough to not only get away with it, but force defenses to adjust to him just as Barry Bonds before him. Mauer received one of the most extreme defensive outfield shifts in baseball, and he got his hits despite it. Of the top 21 seasons in overall strikeouts in MLB history, Mauer played in 15. He struck out more than 100 times just once, and his OPS+ was under 100 in just two seasons of his career. But some still think Mauer was overpaid given the expectancy for him to catch full-time. Addressing Mauer’s Haters Mauer, a soft-spoken, Minnesota-nice guy, has his share of haters who think he should have cowboyed up and got behind the plate to earn his $23 million every year despite a concussion issue that not only threatened his career but his life off the field. An issue that reappeared this season upon a dive for a ball at first base and might be responsible for Mauer’s indecision regarding his playing future. Mauer’s haters should know over the course of his career, the Twins paid Joe just $374,856.42 more per win above a replacement player than the Marlins and Tigers paid Cabrera, and the Tigers still owe him at least $154 million. The Twins paid just $728,825.30 more per win above a replacement player than the Cardinals and Angels have paid Pujols, who’s still owed $87 million. If you average the WAR of both Cabrera and Pujols over their last seven years across the remaining years of their contracts, their cost per win above a replacement player balloons to $381,619.65 and $80,136.39 more per WAR than Joe, respectively. Not being overpaid relative to his fellow first basemen won’t make Mauer a first-ballot Hall of Famer like Pujols and Cabrera, but it doesn’t hurt. The Hall of Fame Question Most will say Mauer’s six All-Star appearances and 2,123 hits aren’t enough. Most will say he never won a playoff series. Most will say his 55.1 career Wins Above Replacement (WAR) isn’t even as good as another former Twin (David Ortiz, 55.3) despite it being top-100 all time amongst Hall of Fame position players and 151st all time in MLB history, according to Baseball Reference. Mauer’s integrity and humility are Hall-of-Fame caliber, however. Unlike Ortiz, who failed a 2003 performance-enhancing drug test, Mauer’s legacy is unquestioned and untarnished. Although Mauer only played in the post-steroid era of Major League Baseball (the drug policy as we know it was first implemented and enforced in 2004), he’s someone who might have benefited from steroids and had an “opportunity” to use them after sustaining a knee injury in his rookie season. At 21, Joe knew better, and at 28, when his body struggled recovering from surgery and then fell ill with pneumonia, Mauer probably never even considered using steroids. Mauer came back in 2012 to lead the league in on-base percentage (OBP), beating his 2011 OBP by 56 points (.420). His .351 OBP in 2018 is the worst of his career and was still the 50th-best in baseball and 10 percent better than the MLB average (.318). He was top-10 in league OBP and batting average seven times and top-10 in Adjusted OPS+ six times in his career. Mauer’s .3063 career batting average is, ironically, identical to his Hall of Fame manager’s, good for 138th-best all time. But Paul Molitor has 1,196 more hits than Joe. Regardless, Mauer’s career batting average is sandwiched between Hall of Famers Ernie Lombardi and George Kell, and is better than that of the next-best hitting catcher of his era, Buster Posey (.306). Mauer’s the only catcher ever to win three batting titles, too. But what makes Hall of Famers is their relative dominance of their respective eras. Barry Bonds didn’t have to beat Babe Ruth in career home runs; he just needed to dominate his era like Ruth his. Mauer is a Hall of Famer given his place amongst his peers. When compared to his peers, from 2004 to 2018, Mauer’s batting average ranks ninth, between Mike Trout and Buster Posey. His OBP is twelfth, between Hall of Famer Chipper Jones and Bryce Harper. His Weighted Runs Created (WRC) is tenth, whereas Posey ranks 94th. On an All-MLB 2004–18 Team, Mauer would clearly be the catcher, and he’s probably the fourth-best first baseman of his generation, behind Miguel Cabrera, Albert Pujols, and Joey Votto — all first-ballot Hall of Famers. Mauer’s numbers aren’t first-ballot-Hall-of-Fame worthy, but the way he represented the game of baseball and himself on and off the field is worthy of first-ballot consideration, which he’ll receive. Joe might even be a victim of the Hall of Fame shrinking the length of time players stay on the ballot from 15 years to 10. Mauer won’t be eligible for induction until 2023 at the earliest, but judging from the lack of retirees expected this season, he could benefit from a lack of competition. We don’t know if this is Adrian Beltre’s final season, and if it isn’t, Mauer could be sharing the ballot with holdovers from previous years, not including Bonds or Roger Clemens, who will fall off the ballot in three years. Even if Joe isn’t voted into the MLB Hall of Fame by the Baseball Writers’ Association of America, he will most certainly get support from the Hall of Fame’s Veterans Committee. One way or another, Joe Mauer is a Hall of Fame player. Personally, I’d like to see if he’s a Hall of Fame manager.

As many lists of the top prospects from each team start to trickle out, it is looking more and more that Miguel Sano is the consensus number one prospect from the Twins organization. The young star from the Dominican Republic had an outstanding season for the Elizabethton Twins. He has begun to show some of the great promise the Twins saw in him when they signed him at age 16 to a $3.15 million signing bonus.At the time of Sano signing with the Twins, there were many questions swirling about his true age. In 2009, MLB completed an investigation into this issue but the results were inconclusive. Because of the age issues, Sano lowered his asking price to sign and some teams were still scared away by his high price tag. The Twins were the team to pull the trigger and they gave him the second highest signing bonus in team history behind Joe Mauer’s $5.15 million bonus in 2001. During this offseason, Albert Pujols, the best player to ever come out of the Dominican Republic, received a 10-year $240 million contract with the Angels. There are plenty of reports about teams that were questioning the age of Pujols when it came to contract negotiations. One national writer even suggested that Pujols should produce his birth certificate because of skepticism around his claim to be 31. This still didn't stop the Angels from investing in the best right-handed hitter of the current generation. The latest age related scandal to come out of the Dominican Republic has surfaced within the last week. Roberto Hernandez Heredia, the Cleveland Indians pitcher known as Fausto Carmona, was arrested for using a false identity to play baseball in the U.S. From the perspective of the Indians, one of the biggest issues, besides Heredia having trouble getting to the US, is the three-year age difference between Carmona's birth certificate and his true age. A 28-year old pitcher with a chance to turn it around is a completely different story when compared to a 31-year old player who might have already passed his prime. For players from the Dominican, there is plenty of pressure to find some way to lie about their age to escape the poverty they are subject to for all of their lives in their home country. According to Sports Illustrated on average, a 16-year old player brings in about $65,000 with their signing bonus. Add two years to their age and an 18-year old signs for an average of $20,000. That is a big difference in a country where the per capita income is only $8,900. A player who shows any sign of promise is going to try and "adjust" their age to put their family in a better place for the future. Major League Baseball and the MLB Players Association are working with their international baseball committee to find a way to solve this crisis with players from Latin America. They continue to stress with these players about the fact that the big money for any player is when they get to the major league level. A big signing bonus will look good at first but the goal should be to make it to the big league level and succeed there to get a big contract. Obviously, only a small portion of these signees are going to make it all the way to the majors so the temptation is still going to be there to change their age. For all other players trying to fudge the numbers on their birth certificate, the case around Roberto Hernandez Heredia (a.k.a. Fausto Carmona) could be a benchmark for the consequences they have the potential to face. If the Dominican Republic imposes a harsh penalty on Heredia, other prospects might be scared away from altering their identity in the future. The United States could also make it very tough for Heredia to enter the States in the future. As ridiculous as it seems for a baseball player to be considered a terrorist, the use of an illegal identity to gain entrance to the US could be seen as an act of terrorism. For the Twins and Sano, he was reported as a 16-year old out of the Dominican Republic when he signed in 2009. This past season he was listed as an 18-year old and the younger players on the roster of the Elizabethton Twins. His young age is a very intriguing part of his prospect status. If the Twins were suddenly to find out that Sano was three years older than originally advertised, how would this change the future of the number one prospect in the organization? A difference of age by only a couple of years for Sano probably wouldn’t have changed the minor league level he was playing at last season. If he were older, the organization might be forced to rush him through some of the levels of the farm system. There are still some raw parts to his game and the extra time he is going to get in the minor leagues will be a positive for him. If there are any issues with Sano’s age, they shouldn’t impact the Twins until it comes to signing him to a contract extension. This won’t come for many years and not until he has proven himself at the MLB level. In ten years, the Twins could find themselves in a variety of different situations. Sano might not ever pan out in the minor leagues and the possibility is there for him to never make it to the MLB level in a worst-case scenario. With the investment the Twins have made, there is very little chance that he will not get at least a taste of the big leagues. After a few mediocre seasons, the organization could find themselves in a similar situation to the Indians; Sano’s real age could be released and the team might have to think hard about his future. The best situation for Sano and the Twins would be if he were to follow in the footsteps of Pujols and turn into an All-Star caliber player for multiple seasons. To fans of the Twins, it won't matter what age Sano is if he has a career anywhere close to Pujols. The more prying issue could be if he has been using a false identity to illegally enter the US. Losing a star player in the prime of his career because of visa issues would be a crushing blow to any franchise. Sano might be the best player to come through the Twins minor league system since Joe Mauer and the future of the franchise could be tied to his birth certificate. Click here to view the article