MLB Minnesota Twins #7 Joe Mauer | Great Jersey

MLB Minnesota Twins #7 Joe Mauer Profile Joseph Patrick Joe Mauer (born April 19, 1983) is a Major League Baseball catcher for the Minnesota Twins. Joe Mauer is regarded as one of the best defensive and offensive catchers in baseball. He is the only catcher in Major League history to win three batting titles. He has also won three consecutive Gold Glove awards (2008–2010), and the 2009 AL MVP award. Professional career Joe Mauer ultimately turned down a football scholarship from Florida State University to enter the Major League Baseball Draft.Joe Mauer was selected by the Twins as the first overall pick of the 2001 draft, ahead of college pitcher Mark Prior, who was taken second overall by the Chicago Cubs. Joe Mauer was part of the United States’ roster at the 2003 All-Star Futures Game at U.S. Cellular Field before being promoted to the Twins’ roster in 2004 after his predecessor, A. J. Pierzynski, was traded to the San Francisco Giants, in the 2003 offseason. Joe Mauer went 2-for-3 in his Major League debut, hitting a single off Rafael Betancourt of the Cleveland Indians for his first major-league hit. A knee injury to his left medial meniscus on April 7, 2004, required surgery and sidelined Joe Mauer for more than a month. After a rehabilitation stint with the Twins’ AAA affiliate Rochester Red Wings, Joe Mauer returned to the Twins’ lineup in June. In July, pain and swelling in his knee forced an early end to Joe Mauer’s 2004 season. Following his injury-shortened 2004, Joe Mauer signed a contract for 5.7 million with the Twins on January 24, 2005. In 2005, Joe Mauer returned to the Twins’ lineup for his first full major league season and had 144 hits in 131 games, with 9 home runs and 55 RBI. He ended the year with an average of .294. 2006 In his breakout 2006 season, Joe Mauer became the first catcher in major league history to lead the majors in batting average and the first American League catcher to win the batting title, finishing with an average of .347.Joe Mauer’s performance during the months of May and June garnered attention from the national media. He recorded a .528 batting average over the first ten days of June and hit .452 over the course of the month.He was also the first player since Mike Piazza in 1997 to reach base four or more times for five consecutive games.On June 12, Joe Mauer was named the American League Player of the Week by Major League Baseball for his performance the week of June 4 – 11th, during which he hit .625 (15-for-24) with 5 doubles, 4 RBI and 2 stolen bases. Joe Mauer recorded his first five RBI game June 26, against the Los Angeles Dodgers. Joe Mauer followed that up with his first career five-hit game on June 27, also against the Los Angeles Dodgers.He <a href="http://www.nfljerseys-supply.com/"><strong>NHL jerseys supply</strong></a> was also named MLB Player of the Month for June after batting .452 with a .624 slugging percentage and .528 on base percentage, 11 doubles, 14 RBI and 18 runs. Along with Johan Santana (Pitcher of the Month) and Francisco Liriano (Rookie of the Month), Joe Mauer was part of the first-ever single-team sweep of MLB’s three monthly awards. On July 2, Joe Mauer was selected by the players to his first All-Star Game. Joe Mauer appeared on the cover of the August 7, 2006 issue of Sports Illustrated. After going 2-for-4 in the last game of the 2006 regular season, Joe Mauer confessed to reporters, “When I told you I wasn't thinking about the batting title? I was lying. I've never been that nervous in my life. I haven't felt anything like that since Opening Day as a rookie." Joe Mauer won his first Silver Slugger award in 2006, along with teammate Justin Morneau. 2007 On February 11, Joe Mauer agreed <a href="http://www.nfljerseys-supply.com/ "><strong>football jerseys</strong></a> to a four-year, 33 million contract with the Twins to avoid arbitration. The deal ensured that Joe Mauer would remain in Minnesota long enough to play in the Twins’ Target Field in 2010. On July 21, Joe Mauer hit his first career inside-the-park home run against Angels pitcher Scot Shields. It was his fifth home run of the season, and there were two players on base when he hit the homer. It was the first inside-the-park home run by a catcher since Kelly Stinnett did it for the Arizona Diamondbacks in 2005. 2008 In 2008, he became the first American League catcher to win the batting title twice when he led the AL with an average of .328; Joe Mauer also won his first Gold Glove Award. On July 6, Joe Mauer was announced as the starting catcher for the American League in the 2008 Major League Baseball All-Star Game. At the end of the 2008 season, Joe Mauer won the AL batting title with a .328 batting average; it was his second in three years. Joe Mauer underwent surgery for kidney obstruction on December 22. Joe Mauer won his first Gold Glove award in 2008, announced on November 6,He finished fourth in the balloting for American League Most Valuable Player, behind Dustin Pedroia, Justin Morneau, and Kevin Youkilis. 2009 In 2009, he became the first catcher to lead the league in batting average, on base percentage, and slugging percentage in a single year, and the first player to lead the American League in all three since George Brett did so in 1980. Joe Mauer’s .365 average, which is the all-time highest mark among catchers in MLB history, led Major League Baseball. Joe Mauer also won his second consecutive Gold Glove in 2009. Joe Mauer was named the American League’s 2009 MVP by a near-unanimous decision. On March 11, Joe Mauer was diagnosed with inflammation in the sacroiliac joint by team doctors following a magnetic resonance arthrogram. He was unable to take part in team workouts during spring training due to the pain in his lower back, which he first began experiencing late in the 2008 season. Joe Mauer missed the start of the 2009 regular season and returned on May 1. He went 2 for 3 with an RBI and three runs scored in his first game back, hitting a home run on his first swing of the season. Joe Mauer appeared on the cover of Sports Illustrated for a second time on June 24. An additional 25,000 copies of the magazine were sent to Minnesota for the occasion.He was selected to the 2009 MLB All Star Game as the starting catcher and participated in the Home Run Derby, losing a tiebreaker to Albert Pujols in the first round. Role in 2009 AL Central race The Twins trailed the Detroit Tigers by seven games in the American League Central division at the start of September, but rallied, winning 17 of their last 21 games to finish the season tied atop the division. On October 6, the Twins beat the Tigers 6–5 in 12 innings to secure the division title. In 2009 Joe Mauer led the American League in batting average (.365), on-base <a href="http://www.nfljerseys-supply.com/"><strong>NFL jerseys wholesale</strong></a> percentage (.444), slugging percentage (.587), and OPS (1.031)Joe Mauer became the first catcher to lead the league in all four offensive categories in a single season, and the first catcher to win three batting titles. He has won as many batting championships in a span of four years as all other Major League catchers in the history of baseball combined. Two National League catchers have won a total of three batting titles: Eugene “Bubbles” Hargrave in 1926, and Hall of Famer Ernie Lombardi in 1938 and 1942. On October 29, Baseball America named Joe Mauer its 2009 Major League Player of the Year. On November 23, Joe Mauer was named the 2009 American League Most Valuable Player by the Baseball Writers Association of America, with 27 of 28 first place votes. This made Joe Mauer the second catcher in 33 years to win the AL MVP. Among active catchers with at least 600 games played, going into the 2010 season he was second with a .996 career fielding percentage, behind Mike Redmond (.996), and ahead of A.J. Pierzynski (.995) and Brad Ausmus (.994). 2010 On March 21, 2010, Joe Mauer agreed to an eight-year contract extension with the Twins worth 184 million, which will take effect from the 2011 season to the 2018 season. It is the richest contract in the history of major league baseball for a catcher. He hit his 1,000th career Major League hit on 9/14/10 against the Chicago White Sox at U.S. Cellular Field. Joe Mauer finished third in the AL with a .327 batting average, and his 43 doubles rank second on baseball’s All-Time list for doubles by a catcher (behind Ivan Rodriguez’s 47 with Texas in 1996). For the second straight year, Joe Mauer was named the Twins’ Most Valuable Player, as he was voted the Calvin R. Griffith Award. Related posts:MLB Minnesota Twins #2 Denard Span MLB Minnesota Twins #5 Michael Cuddyer MLB Minnesota Twins #1 Tsuyoshi Nishioka Mauer hits a three-run home run during his rehab MLB Boston Red Sox #15 Dustin Pedroia